Nuclear Power
Nuclear power cannot address climate change effectively or in time. Reactors have long, unpredictable construction times are expensive - at least $12 billion or higher per reactor. Furthermore, reactors are sitting-duck targets vulnerable to attack and routinely release - as well as leak - radioactivity. There is so solution to the problem of radioactive waste.
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Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense in Russia wins Right Livelihood Award!
Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense in RussiaAs announced at the Right Livelihood Award website:
"For his defence of the environment and for helping to ignite grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia."
Vladimir Slivyak [pictured] is one of Russia’s most committed and knowledgeable environmentalists, who has been spearheading important grassroots campaigns against environmentally damaging practices for decades. He has stopped projects related to the exploitation of fossil fuels, the use of nuclear power and coal, and the shipment of radioactive waste from abroad.
As co-chairman and co-founder of Ecodefense, one of Russia’s leading environmental organisations for decades, Slivyak has worked extensively on reducing environmental risks, mitigating the climate crisis and promoting renewable energy in Russia.
Led by Slivyak, Ecodefense was the first environmental group in Russia to start an anti-coal campaign in 2013, which helped to empower local communities suffering from the impacts of coal mining and transportation. Connecting local communities around the country and information sharing led to a rapid growth of anti-coal protests in various parts of Russia.
Slivyak has also opposed Russia’s promotion of nuclear energy both at home and abroad. These enormous successes have proven that even in authoritarian Russia, grassroots activities can effectively challenge government-backed projects.
In recent years, Slivyak and Ecodefense have been targeted by Russian authorities for their work. However, Slivyak has stayed the course heartened by the growing influence of young climate activists. Standing with them, he is committed to ushering in a cleaner and more sustainable future for Russia and the world.
Why Louisiana’s Electric Grid Failed in Hurricane Ida
Much of the state, including New Orleans, lost power for days because many of Entergy’s electrical poles and towers were not built to withstand a major hurricane, energy experts said.
As reported by the New York Times.
The Washington Post has previously reported similar stories.
New Orleans-based Entergy owns and operates several nuclear power plants across multiple Southern states.
It used to own merchant atomic reactors in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, but closed them and sold the contaminated sites, and highly radioactive wastes stored on those sites, off to decommissioning companies (namely, NorthStar and Holtec).
Entergy still owns and operates the Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan, but has applied, along with Holtec, to transfer away the license, after closing the reactor by May 31, 2022. The long-closed Big Rock Point nuclear power plant site in the northwest Lower Peninsula of MI would also be transferred from Entergy to Holtec, if NRC approves the scheme. Along with its environmental coalition partners, as well as the Office of the State of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Beyond Nuclear has intervened against the license transfer.
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New Beyond Nuclear fact sheets opposing Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities
See Beyond Nuclear's new fact sheet series, here.
The intended audience for the fact sheets are Members of Congress and their staff, as well as other officials at all levels of government -- federal, state, county, local, and Indigenous. (Please feel free to use the fact sheets as hand outs in your meetings with officials, whether face-to-face and hardcopy, or Zooms and links to PDFs!) But the fact sheets can also serve as important educational tools for citizens and activists concerned about highly radioactive waste, the general public, as well as the news media.
The author of the fact sheets is Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps. Legal support for the fact sheets was provided by Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, L.L.P.
Beyond Nuclear would also like to thank numerous respected colleagues who provided peer review on these fact sheets. However, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear remains responsible for any errors of commission or omission.
$6 BILLION BAILOUT: Infrastructure deal to subsidize old reactors
"Burning Money," graphic by Gene Case/Avenging Angels, which appeared on the cover of The Nation in 2003, accompanying an article about the nuclear power relapse, authored by Christian ParentiBloomberg reports the bipartisan U.S. Senate infrastructure bill includes $6 billion in taxpayer subsidies for dangerously degraded reactors. Exelon reactors in Illinois -- at Byron and Dresden -- reportedly qualify. Dresden Units 2 and 3 are more than a half-century old, and of the same design as the reactors that melted down at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. Byron's work culture is so toxic, it has reportedly driven some control room operators to commit suicide. Energy Harbor (formerly FirstEnergy) reactors in Ohio and Pennsylvania also reportedly qualify. This includes Davis-Besse near Toledo (which has had many close calls with catastrophe, and a severely cracked containment), Perry near Cleveland (on a faultline), and Beaver Valley west of Pittsburgh (Unit 1 is severely embrittled).