Beyond Nuclear on Radio EcoShock re: Mobile Chernobyls & parking lot dumps

Host Alex Smith of Radio EcoShock interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Specialist, Kevin Kamps, re: the proposal for so-called "centralized interim storage" of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) in Andrews County, Texas. Listen to the interview from the 32:00 minute to 52:15 minute mark in the recording.

(Please note this correction: The plutonium-contaminated waste barrel burst at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico occurred on Valentine's Day, 2014, not 2012.)

More.

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education: Nuclear Power Is Not "Green Energy": It Is a Fount of Atomic Waste

Arnie GundersenArnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, has published an article at Truthout: "Nuclear Power Is Not 'Green Energy': It Is a Fount of Atomic Waste."

Gundersen serves as expert witness for Beyond Nuclear, in both its resistance to the Fermi 3 proposed new reactor in Michigan (re: Quality Assurance), as well as its resistance to a 20-year license extension at Davis-Besse, Ohio (re: steam generator replacements).

OH agrees to let FirstEnergy Nuclear impose $132.5 million a year surcharge on its 1.9 million customers

"Burning money" graphic art by Gene Case, Avening AngelsTom Henry of the Toledo Blade has Tweeted out his column on the ratepayer-funded bailout, now approved by the State of Ohio -- to the tune of $132.5 million per year -- of FirstEnergy Nuclear's dangerously age-degraded Davis-Besse atomic reactor on the Lake Erie shore. Beyond Nuclear has led opposition to Davis-Besse's 2017-2037 license extension since 2010. Davis-Besse has had more close calls with catastrophe than any other U.S. reactor, and -- FirstEnergy admits -- has had a severely cracked (and ever worsening) concrete containment, which could well fail to contain catastrophic amounts of hazardous radioactivity in the event of a meltdown.

Beyond Nuclear has also worked alongside Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council, Environmental Defense Fund, AARP, Public Citizen, ratepayer advocacy groups, and many others, to oppose requests from FirstEnergy to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) for ratepayer-funded bailouts of $4 to 8 billion (yes, with a B). FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) ultimately put the kabosh on this larger attempted ratepayer robbery, but the State of Ohio has just blessed the burdening of its own citizens to the tune of $132.5 million/year, nonetheless.

Sierra Club National Board director Dr. Michael Dorsey in the WSJ: "NO: Nuclear Isn’t Clean—or Cheap"

Nuclear power is fizzling.

So begins a Wall Street Journal op-ed debate entitled "Is Nuclear Power Vital to Hitting CO2 Emissions Targets?"

Dr. Michael Dorsey, a director on the Sierra Club National Board, contributed the anti-nuclear, "NO: Nuclear Isn’t Clean—or Cheap."

Susan Tierney provided the pro-nuclear contribution, "YES: Renewables Can't Fill the Gap Yet." Although Tierney is described as "a senior adviser at the Analysis Group, an economic, financial and strategic consulting firm," what's not explicitly mentioned is that Tierney has served as a paid consultant and expert witness for numerous nuclear power utilities. This is clearly evident in her CV.

Radioactive waste: Webinar this evening on HLRW "centralized" interim storage & transport risks

On Thurs., Nov. 10 from 8-9:30 PM Eastern, presenters from Beyond Nuclear, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, and Nuclear Information and Resource Service, will lead a Webinar focused on the dangers of so-called "centralized interim storage," as well as the risks of shipping irradiated nuclear fuel by road, rail, and waterway. Beyond Nuclear's presentation will be based on its testimony before a U.S. House hearing a year ago. The Webinar is pre-event preparation for a national grassroots strategy summit on high-level radioactive waste, to be held in Chicago, IL on Dec. 2-4. The summit is intended to analyze this week's presidential and congressional election results, to devise strategies and tactics to block de facto permanent parking lot dumps (such as the one targeted at Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County, west Texas), as well as to keep the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada dumpsite dead, despite a long-simmering Republican campaign to resurrect it. Both industry-friendly schemes will now intensify on Capitol Hill in January; either one would launch unprecedented numbers of high-risk Mobile Chernobyls through most states (See WCS-bound shipment routes, left; or see larger map, here). Please pre-register for the Webinar to receive instructions on how to view/hear it, and submit your registration form for the Chicago summit ASAP, before all available participant slots are filled!

Update on November 11, 2016 by admin

Please note: the Webinar recording will be made available by NIRS ASAP. For now, please see Beyond Nuclear's Power Point Presentation, and our congressional testimony from a year ago, upon which the presentation was based.