"RENEWABLE ENERGY COULD PROVIDE 16% OF U.S. ELECTRICITY WITHIN FIVE YEARS"

Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign, has published a report entitled RENEWABLE ENERGY COULD PROVIDE 16% OF U.S. ELECTRICITY WITHIN FIVE YEARS. The subtitle is SOME MODEST PROJECTIONS FOR NEAR-TERM GROWTH (or why the EIS's forecast of renewables not reaching 16% until 2040 is almost certainly wrong).

The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1992 to promote sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives to nuclear power and fossil fuels.

Ramberg: "The Chernobyl Factor in the Ukraine Crisis"

Bennett RamburgBennett Ramberg (photo, left) has posted an article at PROJECT SYNDICATE entitled "The Chernobyl Factor in the Ukraine Crisis."

His article begins:

"Twenty-eight years after its Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded, Ukraine confronts a nuclear specter of a different kind: the possibility that the country's reactors could become military targets in the event of a Russian invasion. Speaking at the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague in March, Andrii Deshchytsia, Ukraine's acting foreign minister, cited the "potential threat to many nuclear facilities" should events deteriorate into open warfare.

Earlier in the month, Ihor Prokopchuk, Ukraine's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, circulated a letter to the organization's board of governors warning that an invasion could bring a "threat of radiation contamination on the territory of Ukraine and the territory of neighboring states." In Kyiv, Ukraine's parliament responded by calling for international monitors to help protect the plants as the cash-strapped government attempts to boost its own efforts."

Ramberg then goes on to issue a warning similar to one he's been giving for decades -- that whether due to intentional attack, or by unintentional accidental attack, nuclear power plants can unleash catastrophic amounts of hazardous radioactivity if blown up during military conflict.

Twenty-eight years after its Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded, Ukraine confronts a nuclear specter of a different kind: the possibility that the country’s reactors could become military targets in the event of a Russian invasion. Speaking at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in March, Andrii Deshchytsia, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, cited the “potential threat to many nuclear facilities” should events deteriorate into open warfare.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphEarlier in the month, Ihor Prokopchuk, Ukraine’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, circulated a letter to the organization’s board of governors warning that an invasion could bring a “threat of radiation contamination on the territory of Ukraine and the territory of neighboring states.” In Kyiv, Ukraine’s parliament responded by calling for international monitors to help protect the plants as the cash-strapped government attempts to boost its own efforts.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/bennett-ramberg-calls-attention-to-the-dangers-of-fighting-near-nuclear-power-stations#tTMpmuRY5bRsGc3L.99

Ramberg was a policy analyst in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs under President George H.W. Bush, and is the author of Destruction of Nuclear Energy Facitlities in War and Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy.

Beyond Nuclear also warned about the increased risks to Ukraine's nuclear power plants, in a March 7th weekly email bulletin alert as well as a March 6th website post. The web post mentioned Ramberg's warning in the early 1980s, in his book Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy, as well as his warning after the 9/11 attacks about the security vulnerability of U.S. atomic reactors. Beyond Nuclear did another follow on web post, warning that the Ukraine-Russia conflict underscores the dire need to abolish nuclear weapons and nuclear power, before they abolish us.

Bennett Ramberg, a policy analyst in the US State Department’s Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs under President George H.W. Bush, is the author of Destruction of Nuclear Energy Facilities in War and Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy.
Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/bennett-ramberg-calls-attention-to-the-dangers-of-fighting-near-nuclear-power-stations#tTMpmuRY5bRsGc3L.99

Update on April 23, 2014 by admin

On the eve of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe's 28-year mark, Beyond Nuclear issued a press release warning about the risks to Ukraine's 15 operating atomic reactors -- as well as to the radioactive wastes stored at the one destroyed and three permanently shutdown Chernobyl reactors -- from potential armed conflict with Russia, or even non-state actors, such as pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists.

"Three Years After the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Disaster: Bringing he Focus Back on Life"

The fireball and mushroom cloud from Operation Castel Bravo, March 1, 1954As posted at the Fairewinds Energy Education website, Chiho Kaneko, a member of the Board of Directors of Fairewinds Energy Education, discusses how:

The Fukushima Daiichi disaster opened the door to see how this is not merely a Japanese crisis. It is a crisis that transcends geography and time. We traced the roots of this crisis back 60-years to the fishing boat Daigo Fukuryumaru, or #5 Lucky Dragon, and American efforts to force nuclear power upon the Japanese people.

The website includes a link to the video, as well as the transcript of Chiho Kaneko's remarks.

NRC Denies Modest Post-Fukushima Emergency Response Recommendations

The UN IAEA's official radioactivity hazard warning signDave Kraft, Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) based in Chicago, wrote the following introduction as he forwarded the NIRS press release entitled "NRC Fails the American People: Denies Petition to Make Modest Improvements in Emergency Planning for Nuclear Reactor Accidents." Beyond Nuclear joined NEIS and three dozen other groups in supporting NIRS' petition.

"As a courtesy to our colleagues at NIRS in Washington, D.C., we forward a press release that reports the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s denial of a request to improve evacuation plans around U.S. nuclear reactors, based on the real-life information and evidence provided by the Fukushima and Chornobyl nuclear disasters.  With Illinois having 14 reactors – four of which are of Fukushima design and vintage -- and 9,000+ tons of high-level radioactive waste in the form of spent fuel in spent fuel pools and dry casks, this is no inconsequential matter.  (DISCLOSURE:  NEIS was a co-signatory of the petition to NRC)

Reality has never been a strong suit at the NRC, which consistently denies even the most common sense requests and recommendations emanating from members of the public they allegedly serve and protect.  The Commission’s interest in safety seems to be in direct proportion to the length of the leash held by Marvin S. Fertel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry trade and lobbying group.  While NEI representatives are frequently invited by NRC to help write public policy on nuclear power issues, attend meetings and give briefings, public interest groups are routinely refused such opportunities.  This has been a consistent pattern of NRC behavior for decades.

It is for this reason that the public has come to understand that “NRC” actually stands for “not really concerned.”  NRC has yet to learn the lesson that betrayal is a rational justification for distrust."

Beyond Nuclear teamed up with NEIS on many occassions, including to co-sponsor the "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High" conference in Chicago in Dec. 2012.

Update on April 10, 2014 by admin

Along the same lines, Beyond Nuclear's Reactor Oversight Project Director, Paul Gunter, has submitted public comments to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) "[rejecting] the conclusion of the NRC ISG [Interim Staff Guidance] that nuclear power plant owners can be exempted from emergency planning and preparedness once they have permanently ceased power operations but continue to maintain onsite storage of high-level nuclear waste (irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies) in wet or dry storage configurations."

As but one example that Paul points out:

"Numerous nuclear power plant irradiated fuel storage sites are also located within ten miles of General Aviation airfields where pilot and passenger screening are non-existent and cargo manifests are not supervised nor inspected. Private aircraft(s) malevolently equipped as Improvised Explosive Devices can turn any one of these high-density storage pools (many, such as the GE boiling water reactors are elevated to the upper region of the reactor building without any defensive supersturcture and all outside of any rated radiological containment structure) into a pre-deployed radiological weapon of mass destruction."

Update on April 30, 2014 by admin

NIRS has published a press release entitled "NRC Fails to Document Claim Made in Denial of NIRS' Emergency Planning Petition that 'Majority' of Nuclear Emergency Drills Include Natural Disaster Components."

Proposed new reactor at Nine Mile Point in Upstate New York officially cancelled!

NRC file photo of Nine Mile PointNRC file photo of FitzPatrickAs documented in the Federal Register, the French Areva EPR ("Evolutionary Power Reactor") targeted at the Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant site in Upstate New York, on the Lake Ontario shore, has been officially cancelled.

The location is already heavily burdened by the presence of Nine Mile Point Units 1 & 2, as well as the FitzPatrick atomic reactor. Nine Mile Point Unit 1 and FitzPatrick are General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4. Nine Mile Point Unit 2 is a Mark II, very similar in design to Fukushima Daiichi. Lake Ontario serves as the drinking water supply for many millions of people in New York, Ontario (including Canada's largest city, Toronto), and a large number of Native American/First Nations.