Our newly expanded and updated pamphlet - Nuclear Power in France, setting the record straight - contains a comprehensive set of examples showing that nuclear power in France is far from a success. Please download and distribute the pamphlet or order hard copies via email at info@beyonduclear.org.
The Beyond Nuclear Op-Ed in Common Dreams - A Nuclear Gamble on the Not-So-Distant Horizon -warns that President Obama and NRC's coziness with the nuclear power industry increasingly risks disaster similar to the Deepwater Horizon eco-catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.
Former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford recently testified at a Capitol Hill briefing that every $10 billion in taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees represents a $100 financial risk for each and every household in the United States. For this and many other reasons, Beyond Nuclear has joined a coalition of environmental groups in a letter to House Appropriators urging opposition to $9 billion in additional nuclear power loan guarantees tacked onto the pending emergency supplemental war funding bill. Taxpayers for Common Sense has protested the inappropriateness of including energy loan guarantees on a war funding bill, as have politically conservative voices such as the Heritage Foundation and Henry Sokolksi of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. Phone House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) at (202) 225-2771 to urge that nuclear loan guarantees be removed from the bill; call your own U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to urge they oppose it as well. At the same time, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will decide, perhaps within the next week, whether or not to allow the Kerry-Lieberman "American Power Act" to move forward to the Senate floor for a vote. NRDC has published a strong objection to the nuclear power industry wish list included in the proposed legislation. UCS has objected to the bill's "harmful nuclear power provisions." And FOE has blasted the bill for "handing out billions in giveaways to some of the worst industrial polluters in the country," including the nuclear power industry. Call your two U.S. Senators at the Capitol Switchboard number above and request that they urge Sen. Reid to not grant Senate floor time to such a dirty energy industry subsidy bill.
The Obama/Chu Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future held its second meeting in Washington, D.C. on May 25 and 26. Beyond Nuclear and other atomic watchdogs attended and testified. Despite strong urging by Natural Resources Defense Council, repeated by Tom Cochran at this meeting, the Blue Ribbon Commission has refused to provide balance for its pro-nuclear power membership by seating a non-profit environmental scientist, nor a member of a grassroots community group impacted by radioactive waste. Thus, the Chicago grassroots gathering on radioactive waste policy June 4-6 is needed more than ever to directly challenge the Blue Ribbon Commission’s bias in favor of expanding atomic energy despite the now over 68 year old, unsolved and worsening radioactive waste crisis. Help to prevent more radioactive waste generation: to learn more about and register for the Chicago gathering, go to the NEIS website. The schedule for the Saturday, June 5th educational forum and evening program has also now been finalized, and presenters confirmed, including keynote speakers Deb Katz of Citizens Awareness Network and Dr. Arjun Makhijani of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, with musical entertainment by Great Lakes folk singer/songwriter Victor McManemy.
Natural Resources Defense Council’s blog “Packing the Nuclear Pork Barrel is the Wrong Approach to Low-Carbon Energy” by Christopher Paine strongly objects to the Kerry-Lieberman “climate” bill for its nuclear subsidies, tax breaks, and other giveaways, undermining safety standards, and gutting environmental protections. It provides a comprehensive section-by-section analysis.
June 9, 2010