Nuclear Darkness, Global Climate Change, & Nuclear Famine

A new website, created by Steven Starr, a senior scientist for Physicians for Social Responsibility, is available in four languages: English, Russian, Hebrew, and Chinese. The site describes the deadly long-term environmental consequences of nuclear war that threaten continued human survival.  Virtually any nuclear war, even one fought with less than 1% of the deployed and operational nuclear arsenals, will cause catastrophic disruptions of global climate and massive destruction of Earth's protective ozone layer, resulting in global nuclear famine.  The site also includes a photo gallery from Hiroshima, Japan, the first city in the world to be annihilated by an atomic bomb in 1945; there is also a nuclear firestorm simulator, which allows you to type in any address or city, select a weapon size, and then illustrate the size of the resulting nuclear firestorm caused by the detonation of the weapon.

Remembering Fukushima, with Ed Asner

Update on defending Great Lakes against risky atomic reactors

Three weeks ago, we reported on Beyond Nuclear's efforts, in conjunction with environmental coalitions and concerned citizens, to shut down two especially risky atomic reactors on the Great Lakes shorelines that have been generating a lot of controversy recently: Palisades in southwest Michigan, and Davis-Besse in northwest Ohio.

A lot has happened since. NRC was forced to admit that Palisades has the most embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the U.S. NRC's repeated regulatory rollbacks have put it at risk of fracturing like a hot glass under cold water due to Pressurized Thermal Shock. And thanks to revelations by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, we've contended that Davis-Besse's containment cracking is so severe that its outer layer of steel reinforcement rebar is no longer performing its safety function. We joined Congressman Kucinich in challenging Davis-Besse's root cause report, which blames the cracking on the Blizzard of 1978, as a "snow job of convenience." Read more.

Activists tell Quebec premier to remember Fukushima and shut their nuke

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, and Canadian co-chair of the Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force, has written up a short backgrounder on how hugely expensive it would be to "refurbish" Gentilly, the atomic reactor in Quebec located on the St. Lawrence River, through which the waters of the Great Lakes ultimately flow into the Atlantic Ocean. A political cartoon in a Quebec newspaper jokes about the Greenpeace occupation of the Quebec premier's office. Dr. Edwards explains and translates: the premier says to the Greenpeace occupiers, "It's gonna be safe! Gentilly-2 will be rebuilt by Quebec engineers using Quebec concrete!" [But] his assistant, aware of all the scandalous infrastructure problems in Montreal, with bridges falling apart and concrete overpasses collapsing -- including a big chunk of concrete that just fell at the garage of the Olympic Stadium -- says "Psst! This might not be the best time...."

"Living on Borrowed Time" & "U.S. Nuclear Power Safety One Year After Fukushima": UCS shines spotlight on 15 near-misses at U.S. reactors in 2011, examines Japan "lessons learned," or not, at NRC

David Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), recently published NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2011: Living on Borrowed Time, describing 15 near-misses at U.S. atomic reactors in 2011 alone. Note that 4 near-misses took place at reactors belonging to one nuclear utility, Entergy: 2 near misses at Palisades in Michigan, and 2 at Pilgrim in Massachusetts. (Yet another near-miss occurred at Cooper in Nebraska, owned by Nebraska Public Power District, but with support services provided, yet again, by Entergy.)

The Thom Hartmann Show interviewed Dave Lochbaum about his report.

On March 7th, Lochbaum and Edwin Lyman, senior scientist at UCS's Global Security Program, released a report entitled U.S. Nuclear Power Safety One Year After Fukushima. Lochbaum and Lyman summarized their findings in a special published by CNN.