OHIO NUCLEAR EXPERIMENT: ANTHEM Act Opposed by 108 Organizations

Toledo attorney Terry Lodge has submitted testimony, endorsed by 108 local, regional and national environmental, public health and safe energy groups, to the Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, expressing strong opposition to the "Advanced Nuclear Technology Helping Energize Mankind Act," House Bill (HB) 104. The committee will hear testimony on the bill for the second time today, despite the state legislature's lame duck session being beset by a worsening Covid-19 outbreak. The bill would subsidize so-called Small Nuclear Reactor research, development, and deployment, and the same for a thorium fuel chain, and high-level radioactive waste reprocessing, at Ohio taxpayer expense, risk, and liability, despite an ongoing nuclear bribery/bailout scandal. See the coalition's press release.

PROPOSED OHIO NUCLEAR POWER EXPERIMENT LEGISLATION, HOUSE BILL 104, THE "ANTHEM ACT," ASSAILED BY 108 SAFE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release, December 16, 2020 Contact: Pat Marida, patmarida@outlook.com, (614) 286-4851 Connie Kline, klineisfine@aol.com, (440) 946-9012 Terry Lodge, tjlodge50@yahoo.com, (419) 205-7084 Lee Blackburn, leeblackburn@live.com, (614) 216-0010 Kevin Kamps, kevin@beyondnuclear.org, (240) 462-3216

PROPOSED OHIO NUCLEAR POWER EXPERIMENT LEGISLATION, HOUSE BILL 104, THE "ANTHEM ACT," ASSAILED BY 108 SAFE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

Dirty, Dangerous, and Expensive HB 104 Contains not only Statewide, but also Regional and National Risks

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- On December 16, 2020, 108 local, regional and national environmental, public health and safe energy organizations blasted proposed House Bill 104, the “Advanced Nuclear Technology Helping Energize Mankind Act” (“ANTHEM Act”) pending in the Ohio General Assembly. Calling the proposal a “radioactive taxpayer giveaway,” the groups, representing hundreds of thousands of people, filed written testimony for a December 17 Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee hearing along with a one-page overview with 10 reasons to oppose HB 104. The activists warn that building state-sponsored small modular nuclear power reactors (SMRs) “will break the bank and destroy Ohio’s chances for a clean and safe energy future" especially given COVID-related budgetary constraints and that ANTHEM could cause nuclear weapons proliferation, threats to public health and safety, radioactive contamination, and require huge, undetailed governmental subsidies. House Bill (“HB”) 104 is being pushed by eGeneration Foundation, a Cleveland company that envisions thorium and molten-salt nuclear power reactors, which have never gotten beyond small-scale experiments and show few prospects of commercial success. The company will not say where it would build several full-scale SMRs. There are no provisions for community or public involvement in the creation of an Ohio Nuclear Development Authority (NDA) to issue taxpayer-backed bonds for reactor construction. The NDA would be governed by a board of nuclear industry insiders within the Ohio Department of Commerce.The proposed Nuclear Development Authority within the Ohio Department of Commerce would mean that nuclear promotion, not regulation of health and safety, would be the top priority, and that Ohio taxpayers would be liable for cleanup and dismantling when reactors close – or worse, after spills and accidents. The bill also allows for eminent domain. In the House committee hearings Rep. Dick Stein, HB 104’s sponsor, could not answer the question of who the Authority would be responsible to.   HB 104 has passed the Ohio House and may be discharged from the Senate committee on December 17 for a floor vote in the midst of the legislature’s “lame duck” session. Only New York State has ever set up a state nuclear development agency, which resulted in construction of a disastrous nuclear waste reprocessing plant at West Valley, New York in the 1960's. The venture has so far cost $600 million in cleanup and partial remediation, and tens of billions of dollars more will be needed for future cleanup costs to keep radioactive contamination from spreading downstream, including into Lakes Erie and Ontario, over time. “Enacting this self-inflicted fiscal nightmare in the midst of a pandemic will surely crimp provision of existing services by the government,” said Pat Marida, chair of the Ohio Sierra Club’s Nuclear Free Committee. “This untried technology will swallow up major financing that must instead be made immediately available to build genuine safe energy options to reduce the worst effects of climate chaos.” “eGeneration won't admit the potential for deadly accidents from operating test reactors and from the dirty, radioactive-waste-producing processes to extract enriched uranium and plutonium (one of the most toxic substances on earth) from radioactive waste,” said Connie Kline, past Chair of the Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear Committee. “This bill creates national security concerns about the spread of nuclear weapons. The fuel required by these reactors are literally thermonuclear bomb ingredients that will command hefty prices on global black markets.” “Hasn’t the General Assembly learned any lessons from the corruption around HB 6, the coal and nuclear bailout?” asked Lee Blackburn of the Sierra Club’s Nuclear Free Committee. “ANTHEM is a classic corporate welfare response for ideas too risky and half-baked to work in the so-called ‘free market,” offered Terry Lodge, Toledo attorney. “Why should billions more public dollars be risked on experiments that haven’t perfected these dangerous processes in the last 55 years?” "Reprocessing is environmentally ruinous," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear. "As shown in France, the U.K., upstate New York, and other places, plutonium and uranium extraction from high-level radioactive waste inevitably results in large-scale releases of hazardous, long-lasting ionizing radiation into the air and surface waters, such as the Great Lakes or Ohio River, that threaten people downwind, downstream, up the food chain, and down the generations." -30-

Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.

Update on Opposition to S. 4897 - American Nuclear Infrastructure Act

Update provided by NIRS to coalition of 119 organizations which endorsed a Nov. 30, 2020 letter to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in opposition to S. 4897:

Dear all – thank you so much for endorsing the sign-on letter opposing S. 4897, especially on such short notice. We submitted it with 119 organizations altogether, and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced it into the record of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee meeting. The final version of the letter is attached.

The EPW Committee approved the bill on a vote of 16-5. The senators voting against were Markey, Sanders (I-VT), Merkley (D-OR), Duckworth (D-IL), and Gillibrand (D-NY). Maryland Senators Cardin and Van Hollen proposed amendments to the bill, which were adopted:

• Cardin’s amendment increases the duration of taxpayer subsidies for existing nuclear power plants from 2 years to 4 years, so it actually makes the bill worse. Essentially, nuclear corporations would only have to apply for the subsidies every four years instead of every two years, making it harder to challenge the subsidies or to phase out the whole program.
• Van Hollen’s amendment puts in a fairly weak review requirement on nuclear weapons proliferation risks. It requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to issue a determination that exporting nuclear materials and technology to countries like Saudia Arabia and Egypt will not harm the interests of the United States. That is, it does not actually prohibit the sale of nuclear technology and/or materials that could enable such countries to develop nuclear weapons, only that such sales would not harm US interests. NRC is a domestic nuclear safety agency, so tasking it with making determinations about US foreign policy interests may not even be appropriate.

In addition, news reports late last week indicate that Sen. Gillibrand, who voted no on the bill, has now filed an amendment on an unrelated issue. We urge New Yorkers, especially, to ask Sen. Gillibrand to withdraw the amendment and vote no on S. 4897 if it moves to a vote in the Senate.

Please share any news or developments you are aware of. If the bill moves, it could happen quickly, possibly by being added to one of the large must-pass bills the House and Senate are trying to vote through right now.

NIRS also put out an action alert yesterday for people to contact their Senators and House reps, in case there is a move to rush S. 4897 through. Here is a link:

https://nirs.salsalabs.org/ania-action-2020-email-2

Feel free to forward and post it to your lists, or copy what you need to create your own action.

In solidarity,

Tim

Tim Judson
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 340
Takoma Park, MD 20912
O: 301-270-6477
E: TimJ@nirs.org
W: www.nirs.org

NEW OHIO NUKE MONEY GRAB: Bill risks security, environment, taxes

Fifty-six groups have written Ohio's Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, opposing HB 104, the “Advanced Nuclear Technology Helping Energize Mankind Act” (“ANTHEM”), which would promote new reactors, reprocessing, etc. See the coalition media release, and a concise backgrounder, "A Radioactive Taxpayer Giveaway." The coalition letter is still open for more group signatures until 11:59pm ET, Sunday, December 6. You don't have to be in Ohio to sign; just email <kevin@beyondnuclear.org> with your name, the group name, address, city, state, zip code, and email address. Individuals can also take action. This latest attempted money grab comes amidst ongoing fallout from the HB 6 scandal -- the $61 million alleged bribery scheme that secured $1.5 billion in nuclear subsidies. Please act against HB 6, too!

NUKES ON BALLOT IN GA RUNOFF: Years overdue, billions over-budget

The two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia on January 5th will determine control of the chamber, and may determine how much, if any, of President-Elect Biden's, and U.S. House Democrats', legislative agenda will be enacted in the next two years. But, as The Intercept reports, there is another important race on the same ballot. Incumbent conservative white Republican Public Service Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald faces a challenge by progressive Black Democrat Daniel Blackman. McDonald has wholeheartedly supported the Vogtle 3 and 4 atomic reactor new builds in Waynesboro, GA (11/20/20 aerial photo by High Flyer, above), including repeated "nuclear tax" hikes on consumers' bills, making GA's electricity some of the most expensive in the country.

MORE.