Keep nuclear power out of Copenhagen!

Please consider signing your organization on to a new international effort to prevent nuclear power from claiming any benefits and incentives during the December 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Called Ni Nucléaire, Ni Effet de Serre (neither nuclear nor the greenhouse effect) in France, where the campaign is based, and Don't Nuke the Climate, in English, the goal is to create a campaign document signed by organizations from across the world to be used in Copenhagen.

Nuclear power has been kept outside of climate change mitigation mechanisms to date. However, some evidence shows that the nuclear lobby could be preparing its comeback in Copenhagen to have this dirty energy labeled as clean or carbon-free and thus benefit from new subsidies. The campaign will produce petitions, postcards and sign-on letters and plans to have a strong media and advocacy presence in Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009.

Please join Beyond Nuclear and sign onto the Don't Nuke the Climate campaign here.

Obama bows to nuclear lobby while Chu gives wows to new reactors

The Obama administration moved closer to supporting the nuclear industry lobby's push to build new reactors during Senate hearings on pending climate legislation. The administration's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, sang the praises of a U.S. nuclear power revival. None of this made for a pretty picture - even if it was a predictable one - as the White House bent to nuclear industry demands in its effort to get a climate bill through the Senate. (Read more in The Guardian.)

"I think nuclear power is going to be a very important factor in getting us to a low carbon future," Chu told the Senate's environment and public works committee. "Quite frankly, we want to recapture the lead on industrial nuclear power. We have lost that lead as we have lost the lead in many energy technologies and we want to get it back."

The nuclear power industry is jockeying for potentially unlimited federal loan guarantees to fund expensive new reactors. If and when the industry defaults, the American taxpayer will foot the bill.

Obama's formative anti-nuclear years

Read President Obama's 1983 Columbia University anti-nuclear article here.

Nuclear companies running for the exits

On the heels of news that AmerenUE is backing away from a second reactor at Callaway, MO, comes the disclosure that Exelon is scaling back plans to build two new reactors in Victoria County, TX. Exelon has dropped its construction application and has requested just an Early Site Permit which does not require identifying a specific reactor design. Exelon CEO, John Rowe, cited the "limited availability of federal loan guarantees" in explaining Exelon's backpeddle.

In Ontario, Canada, the province has suspended plans for nuclear power plant refurbishment and new reactor construction. Meanwhile the planned pebble bed reactors slated for sites in South Africa look dead while in Britain the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has put the proposed new French EPR reactors on ice, questioning their safety.

Cover up of leaks at U.K. reactor could have led to radioactive fire

Watch the outstanding Channel 4 British television report here about the radioactive leaks at the Sizewell A reactor and the close call that was averted by luck, then covered up for two years.