CANCER CONNECTION?

"Study: Elevated cancer deaths in Monroe may be result of nuclear plant," by Tyler Eagle, Monroe Evening News/USA TODAY NETWORK, March 12, 2021.

Watch a recording of the press conference here, posted at WTVG/ABC-13's website. (The first three minutes of the recording are microphone checks, so fast-forward to the 3 minute mark of the recording, where the press conference begins.) The press conference features: Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan, a Monroe native; Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, and author of the newly published cancer fatality rate study focused on Fermi 2; and Christie Brinkley, also a native of Monroe, and board member of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

Here is the Radiation and Public Health Project's postings related to this newly published report focused on Fermi 2.

Update on March 10, 2021 by admin

See the press advisory put out by Don't Waste Michigan and the Radiation and Public Health Project.

Update on March 13, 2021 by admin

DTE (formerly Detroit Edison), owner/operator of Fermi 2, responded to Mangano's report, as reported by the Monroe Evening News.

Karl Grossman: "This Reckless Path," on proposed 100-year long operations at U.S. atomic reactors

Karl GrossmanKarl Grossman's piece on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission holding a "public meeting" on letting nuclear power plants run for 100 years.

Karl is an investigative journalist, author, and board member of Beyond Nuclear.

Opposition needed to HB 104, the "ANTHEM Act," as Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee set to hold hearing

Here is the link to the Nov. 29, 2020, 56-organization coalition letter of opposition.

Patricia Marida of the Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Committee has also prepared a concise Opponents' Analysis of HB 104.

Your help is urgently needed. See this link for how to take action, as well as for the coalition's press release.

Update on December 17, 2020 by admin

OHIO NUCLEAR EXPERIMENT: ANTHEM Act Opposed by 108 Organizations

December 17, 2020

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.

Disastrous derecho closes Iowa’s only nuke early, wind energy surpasses coal to become the state's single largest electricity provider

The single unit Duane Arnold nuclear power station, just eight miles northwest of Cedar Rapids, Iowa will not restart following an emergency shutdown on August 10, 2020.  The massive derecho storm that swept across much of the nation’s Midwest with sustained winds in excess of 120 miles per hour knocked down the electrical power grid, including to the atomic power reactor. During power operations, nuclear power station safety systems receive 100% of their power from the offsite electric grid. NextEra Energy had already decided in 2018 to permanently close the uneconomical nuclear power station by October 2020 but onsite wind damage prompted the company to permanently shutter the facility early. Duane Arnold had received its license extension from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2010 to operate until 2034 but demonstrated that it could not compete with more economical and reliable wind power generation.  

Duane Arnold had been operating at reduced power since July 9, 2020 because of leaky nuclear fuel in its reactor core. When the hurricane force wind knocked down the grid, the Fukushima-style reactor experienced an automatic SCRAM and the on-site emergency diesel generators turned on to maintain essential safety systems like the reactor cooling pumps to prevent a catastrophic melt down.

According to a report by the American Wind Energy Association, the Des Moines Register reports, wind energy is Iowa’s largest single source of electricity generation at more than 10,000 megawatts (40%) and growing. Wind power now surpasses coal burning electricity generators in Iowa.  

Duane Arnold atomic reactor shutting down for good two months earlier than scheduled after damage from derecho

NRC file photo of Duane Arnold atomic reactor.As reported by CBS 2 Iowa.

Duane Arnold, a Fukushima Daiichi twin design (a General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor), had long been scheduled for a "late" 2020 closure, as reported by The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, IA. More recently, the permanent closure for good date had been more precisely scheduled for late October 2020. But, as reported above, Duane Arnold has been closed even earlier -- August 24, 2020 -- due to damage from the severe derecho (hurricane force straight line winds) that recently struck the Cedar Rapids area.

See additional news coverage about the shutdown from the Gazette.

Once defueled, the reactor core can no longer have a meltdown, by definition. Plus, no more radioactive waste will be generated.

Of course, the high-level radioactive waste risks remain in the wet storage pool, as well as in the dry cask storage on-site. Plus there is all the "low" level radioactive waste, including from facility dismantlement, as well as radioactive contamination of the site, to deal with. (Radioactive waste and contamination, once generated, can't be "cleaned up" -- it merely gets moved from its current location, to a dump-site elsewhere, where it remains hazardous). Alas, that watch-dog work goes on. But still, Duane Arnold's closure is worth celebrating! Especially given the fact that Duane Arnold's electricity supply will be readily replaced by Iowa's ample wind power resources!

The incident leading to Duane Arnold's even earlier shutdown that previously announced -- hurricane force wind derecho damage -- underscores the point that, far from being a supposed solution to the climate crisis, atomic reactors are actually much too dangerous to operate in a world plagued by worsening extreme weather disasters.

As documented at Beyond Nuclear's "Reactors Are Closing" website section, Duane Arnold's closure marks the 10th reactor closure in the U.S. since 2013 -- a record number. This means there are now 94 commercial atomic reactors still operating in the U.S.