Entergy's Palisades spills 70 gallons of oil on the edge of Lake Michigan

NRC file photo of Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor, as well as the Great Lake and surrounding countryside it puts at riskDespite the industry's claim that nuclear power is "clean energy," Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor has just spilled "approximately 70 gallons" of oil onto the ground, adjacent to the waters of Lake Michigan. As a headwaters for the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan supplies drinking water to 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

The Kalamazoo Gazette has reported on this oil leak. This latest incident at Palisades was made public by an Event Notification posted at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website.

The oil spill comes a year and two days after Palisades leaked 82.1 gallons of radioactive water directly into Lake Michigan. The radioactive spill prompted a protest vigil at Palisades' front entrace, organized by Beyond Nuclear and local concerned citizens' groups, after U.S. Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI), Chair of the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce (whose district "hosts" Palisades), as well as NRC Commissioner Svinicki, failed to even acknowledge requests for meetings after their hastily arranged emergency tour of the problem-plagued plant. More.

Nuclear Hotseat: Fukushima's Cover-up "Killer Points" w/ Karl Grossman

Karl GrossmanInterview, on Nuclear Hotseat, by host Libbe HaLevy, with award-winning investigative journalist Karl Grossman (photo left), on how the nuclear industry has gamed the media since before Hiroshima, why mainstream media continues to resist coverage of nuclear news, and thoughts on how to start breaking that logjam.

Karl's interview begins at the 14 minute 40 second mark in the YouTube recording.

Karl serves as a Beyond Nuclear board member.

New novel brings Chernobyl experience vividly to life

A novel by Darragh McKeon,  All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, has been published in the U.S. by Harper Collins and will be featured at a Beyond Nuclear special book event on Monday, May 19th at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC.  

A theater director by profession, McKeon spent eight years shaping his debut novel. It follows the stories of four primary characters during the unfolding Chernobyl reactor disaster and the fall of the Soviet Union. Yevgeni is a child piano prodigy living in Moscow; his aunt, Maria, a former dissident journalist, now works in a factory; Maria’s ex-husband Grigory, a talented surgeon, leaves Moscow to treat Chernobyl victims; and another young boy, Artyom, is evacuated from his rural home close to the stricken reactor.

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air is McKeon’s first novel. Originally from Ireland and now living in New York, he was inspired after Chernobyl Children International, an organization created and led by Adi Roche, began bringing children harmed by the aftermath of the nuclear disaster to his home town for “radiation vacations.” 

The book has been praised by fellow Irish writers, Colm Toíbín and Colum McCann and described in reviews as “powerful and moving” and “a supremely accomplished social novel.” An essay accompanying the book describes McKeon’s personal experience visiting Ukraine and Belarus.

McKeon will read from his searingly beautiful novel set during and after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as the Soviet Union crumbles. The event, hosted by Beyond Nuclear, will take place in the Langston Room of the Busboys & Poets restaurant and bookstore at 2021 14th St. NW, from 7pm-9pm. It is free and open to the public.

Photographs from the Chernobyl region, by Gabriela Bulišová, will be projected onto the big screen before the reading. See the artist's statement here, and the photo captions here.

Copies of the book can be purchased at any time from the Busboys bookstore. It is published by Harper Collins and is also available through various online outlets. McKeon will sign books and answer questions after the talk.

Update on May 5, 2014 by admin

And read McKeon's remarkable essay about his visit to the region. Please circulate the event invitation to your lists.

Update on August 10, 2014 by admin

Anthony Marra has published a favorable book review in the New York Times, featuring the graphic art of Alex Nabaum.

"A Rhetorical Outburst: Canadian ‘Experts’ Comfy with Radioactive Pollution of Great Lakes"

John LaForge of Nukewatch in Luck, WIJohn LaForge of Nukewatch Wisconsin has published an article at CounterPunch entitled "A Rhetorical Outburst: Canadian ‘Experts’ Comfy with Radioactive Pollution of Great Lakes."

It is John's response to an "expert report" done in support of Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposal to bury all of the province's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes, from 20 reactors, less than a mile from the waters of Lake Huron. The dump would be immediately adjacent to OPG's Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, with eight operable atomic reactors, one of the single biggest nuclear power plants in the world.

40 million American, Canadian, and Native American First Nations residents drink from Great Lakes waters, which comprise more than 20% of the entire world's surface fresh water, and more than 90% of North America's.

John writes: "The ‘expert’ group’s report says it’s possible that as much as 1,000 cubic meters a year of water contaminated with radiation might leach from the dump, but calls such pollution 'highly improbable.' (Emphasis on 'predicted' and 'improbably' here: The US government’s 650-meter-deep Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico was predicted to contain radiation for 10,000 years. It failed badly on Feb. 14, after only 15.)"

In September 2013, John testified before the Canadian federal Joint Review Panel tasked with overseeing OPG's environmental assessment on OPG's proposed "Deep Geologic Repository," or DGR. (Critics have dubbed it the Deep Underground Dump, or DUD). He cited a 2008 OPG promotional brochure, which rhetorically asked “Will the [dump] contaminate the water?” then answered: “…even if the entire waste volume were to be dissolved into Lake Huron, the corresponding drinking water dose would be a factor of 100 below the regulatory criteria initially, and decreasing with time.”

This fatuous assertion prompted John to ask in his testimony: “Why would the government spend $1 billion on a dump when it is safe to throw all the radioactive waste in the water?”

As John writes, "Now, what I thought of then as a rhetorical outburst has become 'expert' opinion."

John and Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps will co-present "Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer," their annual workshop at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association fair held on summer solstice weekend in central WI.

Hanford whistleblower: pipe explosion at PFP went unreported to public

As reported by KNDO, a whistleblower at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has revealed that a pipe explosion occurred at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) two weeks ago, but was not publicly reported. The PFP played a role in fabricating the weapons-grade plutonium that was used to incinerate Nagasaki, Japan in August, 1945.

The whistleblower alleged that the contractor in charge is more concerned about schedules and profit margins, than the safety of its workers.