A companion guide to the "Chernobyl" series

If you are able to watch HBO's "Chernobyl" drama series -- and it's possible to take a short-term HBO subscription, then cancel -- Beyond Nuclear provides below some of our resources on the 1986 nuclear disaster.

CHERNOBYL THE FACTS Details on the accident and the myths and false information surrounding it.

CHERNOBYL DENIERS: Individuals once touting new reactors have turned to denying the realities of Chernobyl and the harm done by nuclear power. We debunk them.

CHERNOBYL: HOW BAD WAS IT? A look at Kate Brown's investigative and revelatory book about the post-Chernobyl cover-up.

A LIQUIDATOR'S STORY: The firsthand account by Chernobyl liquidator, Natalia Manzurova.

THE SUFFERING OF CHILDREN: The story of children afflicted by Chernobyl and their treatment in a Havana, Cuba hospital.

THE DOGS OF CHERNOBYL: The rescue and treatment of abandoned dogs around the Chernobyl site.

RUDOLPH THE RADIOACTIVE REINDEER: Impacts of Chernobyl fallout on animals and their affect on livelihoods in Lapland and Norway.

NO MARKET FOR WILD BOAR: Persistent radioactive contamination of wild boar and mushroooms in Europe from Chernobyl 33 years later, still puts both off limits to human consumption.

DEFORMITIES IN TRUE BUGS: A scientific illustrator discovered fatal mutations in insects affected by Chernobyl fallout.

CHERNOBYL'S CHILDREN: Belarus was the worst affected by Chernobyl. A UK charity has transformed the medical and social environment there to help sick children.

CHERNOBYL WILDLIFE IS FAILING, NOT THRIVING: Landmark research and numerous studies show the health of Chernobyl's wildlife is drastically compromised.

THE CHERNOBYL EXPERIENCE: A novel follows the lives of several characters during and after the Chernobyl disaster.

May 13 webcast -- Decommissioning: A New Era in the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry; a Critical Need for Congressional Oversight

Post-meltdown "clean up" at Three Mile Island nuclear power plantBeyond Nuclear is honored and privileged to have been invited to speak at a May 13th congressional briefing, co-sponsored by Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Riverkeeper and other participating groups, including ours. The briefing, about urgent atomic reactor decommissioning and highly radioactive waste management issues, will be webcast live from 2-3:30pm Eastern on Monday, May 13 (if you live near enough to Capitol Hill, please attend in person!). See EESI's website for more info., and be sure to pre-register for the webcast (or to attend in person).

Another event is coming up on May 19-22: Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's annual "DC Days." Beyond Nuclear has been a proud ANA member group since our founding in 2007. A highlight of every DC Days is the awards ceremony. Beyond Nuclear gives the Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud "Unsung Hero" Award each year. (It is one of a number of awards given out each year at DC Days, including to well deserving members of congress, activists, journalists, etc.) We are happy to announce this year's "Unsung Hero" awardee: Rose Gardner, with the Alliance for Environmental Strategies (AFES) in Eunice, New Mexico, our ally in the fight against irradiated nuclear fuel consolidated interim storage facilities at Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists, across the state line in Texas, just several miles from her home, and at Holtec/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, halfway between Carlsbad and Hobbs, NM, about 40 miles from her home (see here). It is not too late to register for and attend DC Days, if you can make it.

Judith Johnsrud (1931-2014) was a founding board member of Beyond Nuclear. She also co-founded Nuclear Information and Resource Service, as well as the Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power. One of her many claims to fame was helping co-lead the intervention against the building of the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the first place, in the 1970s, years before the TMI-2 meltdown. Another was being honored, in 2012, by Sierra Club for a half-century of anti-nuclear activism. See a tribute to Judith on the bottom of the last page of our 2014 newsletter about the Three Mile Island meltdown. (The photo, above right, shows TMI-2, post-meltdown, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg, undergoing "clean up" activities. If and when TMI-1 finally closes (see entry above), decommissioning of the entire Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, including Unit 2, can finally begin, 40 years and counting after the 1979 meltdown.)

Exelon announces (yet again) closure of TMI-1 by Sept. 30; ongoing vigilance needed against attempted bailouts in PA and OH

From left to right: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear; Eric Epstein, Three Mile Island Alert (at podium); Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear. PA state capitol rotunda, October 2, 2018.Since 2012, a record-breaking eight atomic reactor permanent shutdowns have taken place in North America: Gentilly-2, Quebec; Crystal River, FL; Kewaunee, WI; San Onofre 2 & 3, CA; Vermont Yankee; Fort Calhoun, NE; Oyster Creek, NJ. The good news about reactor shutdowns is, core meltdowns are no longer possible, and no more radioactive waste will be generated (although way too much has already been generated and needs to be isolated from the environment forevermore, and radioactive contamination on-site still has to be addressed during years- or decades-long plant decommissioning).

If Exelon Nuclear can be believed, another most infamous name will soon be added to that list: Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania. Yesterday, Exelon confirmed it will shut down TMI-1 by September 30, 2019. Exelon's surrender comes in the face of its failure to secure ratepayer and/or taxpayer bailouts from the PA state legislature. (The closure confirmation comes after the 40th annual commemoration of the TMI-2 reactor core meltdown on 3/28/79. Beyond Nuclear has been honored and privileged to stand with our friends and colleagues, such as TMI Alert, during this commemoration period. See Beyond Nuclear staff Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps, with TMI Alert's Eric Epstein, at a press conference in PA's state capitol rotunda, in Oct. 2018, above left.) 

However, as Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts in Pennsylvania has warned, the fight against attempted bailouts at several additional dangerously age-degraded atomic reactors in the Keystone State continues. In fact, TMI supporters' surrender could be yet another feign, using the threat of job and local tax revenue loss as leverage, to still force a bailout even at TMI-1. Similar "hostage taking" political arguments have succeeded in the past, as in New York and Illinois, to secure massive public bailouts, to prop up economically failing old reactors, even after Exelon had announced date-certain closures, which then were reversed upon securing the bailouts. The attempted nuclear bailouts may be dead for now in the PA state legislature, especially considering the busy legislative schedule into 2020 there. But we must remain vigilant, as Exelon's announced closure of TMI-1 by October could be a last ditch effort to force legislative action. If you reside in PA, please contact your state legislators and governor, urging they block attempted nuclear bailouts. If you know folks in PA, please pass this action alert on to them.

A similar battle rages on in Ohio (as it has been raging for several long years, but never more urgently than right now). FirstEnergy Nuclear (which is also seeking PA bailouts for its Beaver Valley Unit 1 & 2 reactors in that state, just several miles from the OH state line) is seeking ratepayer and/or taxpayer bailouts for its dangerously age-degraded Davis-Besse reactor east of Toledo, and Perry reactor east of Cleveland. Beyond Nuclear has submitted extensive testimony to state legislative subcommittees and committees, opposing the attempted bailouts. If you are an OH resident, please contact your state legislators and governor, urging their opposition to the bailouts. And if you know folks in OH, please urge them to take action.

 

Learn more about nuclear subsidies at our Nuclear Costs website section.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant To Close, Latest Symbol Of Struggling Industry

NPR coverage.

See Beyond Nuclear's hopeful REACTORS ARE CLOSING website page, for more such good news.

Beyond Nuclear vows to fight on against illegal high-level radioactive waste dump targeted at New Mexico: Atomic Safety and Licensing Board winks at acknowledged violations of federal law

See the Beyond Nuclear press release, here.

See the Don't Waste Michigan, et. al, press release here: "Public Interest Groups Denied Hearing on Holtec International's Nuclear Waste Dump in New Mexico."

See the Sierra Club press release here: "Federal Nuclear Regulatory Panel Rejects All Objections to Proposed New Mexico Nuclear Dump."