The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility defeats two bills intended to jump-start new nuclear reactors in California - AGAIN
WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE - DONATE NOW
A Message from Rochelle
Almost one year after defeating similar bills and organizing efforts to prevent a dangerous initiative from overturning California’s nuclear safeguard laws, the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility again testified to convince law-makers the time is not ripe to lift our state’s protective laws. And again the idea was defeated. . .
Bonnie Raitt has donated excellent tickets for her Table Top Mountain Concert http://www.guacfund.org/ As Co-founder of MUSE, Bonnie has been extremely generous in her support of a clean-energy (non-nuclear) future.
A letter-writing and petition campaign to counter California’s Governor’s statement that new nukes are a “Great idea” was begun by the Alliance on April and we encourage our supporters to join us and share with others http://a4nr.org/articles/03.2008-actionalert. This was the Governor’s first public statement in support of new nuclear reactors and a strong outcry may help to make it his last on this subject.
Counterfeit parts at aging nuclear reactors finally made headlines in the Wall Street Journal this week http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120787585954606783.html?mod=googlenews_wsj, though this problem has been known in the industry and many of our nuclear watch-dog organizations for years http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/counterfeitparts/counterfeithome.htm. Please join the Alliance in supporting the Petition campaign of We the People http://www.petitiononline.com/020507/petition.html
The Alliance is pleased to be working with the Sierra Club, CALPIRG, Environment California and Cal Church IMPACT and welcomes other organizations and individuals to join us in opposing So. Cal Edison’s request to have their ratepayer fund a license renewal study for the San Onofre Reactors http://a4nr.org/articles/04-2008-songscpuc
The final interviews for the Alliance's video documentary on the pitfalls of nuclear power took place in Austin, Texas this past week. With the generous and quick help of Alliance supporters, filmmaker and Alliance outreach coordinator David Weisman seized the opportunity to join with the SEED Coalition of Texas and interview former NRC commissioner Peter Bradford during his testimony against constructing new nuclear plants in south Texas. When alerted to the suggestion that a nuclear reactor in Fresno would be possible because the proponent claims he has an agreement to send the waste to France, Mr. Bradford's terse reply was that any person making those claims “…should be given a drug test…because they are not dealing with reality.” David then interviewed Will Wynn, the mayor of Austin, Texas, who tells us that the City of Austin has decided not to make any financial investment in new nuclear power because of the economic liabilities and risks, and is committed to making Austin the center for renewable energy. Perhaps California cities could follow that lead. . .
We need your support to ensure we are able to travel and speak to California decision-makers on these and other important matters. Each of us can make a difference and we appreciate your donations and your letter writing in support of our efforts.
To sign up for newsletter and/or alerts: www.a4nr.org
In Peace
Rochelle
WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE - DONATE NOW
Rochelle Becker, Executive Director Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility
www.a4nr.org
(858) 337 2703
Upcoming Events
Important events for the Alliance
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Glow Train Catastrophe - History Channel Special
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NRC TO HOLD TWO PUBLIC MEETINGS ABOUT DIABLO CANYON NUCLEAR PLANT ON JULY 2
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COMPTON MTG - NOTICE OF PUBLIC MTGS REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING PROPOSED RATE INCREASES SCE COMPANY
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SAN CLEMENTE MTG - NOTICE OF PUBLIC MTGS REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING PROPOSED RATE INCREASES SCE COMPANY
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LONG BEACH MTG - NOTICE OF PUBLIC MTGS REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING PROPOSED RATE INCREASES SCE COMPANY
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PALM SPRINGS MTG - NOTICE OF PUBLIC MTGS REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING PROPOSED RATE INCREASES SCE COMPANY
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Breaking News
Here's the latest news
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Areva faces 50 pct cost rise for Finnish nuclear reactor
French nuclear group Areva is facing a 50 percent rise to the cost of building the world's first next-generation pressurised water reactor in Finland, the business daily Les Echos reported Thursday. The cost of constructing the plant at Olkiluoto has risen from three billion to 4.5 billion euros (6.7 billion dollars), the paper reported citing an unidentified source.
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Nuclear plant workers evacuated
Human error is being blamed for a radiation spike at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant that prompted the evacuation of about a dozen workers from the main reactor building for about two hours.
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LA Times Letter to the Editor
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FRANCE'S NUCLEAR CONUNDRUM - Atomic World Champ on the Ropes
France is proud of having the world's most developed nuclear energy infrastructure, but a series of incidents at the Tricastin nuclear power plant has shaken its self-confidence. Is public sentiment about nuclear power about to shift? The winegrowers have already made their move. No longer will they label their product Côteaux du Tricastin. Why? Because the name Tricastin is slowly beginning to stand for something far removed from fine wine.
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Efficiency, renewable energy are much cheaper than nukes
When Arjun Makhijani talks about generating electricity with nuclear power, he knows of what he speaks. His Ph.D. is from UC-Berkeley in nuclear engineering, and he has authored numerous books on energy, including the first evaluation conducted of energy efficiency potential in the U.S. economy. His most recent tome, “Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free,” is a no-nonsense policy guide for ending our dependence on fossil fuels without incurring massive debt — and courting potential disaster — by expanding our nuclear-generation capacity.
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The Misconception of Nuclear Power
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WATER WORRIES GROW
On a hazy summer day, a pair of anglers fish on a man-made lake in PPL’s Susquehanna Riverlands wildlife habitat. Above them, the massive cooling towers of the Susquehanna nuclear plant billow white plumes of vapor, the byproduct of millions of gallons of water the two reactors consume daily from the river to cool the intense heat generated by nuclear fission
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42-Square-Mile Federal Uranium Program Challenged: Threatens Contamination of Public Land, Wildlife Habitat Communities, and Precious Western Water
A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in federal court today, challenging the Department of Energy’s decision to vastly expand its uranium mining program on 42 square miles of public land near the spectacular Dolores River Canyon, a tributary to the Colorado River in southwest Colorado.
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ACCIDENTS MAKE NUCLEAR QUESTIONS LOOM LARGE
The recent proliferation of accidents at nuclear power plants in France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe has made calls for greater reliance on nuclear energy questionable, experts say.
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'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
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Don’t Drink the Nuclear Kool-Aid
We can't let the nuclear power industry use global warming as an opportunity to sell its insanely expensive and dangerous power plants.
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France: Nuclear Leak Announced
French nuclear safety authorities and the nuclear giant Areva said that a leak had occurred at one of Areva’s nuclear fuel plants, the second leak at an Areva nuclear power plant in two weeks.
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NUCLEAR POWER, FRANCE HALTS TRICASTIN POWER STATION
The French nuclear safety agencies have asked the company owned by the Areva Socatri group to temporarily stop operations at the treatment plant for the Tricastin power station is the south of France. On Monday it was discovered that the plants were leaking water which contained Uranium and which was running off into the surrounding rivers.
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River use banned after French uranium leak
Residents in the Vaucluse, a popular southern French tourist destination, were banned yesterday from drinking well-water or swimming or fishing in two rivers after a uranium leak from one of France's nuclear power plants.
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Nuclear Recycling Fails the Test
Over the past few years, attention to the recycling of nuclear power spent fuel has grown. Fears of global warming due to fossil fuel burning have given nuclear energy a boost; over the next 15 years dozens of new power reactors are planned world-wide. To promote nuclear energy, the Bush administration is seeking to establish international spent nuclear fuel recycling centers that are supposed to reduce wastes, recycle uranium, and convert nuclear explosive materials, such as plutonium to less troublesome elements in advanced power reactors.
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NRC Found Lax in Oversight of Fire Safety Regulations at Reactors
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that reviewed the performance of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in regulating federally-mandated fire protection standards at U.S. nuclear reactors was released this week. The report confirmed that the NRC has for three decades consistently mishandled fire protection violations at the country’s nuclear power plants.
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Radioactive Waste Poses a Serious Threat to California
According to a recent LA Times headline, the “Yucca Mountain safety plan is doomed.” If Yucca Mountain is “doomed,” what does this mean for the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive waste located on California’s fragile coast?
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Can American be carbon-free and nuclear-free?
Think what a burden would be lifted from the collective American psyche if we no longer had to depend on foreign countries for the oil that is the lifeblood of our economy and our way of life. In a new book, "Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy," electrical engineer Arjun Makhijani contends that its possible to achieve that goal without turning to nuclear generation. The Citizen-Times interviewed Makhijani when he visited Asheville recently. This is an edited transcript of that interview.
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Five Myths About Nuclear Energy
Atomic energy is among the most impractical and risky of available fuel sources. Private financiers are reluctant to invest in it, and both experts and the public have questions about the likelihood of safely storing lethal radioactive wastes for the required million years. Reactors also provide irresistible targets for terrorists seeking to inflict deep and lasting damage on the United States. The government’s own data show that U.S. nuclear reactors have more than a one-in-five lifetime probability of core melt, and a nuclear accident could kill 140,000 people, contaminate an area the size of Pennsylvania, and destroy our homes and health.
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Video: “Dr. Frank von Hippel discusses nuclear fuel reprocessing with Ben Moore of the Coastal Conservation League” (South Carolina)
On May 29, Dr. Frank von Hippel of Princeton University gave two talks on reprocessing (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership) at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. His evening talk to around 100 people kicked off a national nuclear waste summit that activists around the US attended.
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Recent Articles
Recent articles of interest posted on the ANR website
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Carbon Free Nuclear Free Website
Here is the link for the Carbon Free Nuclear Free Website
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Areva faces 50 pct cost rise for Finnish nuclear reactor