Rifkin: "I think nuclear's -- it's really over."

"I think Fukushima was just the last point of departure.

The problem is this. There's about 400 nuclear power plants in the world. They're very old. They only make up 6 percent of our energy mix, that's all. But our scientific community says to have a minimum impact on climate change, minimum, you'd have to have 20 percent nuclear in the mix of energy. That means you'd have to have 4,000 nuclear power plants. That means you have to replace the existing 400 and build three nuclear power plants every 30 days for the next 60 years. That's not going to happen.

we simply don't know how to get rid of the nuclear waste. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but we spent $8 billion to build that failsafe vault at Yuka Mountain to put the nuclear material in. We can't open it up because it's already leaking. Number three, uranium costs go up right now with the existing power plants. We could recycle the uranium to plutonium like the French want to do, but then we've got problems with security issues around the world.

We don't have the water. Forty percent of all the water consumed in France last year went to cooling nuclear reactors. And when it comes back, the water's heated and it's dehydrating eco systems for agriculture. So from a business point of view...I just don't think it's part of the equation." The Diane Rehm Show, NPR, Transcript. Radio show.

NRC: Full steam ahead with reactor license proceedings, despite Fukushima

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.

Coalition Against Nukes national rally in New York City, October 1st

Beyond Nuclear is honored to co-sponsor and field speakers to the national rally of Coalition Against Nukes in New York City on Saturday, October 1st. Beyond Nuclear's founding president, Helen Caldicott, will be the keynote presenter. Beyond Nuclear board member Karl Grossman, and Beyond Nuclear Radioactive Waste Watchdog Kevin Kamps, will also be featured speakers. Beyond Nuclear will also have an information table at the event.

Additional speakers include: Brent Blackwelder, President Emeritus, Friends of the Earth, and the most senior environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C.; former US Congressman John Hall, who represented NY's 19th District, including Indian Point, singer, songwriter and co-founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy--MUSE; Harvey Wasserman, anti-nuclear activist, author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030; and Alice Slater, Founder of Abolition 2000, NY Director of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and its UN representative.

Rally co-sponsors include: Friends of the Earth, NYC Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Ralph Nader, New York Physicians for Social Responsibility, NYPIRG, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Helen Caldicott Foundation, IPSEC, Beyond Nuclear, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Westchester Citizens Awareness Network, Shut Down Indian Point Now, Time’s Up, ECOFEST, Rock the Reactors, and more.

Rally info and updates are at http://www.coalitionagainstnukes.org/. To contribute, volunteer or get more info, email NYCRally@CoalitionAgainstNukes.org, call 631-377-1560, or write CAN, 51 Startop Dr., Montauk NY, 11954. Coalition Against Nukes has put out a press advisory about the event.

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.