Entries by admin (2761)
April 28, 2020A song to celebrate Indian Point Unit 2's closure on April 30th
Shared by our friend and colleague Nancy Vann, who lives just over a mile away from the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The song is sung to the melody of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic":
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the closing of the plant
We said that they should close it but the owners said "we can't"
We loosed our fact based reasons and after many seasons,
The plant is closing down!
Indian Point 2's closure means no more radioactive waste will be generated. It also means a reactor core meltdown can't occur there, once the core is defueled.
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, indeed!
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announces it will proceed with licensing of proposed high-level radioactive waste dump in New Mexico despite illegal license term
In violation of Nuclear Waste Policy Act, license applicant Holtec International contemplates federal ownership of 173,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent reactor fuel to be stored at New Mexico site
Beyond Nuclear vows to challenge NRC and Holtec in federal court
WASHINGTON, D.C. and SOUTHEASTERN NM -- In an astounding ruling on April 23, 2020, the four-member U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acknowledged that an application by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance to store a massive quantity of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico violates federal law – and yet ruled that the unlawful provisions of the license application could be ignored and would not bar approval.
Beyond Nuclear has challenged the NRC’s authority to approve Holtec's license application because it contemplates that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) may become the owner of the irradiated reactor fuel. The federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) prohibits federal ownership of spent fuel, however, unless and until a federal repository for permanent disposal is operating.
The NRC Commissioners acknowledged that Federal law prohibits federally-sponsored storage of irradiated reactor fuel unless and until a repository for permanent disposal is in operation. Nevertheless the NRC threw out Beyond Nuclear’s legal challenge to the project on the ground that Holtec could be depended on not to implement the unlawful provision if the license were granted. Read the full Beyond Nuclear press release, here.
A look inside Iitate post-Fukushima
"Everything is free" in the hopes of luring people back. But many just stop over, or leave again. There is nowhere to play, yet money is being spent on useless infrastructure. "Everyone thinks that Fukushima has recovered now. And people want to forget about it now. Because we are in the way of the Olympics."