Nuclear whistleblowers take aim at Vermont Yankee

The Associated Press has reported that Paul Blanche, an energy consultant based in Connecticut who has worked for several New England reactors, has accused both Entergy Nuclear and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a "run-to-failure, fix-it-when-it-breaks mentality," saying he wouldn't get on a plane run by an airline with that approach. "There's no justification for continuing to operate that plant," Blanche said. Meanwhile, Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, Inc., himself a former atomic whistleblower and now serving on a State of Vermont public oversight panel on Vermont Yankee's re-licensing, recieved a phone call from a current whistleblower at the reactor saying that Entergy Nuclear officials knew of radioactivity leaks two years ago emanating from buried pipes. If true, this would bolster allegations of perjury by top level Entergy officials, who testified under oath to state officials last year that there were no underground pipes carrying radioactive materials. State officials are taking this latest allegation very seriously, further diminishing Vermont Yankee's hopes of surviving a Vermont State Legislature "no confidence" vote next Wednesday.

National "Call Congress" Day of Action against nuclear loan guarantees, Wed., Feb. 24!

An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, Friends of the Earth, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and others, has called for a National “Call Congress” Day of Action against nuclear power loan guarantees for Wed., Feb. 24^th. Please phone your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and help ring the phones off the hook all day long during business hours next Wednesday in Congress! Urge your Members of Congress to let President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu know that they are displeased that the first $18.5 billion in already-approved nuclear loan guarantees is being rushed out to unworthy applicants, increasing the already high risks that taxpayers will be left holding the bag for defaulted projects. Also urge your Members of Congress to block President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request to triple the nuclear loan guarantee program from $18.5 billion for new reactors, to $54.5 billion (and don't forgot about the $2 billion in already-approved loan guarantees for new uranium enrichment facilities!). See NIRS’s email alert as well as its website announcement of “Call Congress Day.” Also see Beyond Nuclear’s loan guarantee website for more information. And see NIRS's press release that clarifies the important point that these are not just loan guarantees, but actual loans as well being drawn from the U.S. taxpayer -- thus, they're getting us coming and going!



Obama Goes Nuclear

"Is there any chance that President Barack Obama can return to his long-held stand critical of nuclear power? Is he open to hearing from scientists and energy experts, such as Amory Lovins, who can refute the pro-nuclear arguments that have apparently influenced him?"

Read the rest of this article by Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, in Counterpunch, February 17, 2010, recounting a number of negative statements on atomic power Obama has made and revealing what may have made him change his stance.

CSPAN Washington Journal debates Obama's nuclear loan guarantees

CSPAN Washington Journal , February 17, 2010, featured Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear in a debate with Alex Flint of the Nuclear Energy Institute on President Barack Obama’s February 16 announcement to give $8 billion dollars in federal loan guarantees to restart long stalled new reactor construction.

Beyond Nuclear denounces President Obama's decision to transfer risks for new atomic reactors onto U.S. taxpayers

President Obama himself, flanked by nuclear power industry unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (photo at left), today announced the awarding of an $8.3 billion, taxpayer-backed loan guarantee to Southern Nuclear Company of Georgia for its proposed twin-reactor expansion at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. Ironically, Plant Vogtle's currently operating twin reactor nuclear power plant was the poster child of cost overruns in the last generation of reactor building -- coming in at a whopping 13-fold, or over 1,000%, cost overrun. Such skyrocketing costs delivered the death blow to nuclear power plant construction in the United States, even before Three Mile Island melted down in 1979. In a follow up press conference today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu revealed his ignorance of the Congressional Budget Office's prediction that over half of new atomic reactors will default on their loan repayments. This will, of course, leave taxpayers holding the bag for many billions of dollars per failed project. Financial analysts are unconvinced that such federal largesse is sufficient to achieve the nuclear power industry's coveted "renaissance." They have even pointed out that, despite President Obama completing President Bush's unfinished favor -- at taxpayer expense -- for the nuclear power industry, it is too little, too late to achieve a nuclear power relapse in this country. Beyond Nuclear immediately issued a media release denouncing President Obama's decision. Beyond Nuclear board member Karl Grossman wrote "Obama's Change on Nuclear Power" in response to today's nuclear loan guarantee announcement. Bob Alvarez of Institute for Policy Studies responded to President Obama's pro-nuclear power, and even pro-nuclear weapons, policies with "Nukes Aren't the Answer." In fact, the environmental and taxpayer coalition opposed to nuclear power loan guarantees erupted with a "negative reaction," a flurry of fury, including from Public Citizen; PSR; Friends of the Earth; Environment America; Sierra Club; and Taxpayers for Common Sense. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader  calls President Barack Obama’s loan guarantee for nuclear power plants a "monumental mistake." Watch  Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on Al Jazeera English interview (play the "In video" report by John Terrett in the lower right hand corner). Watch Kevin debate the Nuclear Energy Institute's top lobbyist, Alex Flint, on C-SPAN's Washington Journal from 7:45-8:30 a.m. on Wed., Feb. 17th. As the top staffer for former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at the time), Alex Flint played a lead role in the writing and passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which established the nuclear loan guarantee program in the first place, as well as awarded another $13 billion in federal subsidies to the nuclear power industry. In fact, as reported by Mike Stuckey of MSNBC, Alex Flint has passed through the revolving door between the nuclear power industry and Capitol Hill more than once, making himself a pretty penny in the process.