"The Iran Nuclear Deal 70 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

Margaret Harrington, host of "Nuclear-Free Future Conversation" on Channel 17/Town Hall Meeting Televsion in Burlington, VT, interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on the Iran Nuclear Deal announced on July 14th, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing 70th anniversaries on Aug. 6th & 9th, and the Japanese Abe administration's restart of an atomic reactor at Sendai post-Fukushima, despite overwhelming popular opposition. (Note: there appears to be "dead air" and a black screen at the 29:00 to 30:00 minute mark of the interview, but it resumes after that).

FOE, Greenpeace, Sierra Club: "Nuclear Power Is a Losing Proposition"

In an op-ed published in the Miami Herald, the Executive Directors of Greenpeace U.S.A. and Sierra Club (Annie Leonard and Michael Brune, respectively), and the President of Friends of the Earth U.S.A. (Erich Pica), have listed the many reasons why nuclear power cannot solve the climate crisis: it costs too much; takes too long; is not safe to operate in a time of worsening natural disasters; and there is no solution for the radioactive waste problem. The good news, however, they report, is that renewable energy, like wind and solar power, as well as energy efficiency, are fully capable of replacing fossil fuels in the electricity production sector.

To that list of insurmountable problems with dirty, dangerous, and expensive nuclear power is age-related degradation of atomic reactors. Sierra Club and its Nuclear-Free Michigan campaign just submitted a friend of the court brief to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on behalf of Beyond Nuclear et al., urging the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) hearing at Entergy Nuclear's Palisades to go forward, regarding age-related degradation of the safety-significant reactor pressure vessel (RPV). RPV degradation is a worsening risk at many reactors, including Point Beach Unit 2 in WI, Indian Point Unit 3 in NY, Diablo Canyon Unit 1 in CA, Beaver Valley Unit 1 in PA, and Davis-Besse, OH.

Dr. Gordon Edwards on "Brazil Nuclear Leader's Arrest May Stymie Atomic Ambitions"

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President, CCNRDr. Gordon Edwards, President of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (photo, left), has prepared the following backgrounder in response to the Reuters article, reprinted at Voice of America, about the the arrest of the longtime head of Brazil's nuclear energy utility, Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva. A retired admiral, Pinheiro da Silva was arrested on corruption charges on Tuesday for allegedly taking 4.5 million reais ($1.35 million) in bribes from engineering firms working on the long-delayed Angra 3 nuclear power plant. The arrest could disrupt a plan to revive Brazilian nuclear ambitions whose roots go back to its atomic-bomb program in the 1980s. More.

Ameren cancels Callaway 2 EPR in Missouri!

As reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune,  Ameren Corp. has officially cancelled its proposed new reactor, Callaway 2, by withdrawing its license application from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ameren has previously suspended the project in May 2009.

The proposed new reactor was a French Areva EPR (so-called "Evolutionary Power Reactor"), the second to be officially cancelled recently (the other being Calvert Cliffs 3 in MD). At one time, seven EPRs were proposed across the U.S., with more under consideration in Ontario. Recently, Areva in France has entered bankruptcy, as an EPR in Finland has slipped further behind schedule and more over budget, and one in France has admitted potentially fatal construction flaws in the reactor pressure vessel (in Europe, the EPR is called the "Europena Pressurized Reactor").

Ameren's lobbyists failed for several state legislative sessions to overturn a 40-year old popular referendum in Missouri banning CWIP (Construction Work in Progress), another fatal blow to Callaway 2. Ameren was also passed over by the U.S. Department of Energy for hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies for R&D on SMRs (so-called "Small Modular Reactors").

Update on August 5, 2015 by admin

Sonal Patel has also reported on this story, in a PowerMag article entitled "Ameren scraps planned Missouri nuclear unit, cites falling renewable costs." Patel quoted Ameren CEO Warner Baxter:

“While we continue to believe nuclear power must be an important clean energy source for our company and country, as evidenced by the 20-year license extension we received this past March for our Callaway Energy Center, this loss provision was driven by recent changes in vendor support for licensing efforts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, our assessment of long-term capacity needs, declining cost of alternative generation technologies and the regulatory framework in Missouri among other things,” explained Ameren CEO Warner Baxter on July 31, during a second quarter 2015 earnings call.

"3 Former Executives to Be Prosecuted in Fukushima Nuclear Disaster"

As reported by Jonathon Soble in the New York Times, a review panel of private citzens has -- for the second time -- overruled prosecutors and demanded that three top executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) be charged in relation to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe that began on 3/11/11.

This second review panel ruling is binding, meaning prosecutors must bring charges.

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Plaintiffs Group, representing 15,000 individuals, including nuclear evacuees, has long sought the prosecution.

The binding decision by the review panel requires that prosecutors bring charges of "professional negligence resulting in death."

As reported by the 2015 World Nuclear Industry Status Report (see bottom of page 84), 3,200 individual nuclear evacuees -- the majority from Fukushima Prefecture -- have died since the nuclear catastrophe began. This includes the elderly or infirm, who have succumbed to illnesses during their long exile from their radioactive homes, as well as suicides. More.