Japan wind turbines survive while nukes go down

Writes Kelly Rigg on the Huffington Post: Despite assertions by its detractors that wind energy would not survive an earthquake or tsunami the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and helping to keep the lights on during the Fuksuhima crisis.

Environmentalists propose wind and solar as safer, cleaner alternatives to 20 more years at dangerously degraded Davis-Besse reactor

Davis-Besse's infamous "red photo," showing boric acid crystal and rust "lava" flowing from reactor lid.Tom Henry at the Toledo Blade has given advance coverage of tomorrow's Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board oral argument pre-hearing in Port Clinton, Ohio, near Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Beyond Nuclear, along with allies Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, have submitted four contentions against First Energy Nuclear Operating Company's proposed 20 year license extension: (1) wind as an alternative; (2) solar photovoltaics as an alternative; (3) wind and solar combined as an alternative; and (4) severe underestimation of the casualties and costs that would result from a catastrophic radioactivity release. On February 18, 2011, the ASLB ruled in favor of FirstEnergy's motion to strike, and ordered the environmental coalition to "strike" long sections of its "Combined Reply" rebuttal against the utility's and NRC staff's attacks upon its intervention. This included a backgrounder about Davis-Besse's many close calls with disaster over the past 34 years, compiled by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps. According to various federal government spokespeople, from the NRC to the Department of Justice, Davis-Besse's hole in the head fiasco of 2002 was the worst incident at a U.S. atomic reactor since Three Mile Island Unit 2's 50% core meltdown in 1979.

Departments of Energy and Interior announce "major offshore wind initiatives"

Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled large-scale plans for the rapid development of off-shore wind in the U.S. As stated in their media release: 

"Under the National Offshore Wind Strategy, the Department of Energy is pursuing a scenario that includes deployment of 10 gigawatts of offshore wind generating capacity by 2020 and 54 gigawatts by 2030. Those scenarios include development in both federal and state offshore areas, including along Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts as well as in Great Lakes and Hawaiian waters. Those levels of development would produce enough energy to power 2.8 million and 15.2 million average American homes, respectively."

10,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2020, and 54,000 megawatts by 2030, shows that wind power is a viable alternative to not only proposed new atomic reactors, but also to 20 year license extensions at dangerously deteriorated old reactors. Beyond Nuclear has made that exact argument in proceedings before Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Boards in numerous places, including: Fermi 3; Calvert Cliffs 3; Seabrook; and Davis-Besse.

Battle lines drawn for and against wind power in northwest Ohio

In its intervention against a 20 year license extension at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in northwest Ohio, Beyond Nuclear contended that on- and off-shore wind power could readily replace the problem-plagued reactor's 908 MWe of power. But some are pushing back against wind power in that area. So the fight is on. Will America's energy future be renewables and efficiency, or more of the same from the past -- nuclear and fossil fuels? As Dr. Arjun Makhijani of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research put it on a Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy book tour in southern Michigan in October 2008, we have few choices: we can either (1) do without electricity, and freeze in the dark while starving without a job; (2) bake the planet by continuing to combust fossil fuels and thereby unleash catastrophic climate chaos; (3) kick plutonium -- and thus nuclear weapons proliferation risks -- down the road to our descendents by expanding nuclear power; or (4) "deal with the view" of wind turbines. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps wrote an op-ed to that effect, published by the Muskegon Chronicle, when the controversy of wind turbines' aesthetic impact raised its ugly head on the Lake Michigan shore. And in the Davis-Besse proceeding, Beyond Nuclear mentioned that artists, from Vincent Van Gogh (at left) to Dutch fine china craftspeople, have found wind turbines beautiful enough to depict for centuries. Currently, photographers are waxing eloquent about the beauty of wind farms, and Ohio municipalities are regarding them as tourist attractions, even in urban settings. 

"Questions arise over FirstEnergy's solar commitment"

Tom Henry of the Toledo Blade's "Questions arise over FirstEnergy's solar commitment" documents the nuclear utility's ongoing reluctance to meet its commitments under Ohio law to install solar power in the Buckeye State. Al Compaan (pictured at left), retired chair of the University of Toledo (UT) physics department, is working with Beyond Nuclear as an expert witness on solar photovoltaic (PV) power as a renewable energy alternative to FirstEnergy's proposed 20 year license extension at its problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Not only did Al have a hand in passage of Ohio's renewable energy mandate law, but his solar PV installations on his own home and the church he attends represent about 25% of the solar PV development in Ohio in the recent past! Al's presentation at the Davis-Besse People's Hearing in Toledo on December 18th, asserting that solar PV can indeed replace Davis-Besse's 908 Megawatts-electric, formed the basis for one of our contentions against the license extension. His CV shows his deep expertise in solar PV. Al's involvement has provided a huge boost to our environmental coalition's chances going into an NRC Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board oral argument hearing on March 1st in Port Clinton, Ohio. The Toledo area, dubbed "Glass City" in a bygone era, is now a hotbed for solar PV research and manufacturing, including: UT's vibrant solar PV research institute that Al helped establish; Perrysburg-based First Solar, the world's single largest solar PV panel manufacturing plant; and Xunlight, with which Al works.