Dr. Howard Zinn makes the case for non-violent civil disobedience

In this tribute to the late Howard Zinn, Beyond Nuclear presents Dr. Zinn's compelling testimony in which he makes the case for non-violent civil disobedience as instrumental in changing American history and advancing democracy. Dr. Zinn testified for the defense at the criminal trial of the AVCO Plowshares 7. On July 14, 1983, the defendents hammered equipment and poured blood on blueprints for the Cruise Missile and Missile X in a factory in Wilmington, MA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6QQOn4dQE

Bi-national environmental coalition demands U.S. Dept. of Transportation scrutinize risks of radioactive waste ship on Great Lakes

Detroit News graphic, Sept. 11, 2010A U.S.-Canadian environmental coalition has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, demanding that it perform a federally required National Environmental Policy Act examination of the risks associated with Bruce Power shipping 16 radioactive steam generators from its 8 reactor nuclear power plant on the Lake Huron shoreline in Ontario, via the remaining Great Lakes, across the Atlantic, to Sweden for melting down and mixing into the consumer product scrap metal recycling stream. The coalition also demands that PHMSA analyze the less dangerous alternative of a longstanding Canadian plan simply to store the steam generators indefinitely onsite. They demand this happen before granting a U.S. DOT permit for the shipment of these radioactive wastes through U.S. waters on the Great Lakes. As described in the coalition's press release, the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative has calculated that the radioactive cargo would violate International Atomic Energy Agency safety regulations for the amount of radioactivity allowed on a single ship by 50 times over. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose staff has described the shipment as of very low risk, will hold a hearing in Ottawa, Ontario beginning on Sept. 29th to receive public comment from concerned citizens. Over 75 such submissions have been made by groups from the U.S. and Canada, showing how concerned environmentalists are about this radioactive waste shipment on the Great Lakes. Beyond Nuclear has registered to provide oral testimony at the hearing on the comments it has submitted. A full size image of the map showing the route above appeared in the Detroit News on Sept. 11.

NRC plays "Nuclear Waste Con Game" on the American people

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday updated its "Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule," expressing "confidence" that commercial irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste (implying reprocessing) can be stored safely and securely, either on-site or off-site, for 60 years after operation licenses have expired at atomic reactors. Added to 60 years of operations (40 year original licenses plus 20 years of extended operations -- NRC has rubberstamped approval for all 59 such license extensions applied for thus far), that adds up to a whopping 120 years of on-site storage, in pools and/or dry casks. That's over half the age of the United States as a country, going backwards in time! But the "first cupful" of high-level radioactive waste, generated by Enrico Fermi in 1942 during the Manhattan Project, has not been "safely and securely" dealt with in nearly 70 years! And suitable geology for a "safe and secure" permanent dumpsite has not been found in over 50 years of searching! (see "U.S. commercial nuclear power's 'Golden anniversary' ", page 6) Especially considering the Obama administration's wise decision to cancel the Yucca Mountain dump, and NRC's removal of any date certain for the opening of the first deep geologic repository in the U.S., it's now all too clear that the "Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule" is nothing other than false confidence, or, even worse, a Nuclear Waste Confidence Game, a con game, an elaborate swindling operation in which advantage is taken of the confidence which the victim, the American people, puts in the swindler, the NRC. This latest decision will now block any attempt by environmental groups or concerned citizens to challenge the generation of irradiated nuclear fuel at atomic reactors, as in new reactor licensing proceedings or old reactor license extension proceedings, for NRC now considers the matter closed. It shows that NRC should stand for "Negligible Remaining Credibility." As "people's historian" Howard Zinn oft reminded, Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that, when government becomes inimical to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, citizens have the right and indeed the duty to alter or abolish that government. Such a founding principle raises a various serious question concerning what must be done about NRC's rogue behavior. While we all mull that one over, concerned citizens should contact U.S. House Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), as well as U.S. House Domestic Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), urging that they launch investigative oversight hearings into this latest NRC "favor" for the nuclear power industry -- approving unlimited generation of forever deadly high-level radioactive waste, while blocking citizen interventions seeking to prevent it.

8 "peace planters" arrested at KC nuke weapons plant groundbreaking ceremony

This just in from Ann Suellentrop, lead organizer for the action and recipient of the 2010 Alliance for Nuclear Accountability activist of the year award:

"Eight peace activists were arrested yesterday at the "Plant Peace, Not Nukes! - Groundbreaking for Works of Mercy, Not Works of War" held at the entrance of the planned site for the new nuclear weapons parts plant in KC MO [Kansas City, Missouri]. It was an alternative ground breaking ceremony to the billion-dollar replacement for the Honeywell nuclear weapon parts plant that was taking place at the same time in which local and national officials touted the new plant's local economic and national strategic importance to 500 guests. The eight peace activists broke off from the larger group of 70 "Peace Planters" and stood or knelt in front of three large VIP buses, as they tried to come onto the site and attend the official ground breaking ceremony. The buses were delayed for about 10 minutes until KC Police were able to arrest the eight activists and clear the entrance so the buses could continue on to the site." See Ann's full report here. See the National Catholic Reporter's coverage of the protest here, including a slideshow of photos.

In this article, the head of the construction company that will build the plant -- and get paid many millions in taxpayer dollars for the job -- tried to justify doing so by saying that "dozens" of countries, including rogue states, already have "the bomb," and thus we must deter their attack. At last count, "only" 9 countries have nuclear weapons (in chronological order, the U.S., Russia, U.K., France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea). Perhaps he should have said "will have" the bomb, as the building of this replacement plant is a clear signal to the world that the U.S. does not intend to live up to its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligation to abolish its nuclear weapons arsenal anytime soon -- a sure recipe for further proliferation, as other countries can claim they are seeking to defend themselves against U.S. aggression. "Do as I say, not as I do" is guaranteed to fail as a non-proliferation policy!

Ironically, the Kansas City Plant (which builds the "non-nuclear" parts of nuclear weaponry, such as guidance systems, electronics, structural components, etc.) just so happens to be located right where the 1983 t.v. movie The Day After -- about a catastrophic nuclear war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R -- was set. In non-fiction reality, the bomb making facility all but guarantees that Russian nuclear warheads are still targeting Kansas City.

French "nuclear miracle" plagued by fast-rising reactor costs and "crowding out" of renewables

A new study by Dr. Mark Cooper of Vermont Law School, released today, warns "it is highly unlikely that the problems of the nuclear industry will be solved by an infusion of federal loan guarantees and other subsidies to get the first plants in a new building cycle completed. U.S. policymakers should resist efforts to force the government into making large loans on terms that put taxpayers at risk in order to ‘save' a project or an industry that may not be salvageable." The press release contains a link to the executive summary and the full report. Steven Thomas of Greenwich University in London, expert on Electricite de France and Areva economic woes, joined Dr. Cooper for the press conference, a full audio recording of which can be found at www.nuclearbailout.org after 6 p.m. today.