Vermont Yankee closes!

Today, thanks to decades of citizen organizing and protest; the wise backing of the elected officials of the State of Vermont; the attempted deception of Vermont Yankee owners, Entergy, whose representatives even lied under oath; and the hopeless economics of nuclear power, the Vermont Yankee reactor has shut down permanently. 

The lights will not go out. In fact, the New England electric grid operator knew two years ago that permanently closing Vermont Yankee would not affect regional grid stability.

In a statement today, Vermont governor, Peter Shumlin, said: “Today, thanks to investments in renewable energy such as solar, Vermont's energy future is on a different, more sustainable path that is creating jobs, reducing energy costs for Vermonters and slowing climate change.” Shumlin was a strong advocate for the closure of the reactor once its license expired. 

In what was viewed at the time as a blatant example of regulatory capture, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Vermont Yankee a 20-year license extension just ten days after the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster began. Vermont Yankee was one of 23 GE Mark I boiling water reactors, along with eight Mark II units, in the U.S., the same flawed design as the Fukushima reactors. Watch Shut Vermont Yankee! and The Activists, two videos made by Beyond Nuclear during the campaign to close the plant. For more, read Harvey Wasserman's analysis.

Update on December 31, 2014 by admin

Thom Hartmann hosted Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter (in studio in Washington, D.C.) and Kevin Kamps (live via Skype from Hancock, Vermont) on The Big Picture to discuss the significance of Vermont Yankee's closure in a segment entitled "This Is Why It's Time to Abandon Nuclear Power." See more coverage, and read statements, on Vermont Yankee's closure.

24th anniversary of EnviroVideo, producer of "Three Mile Island Revisited"

Beyond Nuclear board member Karl GrossmanOn December 26th, Beyond Nuclear board member, investigative journalist, author, and EnviroVideo host, Karl Grossman, wrote:

"Next week will mark the 24th year for EnviroVideo. Here's the first documentary we did, Three Mile Island Revisited...".

The 29-minute documentary is viewable on YouTube.

Here is a description of the piece:

"This powerful documentary challenges the claims of the nuclear industry and government that no one died as a result of the core meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. It utilizes the testimony of area residents and scientific findings to reveal that deaths, especially from cancer and birth defects in children, have been widespread since the 1979 accident. Indeed, it notes that Three Mile Island's owner has been quietly settling numerous damage cases brought by persons seriously impacted by the accident. Winner of the Worldfest Silver Award, Houston International Film Festival. Winner of the Director's Citation, Black Maria Video and Film Festival. Chosen for screening at the 1993 Earth Peace International Film Festival. Produced by EnviroVideo in 1993."

Burns to chair NRC

U.S. NRC Chairman Stephen G. BurnsAs reported by the Associated Press, the NRC announced that President Obama has appointed NRC Commissioner Stephen G. Burns (photo, left) to serve as the Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He will begin as Chairman on Jan. 1.

Burns worked as a lawyer at NRC for 33 years, including as chief counsel to NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko from 2009 to 2012.

From 2012 to 2014, Burns served as head of legal affairs for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).

It was that latter stint that moved Beyond Nuclear to oppose Burns' nomination and confirmation to the NRC Commission in the first place.

More.

Nuclear Crack Down?

Did you know that embrittled nuclear reactors could shatter like glass? Watch Fairewinds Energy Education's Nuclear Science Guy Arnie Gundersen (photo, left) demonstrate reactor embrittlement and imagine the shattering glass as a shattering nuclear reactor vessel. Learn more.

Arnie, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., serves as expert witness for an environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, challenging Entergy Nuclear's application to weaken reactor pressure vessel (RPV) embrittlement safety standards, yet again, at its Palisades atomic reactor in s.w. MI on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Palisades has the worst embrittled RPV in the U.S., at risk of pressurized thermal shock, fracture, Loss-of-Coolant-Accident, core meltdown, containment failure, and catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity.

NRC Commissioners deny appeal on QA at Fermi 3, but environmental intervenors vow to fight on

An artist's rendition of the GEH ESBWR, proposed by DTE to be built as "Fermi 3" at its nuclear power plant in Monroe Co., MIOn Dec. 16th, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) five Commissioners, in a unanimous ruling, denied an environmental coalition's appeal in the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) proceeding on Detroit Edison's (DTE) proposed new Fermi 3 reactor in southeast MI on the Lake Erie shore. DTE proposes to construct and operate an untested General Electric-Hitachi (GEH), so-called "Economic, Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR) on the very spot where Fermi 1 had a partial meltdown in 1966, immediately adjacent to the Fukushima Daiichi twin-design Fermi 2, a GE Mark I BWR.

The coalition requested reconsideration of the ASLB's June 2014 ruling that DTE's Fermi 3 quality assurance (QA) program was adequate, reasserting its preponderence of evidence -- including the testimony of Fairewinds Associates, Inc.'s Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen -- that DTE's QA program was in fact in disarray, or even non-existent. The coalition intends to appeal this NRC ruling, and other pending matters, to the federal courts, if need be. More.