Entergy retreats, drops charges against "The Activists" in New Orleans

Entergy is dropping charges against seven activists, including Paul Gunter, who occupied the New Orleans headquarters on March 22, 2012. The group was protesting the nuclear power company’s criminal trespass against the State of Vermont where its reactor, Vermont Yankee, continues to generate hazardous nuclear waste in the State without a permit.  The action was in solidarity with a simultaneous rally in Brattleboro, VT of more than a 1,000 protesters, 166 of whom were arrested in front of Entergy’s VT headquarters. An affinity group of five others were arrested at the White Plains, NY regional Entergy office.  The New Orleans action can be seen in our 2-minute “silent movie style” film, “The Activist(s)”. Please share and forward widely!

Now Unit 2 at San Onofre reactor shows signs of unusual wear

Reports the Associated Press: "The operator of an idled nuclear plant on the California coast announced Thursday that more unusual wear has been found on tubes that carry radioactive water, deepening a mystery involving the design of the plant’s massive steam generators. Southern California Edison, the operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, said in a statement that investigators found wear in its Unit 2 generators that is similar to degradation in its sister, Unit 3, though at a lower level."

Update on April 12, 2012 by admin

NRC file photo of San OnofreFriends of the Earth (FOE) is working hard to keep San Onofre shut down. FOE is running t.v. ads, and has commissioned two reports by nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont: the first report warned that the two San Onofre reactors should remain shut down, until Southern California Edison's secretive design changes to prematurely failing steam generator tubes could be further investigated; the second report documents that indeed, design changes are likely behind the dangerous steam generator tube degradation. See FOE's San Onofre website section here.

"Fighting the Legacy of Enrico Fermi"

NRC file photo of Fermi 2Michael Leonardi of Occupy Toledo has published an essay in Counterpunch, re-run at Ecowatch, about the resistance to the Fermi nuclear power plant on the Lake Erie shoreline near Monroe, MI. Leonardi links to Beyond Nuclear's involvement in "Freeze Our Fukushimas" efforts to shutdown Fermi 2 (see photo, left), the largest Fukushima Daiichi twin GE Mark I reactor in the world, with around 550 tons of high-level radioactive waste stuck in its storage pool, more than Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 put together.

Leonardi also mentions the struggle to nip the proposed new "Fermi 3" reactor, a GE-Hitachi "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR), in the bud. Beyond Nuclear's website hosts the compiled submissions by the the environmental coalition resisting Fermi 3, submitted in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter -- represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge -- continue to officially intervene against Fermi 3 in the NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board proceeding.

Toledo Blade editorializes in support of consideration of renewables as alternative to Davis-Besse license extension

The Toledo Blade, which in the past has often taken pro-nuclear editorial positions, has nonetheless come out in support of an environmental coalition's contention that renewables, such as wind and solar power, should be considered as an alternative to a 20 year license extension at the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor, with its cracked containment. Beyond Nuclear authored a wind power contention in Dec., 2010 that won admission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) for a hearing on the merits; the ASLB likewise admitted a solar photovoltaic (PV) contention authored by the environmental coalition's expert witness, Dr. Al Compaan, an emeritus professor and former chair of the University of Toledo physics dept., a PV inventer. However, the full five member NRC Commission recently sided with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's appeal of the ASLB rulings, and overrode them, rejecting any consideration of renewable alternatives. The NRC Commission did the same thing at Seabrook, NH, where Beyond Nuclear authored a contention that offshore wind power in the Gulf of Maine could replace that atomic reactor's electrical output. Terry Lodge of Toledo is the attorney representing the environmental coalitions in both proceedings.

"Lessons from Fukushima: is Ohio next?" Antioch University Midwest, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Sat., April 21st

Beyond Nuclear is honored to take part in an Earth Day forum on Sat., April 21st at Antioch University Midwest in Yellow Springs, Ohio entitled "Lessons from Fukushima: is Ohio next?" A schedule for the forum, as well as a promotional flyer, are available. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps has been invited to speak about "What really happened at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan?" While focusing on the cause of the nuclear power catastrophe, he will also provide an update on the ongoing dangerous state of what is left of the atomic reactors at Fukushima, and the relevance of "lessons learned" for the problem-plagued Davis-Besse and Perry atomic reactors in Ohio. Beyond Nuclear has, along with environmental coalition allies Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, officially intervened against FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's proposed 20 year license extension at Davis-Besse near Toledo; FENOC's Perry plant near Cleveland is ranked by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as one of the five least safe reactors in the U.S.