Full steam ahead with NRC licensing proceedings despite Fukushima triple meltdown

As reported by the Newburyport News, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has decided to proceed "full steam ahead" with the Seabrook license extension proceeding, despite a legal intervention by Beyond Nuclear and environmental allies to suspend the proceeding in the wake of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe.

In addition, Beyond Nuclear at the Fermi 3 new reactor proceeding, and the Davis-Besse license extension proceeding, and environmental allies at many additional old and new reactor proceedings, including new reactor design certification proceedings, have been rebuffed by the NRC Commissioners in a parallel call for license and design certification proceeding suspensions in the wake of Fukushima. At the time of the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979, the NRC effectively suspended any and all license proceedings for a year and half. Not so this time, in the aftermath of the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

The Patriot Ledger has also reported this story, in the context of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant near Boston, Massachusetts. In this case, NRC rejected filings by not only an environmental watchdog, Pilgrim Watch, but even the State of Massachusetts Attorney General's office. A unique exception to NRC's full speed rubber stamp of 20 year license extensions, Mary "Pixie" Lampert at Pilgrim Watch has managed to keep the Pilgrim license extension proceeding tied up for going-on six years now, raising issues such as related to significantly flawed "severe accident mitigation alternatives" (SAMA) analyses. Mary has generously assisted Beyond Nuclear with similar contentions in its intervention against the Davis-Besse license extension in Ohio.

"Locals lambaste Seabrook"

The Seacoast Online quotes Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter, and other environmental opponents to a 20 year license extension at Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire, during a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission environmental scoping meeting.

Japan-Germany green dialogue at Busboys & Poets, DC

BEYOND NUCLEAR PRESENTS: JAPANESE FUKUSHIMA ACTIVISTS AND LEADING GERMAN GREEN PARTY OFFICIAL TO SPEAK AT BUSBOYS & POETS! MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 8:30PM.

How were families affected by the multiple Fukushima nuclear reactor disasters? Why weren’t children properly evacuated? How can Japan follow Germany and replace nuclear energy with renewables? And could a Fukushima meltdown happen in the US?

A  delegation of Japanese farming families and anti-nuclear activists will be joined by Robert Habeck, Chairman of the Green Party in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany for an evening event at Busboys & Poets in Washington, DC. Hear what the US press still isn’t telling us about the reality on the ground around the Fukushima nuclear reactors; how we can help; how Germany will be nuclear-free by 2022 and 80%-100% renewable by 2050; and how the US is running the same risks with 23 identical reactors as those that melted down at Fukushima as well as at 81 others. Read our flier for more details. 

The event is co-sponsored by: Beyond Nuclear and the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Washington, DC.

Breaking news - explosion at French nuclear waste processing plant

News is coming in about an explosion at Marcoule, a nuclear processing plant in southern France. One worker has died and four have been injured according to official reports. The explosion appears to have occurred in a furnace at Marcoule in a radioactive waste treatment plant at the Centraco center which is owned by Socodei, a subsidiary of EDF. Beyond Nuclear is following developments. Officials claim there has been no release of radioactivity although reports say there is a possibility for releases. Given "official" statements during the French Tricastin accident and, of course, Fukushima, Beyond Nuclear is conferring with colleagues in France to learn more and break through any opacity. Marcoule processes radioactive waste. It is also the site of a MOX (mixed oxide plutonium-uranium) fuel manufacturing facility - MELOX.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

CRIIRAD, the independent radiological French monitoring laboratory already had monitors in place and so far is not seeing unusual levels of radioactive aerosols as a result of the explosion. Beyond Nuclear is monitoring their updates (in French) here.

Update on September 13, 2011 by admin

No further updates on the aftermath of the explosion at the Marcoule facility have come in. The explosion took place in one of the ovens of the incinerator that melts low-level radioactive detritus mostly emanating from the country's 58 reactors. Nevertheless, the concerns - and the potential for a devastating outcome as a result of an accident at the multi-facility nuclear site, serve as a reminder of the risks that continue to be taken by prolonging the use of nuclear energy as an electricity source.

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

The Independent of London also reported on this story.

Dave Martin, Canadian anti-nuclear campaigner, 1954-2011

"Dave Laughing" while training the next generation in non-violent environmental activism. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace Canada. "He left behind a lot of people who loved him" are the concluding words of Elizabeth May, head of the Green Party of Canada and a Member of Parliament, in a Greenpeace tribute to the life of Dave Martin, one of Canada's top anti-nuclear activists of the past generation. Dave passed on this morning after a four year battle with prostate cancer. Greenpeace's memorial also pays tribute to the life and work of Irene Kock, Dave's partner in life as well as anti-nuclear activism, who tragically died in a car accident in 2001.

Bruce Cox, the Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, where Dave has worked since 2004, said "Dave was our Climate and Energy Coordinator and later Energy Policy Analyst until he took his sick leave. He was an extraordinary individual that made our province, and indeed our country, a better place to live. More importantly his good nature, warm laugh and helping hand made many of us step a little lighter and shine a little brighter just for knowing him."

Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility said "Dave was an indomitable campaigner of unquenchable passion, who taught himself how to speak the language of the economist, the politician and the bureaucrat to communicate more effectively his unwavering perception that nuclear energy is a huge mistake. And his effectiveness was second to none. He and Irene Kock did outstanding work at a time when the odds seemed truly impossible; they were an inspiration to all who knew them. Since Irene's passing Dave has been the fountainhead of nuclear activism within Greenpeace and in the heart of the nuclear beast -- Ontario -- along with his tremendous colleague Shawn-Patrick Stensil. He will be sorely missed but joyously remembered."

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps has many such joyous memories of Dave and Irene. They worked and played together, as friends and colleagues, in a common campaign for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes since the mid-1990s. Dave and Irene's legacy will live on. As but one of countless examples, the "Great Lakes Nuclear Hot Spots" map they created in 1990 is still commonly used by anti-nuclear activists throughout the Great Lakes basin.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

A website has been set up for friends and colleagues to share their memories and tributes to Dave at http://rememberingdavemartin.ca/

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

NOW Magazine in Toronto has published a tribute, entitled "Remembering Dave Martin, Greenpeace icon." Gordon Edwards of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility has posted a sampling of Dave's (and Irene Kock's) prolific writings at the CCNR website.