RADIOACTIVE MOUNTAIN BIKING? Help Stop the Rocky Mountain Greenway!

RADIOACTIVE MOUNTAIN BIKING? Help Stop the Rocky Mountain Greenway! Our Alliance for Nuclear Accountability partners at Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, decades-long watchdogs on the Rocky Flats nuclear weapon facility, have an action alert: "The Rocky Mountain Greenway is a proposed mountain biking path, intended to go through the previous buffer zone of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. The Rocky Flats area is still widely contaminated with plutonium, americium and other contaminants. In the best interest of public health, the area must not be open for public recreation." Their sign-on letter is open to individuals and organizations. They have succeeded in the past, working with students and school districts, to ban field trips to the hazardous area. The sign-on deadline is early April. Please spread the word! READ MORE

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Senate confirms former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary

Jennifer M. Granholm's official portrait was unveiled in the state Capitol where it will hang in the Gallery of the Governors. The portrait features the governor amid symbols that tell the story of her administration's efforts to diversify Michigan's economy, educate and train its citizens, and protect them in tough economic times during the two-terms she served as Michigan's 47th governor.As reported by Axios.

See Beyond Nuclear radioactive waste specialist Kevin Kamps's statement about Jennifer Granholm's record, as MI AG and governor, on nuclear power and radioactive waste issues, at the time of her nomination by President Biden. (Kamps has served as a board member of Don't Waste Michigan, the state-wide anti-nuclear coalition, since the early 1990s.)

In response to questions raised by U.S. Sen. Cortez Masto (D-NV) during her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing last month, Energy Secretary Granholm expressed support for consent-based siting, and therefore opposition to the Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump targeted at Nevada. The state, and the Western Shoshone Indian Nation, have both expressed strong opposition to the proposed dump, for the past 34 years.

Although no U.S. Senators questioned Granholm about the Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities targeted at Texas and New Mexico, the Energy Secretary must surely also oppose them, as well, right? Neither targeted "host" state consents to the siting of either dump (the Texas dump is immediately upon the New Mexico border, and upstream; the New Mexico dump is not far from the Texas border). Both governors (Republican Greg Abbott in Texas, and Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico) have spoken out strongly against both dumps, as have many Members of Congress from both states, state legislators in both states, and a growing groundswell of grassroots groups and concerned citizens.

Beyond Nuclear on the Thom Hartmann Program

Thom Hartmann hosts Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist Kevin Kamps to discuss: earthquakes in recent days impacting the rubblized Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan: anti-nuclear fights on Lake Michigan, at Palisades, MI and Point Beach, WI; and the Biden administration's nuclear power and radioactive waste policies.

80 YEARS AT POINT BEACH, WI? Comment against high-risk extension!

Point Beach Units 1 & 2, Two Creeks, WI on the Lake Michigan shoreline. NRC file photo.Working with allies like Physicians for Social Responsibility-Wisconsin, Beyond Nuclear helped turn out more than 100 concerned citizens to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's public comment call-in session on February 17. Fifteen of 16 who made environmental scoping public comments at NRC's call-in session opposed NRC rubber-stamping three more decades of operations at the twin-reactor nuclear power plant; the only proponent was a Point Beach vice president. We have prepared comments you can use verbatim, or to help you write your own. So too has PSR-WI. Written comments to NRC are due by 11:59pm Eastern on Wednesday, March 3, and can be submitted online. Help protect Lake Michigan, drinking water source for 40 million downstream!

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Update on February 18, 2021 by admin

• WUWM - Groups Concerned About Nuclear Power Want Questions Asked About Point Beach Plan - By Chuck Quirmbach

Texas grid collapse no fault of wind power: Extreme weather exposes atomic shortcuts

Google Earth Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott jumped on Fox News to blame President Biden along with wind and solar power for the state’s electric grid collapse during this latest round of climate-crisis extreme winter weather. But that was false information Bloomberg reports. According to Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid manager, more wind was online than forecasted and was the least affected. All energy generators on the grid were hard hit, including nuclear power, but the blizzard exposed energy politics and energy lobbyists, not renewable technology, as the chief culprit. South Texas nuclear power plant was one contributor to the grid collapse when it failed to winterize its steam turbines, to save money, and frozen feedwater pumps caused a reactor SCRAM. 

Other extreme weather and climate-related events can contribute to the automatic shutdown of nuclear power stations and destabilization of the electric grid including ice buildup on offsite electric utility lines which provide 100% of the power to all reactor safety systems. A power grid distruption to the nuclear power station will cause the reactor to SCRAM and reactor cooling systems and a subset of safety systems will be powered by onsite emergency generators. Reactor cooling water systems are also vulnerable to extreme weather and climate related events. Ice buildup around cooling water intake systems will also cause reactors to power down or shutdown. To the other extreme, extreme or prolonged heat will cause reactor cooling water temperatures to rise with ineffective cooling capacity causing reactors to power down or shut down as will falling reactor cooling water intake levels affected by prolonged drought. Similarly, high winds can take down electrical grid lines causing an automatic SCRAM. Once hurricane wind levels exceed Category 1 (74 mph), reactor operators are required to manually shutdown the reactor before offsite power is lost.

More potential adverse impacts from the nuclear industry taking risky economic short shortcuts during construction and operations to increase profit margins by shaving safety margins and electricity reliability have included flood protection around power reactors and earthquake upgrades for critical systems, structures and components.