Powering a Green Planet: Sustainable Energy, Made Interactive

Scientific American has posted a rich-media presentation (note the cityscape shown is Chicago on the Lake Michigan shore -- unfortunately currently 80% nuclear electrified!) of its feature article "A Path to a Sustainable Energy by 2030" (Nov. 2009). Many of these same arguments and insights were first made by Dr. Arjun Makhijani in his 2007 book Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy.

Ejections continue in Copenhagen - FOE the latest to go

The ejections of environmental activists in Copenhagen - this time from the talks rather than the country - continue. This time it was Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups that were barred from the conference without a reason being provided, according to a report in The Guardian. Activists described the measures as Draconian and exclusionary, muzzling the voices that represent the poor and underprivileged around the world.

More than 50,000 tell Copenhagen officials, "no" to nuclear

More than a dozen NGOs participating in the international “Don’t Nuke the Climate” campaign presented government delegates with a giant postcard and 50,000 signatures on Tuesday calling for a nuclear-free climate agreement. The NGOs were joined by prominent Green figures including two former Environment Ministers of France, Yves COCHET (French MP), and Corinne LEPAGE (MEP) ; MEP, International alter-globalization movement leader Jose BOVE , and MEP Yannick JADOT, Claude Turmes, Margrete Auken , Italian MP Angelo Bonelli, Roberto della Seta and Francesco Ferrante.

Beyond Nuclear slams GE-Hitachi ESBWR design for QA violations at Fermi 3

Beyond Nuclear -- in coalition with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don’t Waste Michigan, and the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club -- has filed its 16th contention in the Fermi 3 new reactor proceeding before an NRC licensing board challenging the quality assurance violations associated with General Electric-Hitachi's "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" design. The coalition has called for the new reactor licensing proceeding to be suspended until QA on the ESBWR design can be assured. As expressed in the Beyond Nuclear media release, the QA violations surrounding Fermi 3 are three-fold: QA failures on Detroit Edison's combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA), QA failures on General Electric-Hitachi's ESBWR design, and QA regulatory oversight failures by NRC staff itself. Beyond Nuclear's "Nuclear Reactors" website section shows the original Nov. 6 QA contention filing against Fermi 3, as well as the initial overall intervention launched on March 9, 2009.

Vote delayed on turning Texas into the national “low-level” radioactive waste dump

The Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, and other anti-nuclear allies in Texas, needs help in urging the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission to prohibit the importation of “low-level” radioactive waste from across the country into its geologically unsound dumpsite in Andrews County, West Texas, located above precious groundwater supplies near the New Mexico border into which the buried radioactive wastes are guaranteed to leak over time. Not only do old and proposed new reactors in Texas and Vermont (the two state compact formed in 1993) hope to dump there, but so do old and proposed new reactors across the country – most of which lack any disposal option for Class B and Class C “low-level” radioactive wastes ever since the Barnwell, South Carolina dumpsite closed its doors to most states last year. At public meetings last Thursday and Friday, the SEED Coalition succeeded in persuading the TX Compact Commission to delay its draft radioactive waste export/import rule for one month, allowing public comments before the draft rule is published. Two articles, “Radioactive Waste Commission Punts” and “A Radioactive Loophole,” by Forrest Wilder in The Texas Observer, provide valuable coverage. The next public meeting of the Compact Commission is scheduled for Jan. 22^nd, 2010, so watch the Beyond Nuclear Web site for ways to weigh in! Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, dozens of “low-level” radioactive waste dumps were targeted at many states throughout the country. Grassroots opposition beat back almost every single proposal. Our friends in Texas need our help to do so again now. Nuclear Information and Resource Service, which has been warning about WCS for many years, has good history and updates on the “low-level” radioactive waste struggle.