Nuclear Regulatory Commission invites Rochelle Becker, Executive Director of the California Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, to speak at its annual meeting in Maryland.

Ms. Becker had been the spokesperson for the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace for many years and had testified at numerous local, state and federal proceedings. Ms. Becker gave a presentation in 2003 at an NRC meeting in Anaheim on license renewals for U.S. reactors. To date the NRC has issued license renewals for 30 nuclear power facilities, even though their current licenses will not be termed for another 10 to 20 years. Rochelle Becker will address the practice of premature license renewals and other safety related topics during the Licensing Issues Panel at the NRC Regulatory Informational Conference in March. This year’s theme is "Developing A Shared Vision For An Effective Licensing Process."

“It is ironic that the subject that brought me to the NRC’s attention is the same issue that the Alliance is currently focusing on at the state level,” Becker said. “As the radioactive footprint of nuclear plants has seriously increased, with no permanent waste storage in sight, it is incumbent upon our state officials to call for a date certain that nuclear waste production will cease on our vulnerable and earthquake active coastal zones.”

The focus of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility is to seek state legislation to prohibit the renewal of nuclear licenses for California’s operating nuclear facilities. Though the NRC has granted licenses to store several hundred casks of high-level radioactive waste on the coast of California, the storage of nuclear waste in the state was never anticipated when state permits were granted to PG&E and Edison in the late 1960’s.