Beyond Nuclear submits comments to BRC

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, submitted comments to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future before its midnight deadline on Halloween. The BRC will now go behind closed doors to finalize its July 2011 draft report. By January 29, 2012 at the latest, it will publish its final report. The Obama administration and U.S. Congress will then likely use BRC's final report to write legislation for managing radioactive wastes.

Beyond Nuclear testifies at final BRC public meeting in Washington DC

Today, Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog testified at the final Washington, D.C. meeting of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. In the morning, he was invited to testify by BRC on a panel about the risks of transporting high-level radioactive waste and irradiated nuclear fuel. In the afternoon session, Kevin gave public comments, calling for a halt to the generation of any more high-level radioactive waste by phasing out nuclear power and replacing it with renewables such as wind and solar power, and maximized energy efficiency.

October 31st is the final day for making public comments to the BRC. Please urge BRC to secure risky radioactive wastes once again before their deadline, even if you've already done so previously! And, if you can make it, please join Beyond Nuclear for a Halloween "I Have a Scream!" costume rally at the U.S. Department of Energy's headquarters in Washington, D.C. to protest BRC's many bad policy recommendations about radioactive waste management.

If you feel like screaming...

JOIN THE BEYOND NUCLEAR "I HAVE A SCREAM" RALLY ON HALLOWE'EN!

Does the continued promotion of nuclear power by the Obama administration – even after Fukushima – make you want to scream? If so, you are not alone. Join like-minded activists at the Beyond Nuclear I Have A Scream rally on Hallowe’en at 12 noon, Monday, October 31 outside DOE headquarters (see flyer for details).

On October 31, an aptly chosen date, the US Energy Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will finally close its supposedly open doors to any further public comment on its mandate to “solve” this country’s radioactive waste problem. Using millions of our taxpayer dollars, and after junkets to France and Finland, the commission has come up with nothing new at all! To wit: it recommends that a new search should be made for a geologic repository; reactor waste should be transported to centralized interim storage sites; and that research, development, and demonstration dollars from taxpayers should continue to be wasted on reprocessing.

Wear a costume, bring a sign and let your voices - and screams - be heard!

Deadly blast at French radioactive waste incinerator and "recycling" facility

News is coming in about an explosion at Marcoule, a nuclear processing plant in southern France. One worker has died and four have been injured according to official reports. The explosion appears to have occurred in a furnace at Marcoule in a radioactive waste treatment plant at the Centraco center which is owned by Socodei, a subsidiary of EDF. Beyond Nuclear is following developments. Officials claim there has been no release of radioactivity although reports say there is a possibility for releases. Given "official" statements during the French Tricastin accident and, of course, Fukushima, Beyond Nuclear is conferring with colleagues in France to learn more and break through any opacity. Marcoule processes radioactive waste. It is also the site of a MOX (mixed oxide plutonium-uranium) fuel manufacturing facility - MELOX.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

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CRIIRAD, the independent radiological French monitoring laboratory already had monitors in place and so far is not seeing unusual levels of radioactive aerosols as a result of the explosion. Beyond Nuclear is monitoring their updates (in French) here.

Update on September 13, 2011 by admin

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No further updates on the aftermath of the explosion at the Marcoule facility have come in. The explosion took place in one of the ovens of the incinerator that melts low-level radioactive detritus mostly emanating from the country's 58 reactors. Nevertheless, the concerns - and the potential for a devastating outcome as a result of an accident at the multi-facility nuclear site, serve as a reminder of the risks that continue to be taken by prolonging the use of nuclear energy as an electricity source.

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

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The Independent of London also reported on this story.

Yucca's cancellation one major step closer to final

Yucca Mountain's western face, as seen through the frame of a Western Shoshone Indian ceremonial sweat lodge. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova, 2004.As reported by KTVN of Reno, Nevada, today the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- by the narrowest of margins -- approved an order mandating that its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board conclude and close out all Yucca Mountain repository proceedings by the end of the fiscal year -- September 30, 2011. This is a major victory for opponents of the Yucca dump, as celebrated by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat-Nevada), who has devoted his quarter century long Senate career to blocking the dump. Yucca Mountain, a sacred site belonging to the Western Shoshone Indian Nation as acknowledged by the Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed by the U.S. government in 1863, has been the sole target of the nuclear establishment for a national high-level radioactive waste dump since the "Screw Nevada" bill of 1987. More than $10 billion of ratepayer and taxpayer money has been wasted on the project.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

As the title implies, E&E's article "Nuclear waste: Confusion reigns in wake of deadlocked NRC's Yucca vote," paints a much more murky picture of what Friday's 2-2 split decision amongst the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners means for Yucca's future. Yucca dump proponents, from NRC Commissioner Ostendorff to U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and the Nuclear Energy Institute, view the tied NRC vote as a new lease on life for the dump, while Senate Majority Leader Reid portrays it as yet another nail in the dump's coffin lid.