20 atomic reactors in 9 East Coast states poised to shut down as safety precaution in the face of Hurricane Irene

NOAA satellite image of Hurricane Irene at 8:45pm Eastern FridayBusiness Insider reports that 20 atomic reactors in 9 states on the East Coast of the U.S. are poised to shut down as a safety precaution if Hurricane Irene's winds and waves prove too intense. The article links to a National Geographic report warning that downed trees could cause widespread power outages -- which would be exacerbated by atomic reactor shutdowns prompted as safety precautions. In fact, the second biggest electricity outage in world history, the August 14th, 2003 "Northeast Blackout," which plunged 50 million Americans and Canadians into darkness, was initiated by a single sagging tree limb in northwest Ohio touching a power line. This was the fault of FirstEnergy Nuclear, which had neglected its tree-trimming responsibilities, as it was distracted at the time by a costly and serious scandal at its Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo. The 2003 "Northeast Blackout" led to the safety-related shutdown of about two dozen atomic reactors as a safety precaution due to the unstable electrical grid, which dramatically widened the scope of the incident. As Beyond Nuclear has warned, nuclear power is too risky to operate as climate chaos worsens; this is due to the vulnerable locations of atomic reactors, such as on coastlines, subject to not only severe weather events such as storm surges, but also earthquake-spawned tsunamis and sea level rise due to global warming.

NRC slaps FirstEnergy for safety violations at Perry

NRC file photo of FirstEnergy's Perry nuclear power plant, to the northeast of Cleveland on the Lake Erie shorelineThe Plain Dealer of Cleveland has reported that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has cited the FirstEnergy nuclear utility with a "white finding" of "low to moderate" safety significance after four contract workers were briefly exposed to high radiation levels due to poorly written procedures involving a task near the reactor core. The article quotes Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps: "Kevin Kamps, a radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, a group opposed to nuclear energy, said Perry's problems are not as isolated from Davis-Besse's past problems as one would think. 'All the hooting and hollering about the need to improve FirstEnergy's 'safety culture' after the Davis-Besse hole-in-the-head fiasco of 2002 comes to mind,' he said. 'Apparently that 'safety culture' isn't as fixed as FirstEnergy and even the NRC would like the public to believe.' "

FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant came closer than any other U.S. reactor since the Three Mile Island meltdown of 1979 to a major accident, due to severe corrosion of its reactor lid. Beyond Nuclear, in coalition with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwest Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, has won standing and the admittance of several contentions against the 20 year license extension sought by FirstEnergy at Davis-Besse.

Cheney urged Bush to bomb secret Syrian atomic reactor

In a "preview" book review, the New York Times has reported that his soon to be published memoir, In My Time, reveals that in June 2007, Dick Cheney urged George W. Bush to bomb a secret Syrian atomic reactor. However, he was not supported by a single other member of Bush's Cabinet, and so was overruled. But Israel did bomb the reactor, three months later.

Cheney also expresses no regret for the WMD and "smoking gun as mushroom cloud" false pretenses that he and other Bush administration officials used to push the U.S. into war with Iraq in 2003. He is unapologetic for the infamous "16 words" in Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech, alleging that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium yellowcake in Niger, Africa for nuclear weapons purposes -- despite it being instantly exposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency as untrue. Cheney is likewise unrepentent for his Chief of Staff Scooter Libby's "Fair Game" outing of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame (a counter-proliferation specialist), to punish her husband, U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson, for daring to publicly challenge Bush's State of the Union fraud.

Not again! Radioactive waste threatened by wildfires, this time at INL

INL photo of crews battling a blaze in July 2010 that grew overnight to 170 square miles in sizeJust a few months ago, wildfires threatened a large inventory of plutonium-contaminated radioactive wastes at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexcio. Now, reports Reuters, high-level radioactive waste storage, handling, and even experimentation facilities at Idaho National Lab (INL) are in harm's way, amidst fast-spreading wildfires. INL is a catch-all "interim storage site" for irradiated nuclear fuel, including from U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers; "Atoms for Peace" high-enriched uranium (HEU) foreign research reactor fuel, originally supplied by to the U.S. to 41 countries overseas, but returned here as a nuclear weapons non-proliferation precaution; and even melted down nuclear fuel from the U.S. commercial nuclear power industry, including from the 1966 "We Almost Lost Detroit" Fermi 1 partial meltdown, and the 1979 Three Mile Island 50% meltdown. INL has published a map and emergency updates on the wildfire; the map contains links with more detailed information about what risky activities take place where on the INL site. As MSNBC reported, a July 2010 wildfire at INL (photo, left) burned power lines, forcing radioactive waste facilities to rely on emergency diesel generators.

If you feel like screaming.....

JOIN THE BEYOND NUCLEAR "I HAVE A SCREAM" RALLY ON HALLOWE'EN!

Does the continued promotion of nuclear power by the Obama administration – even after Fukushima – make you want to scream? If so, you are not alone. Join like-minded activists at the Beyond Nuclear I Have A Scream rally on Hallowe’en at 12 noon, Monday, October 31 outside DOE headquarters (see flyer for details).

On October 31, an aptly chosen date, the US Energy Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will finally close its supposedly open doors to any further public comment on its mandate to “solve” this country’s radioactive waste problem. Using millions of our taxpayer dollars, and after junkets to France and Finland, the commission has come up with nothing new at all! To wit: it recommends that a new search should be made for a geologic repository; reactor waste should be transported to centralized interim storage sites; and that research, development, and demonstration dollars from taxpayers should continue to be wasted on reprocessing.

Wear a costume, bring a sign and let your voices - and screams - be heard!