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A Message from Rochelle
Southern California Edison (SCE) ratepayers told the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that they cannot afford the increases the utility is asking for this year. Those who spoke were Californians who are losing their homes, dropping out of school, and getting second jobs. They are choosing between gas for their cars to get to work and simple birthday presents for their children – items not considered a luxury only a short while ago.
And yet SCE told these ratepayers that paying $16 million for a license renewal study now at their San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) – fourteen years before the current license expires — would make no difference to their rates. That may or may not be true, but using the $16 million to provide energy efficient products so that rate increases would be offset by energy savings would help these consumers with their ever tightening budgets.
Hearings begin in the SCE rate case the beginning of June and I will be representing the Alliance, Sierra Club, CALPIRG, Environment California’s Research and Policy Center and California Church IMPACT.
PG&E was allowed $17 million for a similar study last year, but in consideration of the current economic recession, perhaps this portion of PG&E’s rate increase might better be redirected to efficiency programs for their customers as well.
On the other hand, the paltry $800,000 granted by the state legislature to cover a full cradle-to-grave analysis of the costs, benefits and risks of continuing down the nuclear path is necessary now to help guide the state in planning for responsible energy generation for our future.
What will nuclear license renewals really cost California residents? The list below is not all inclusive, but gives our supporters and others who read our newsletter and idea of the economic risks of relying on aging reactors on our fragile coast:
- Recent replacement of components designed to last the full forty year life of the nuclear facility, but failed within twenty years; steam generators, turbine rotors, reactor vessel heads totaling a cost of more than $2 billion for SCE, PG&E and SDG&E ratepayers.
- Funding of new programs at local colleges to train personnel to replace the aging workforce at California nuclear plants
- Increasing security enhancements as nuclear reactors remain on the list of possible terrorist targets
- Funding for onsite storage of highly radioactive waste that the Federal government promised would be removed from coast over a decade ago
The Alliance filed comments in May on the NRC’s Supplement Security enhancements ( http://a4nr.org/library/safety/05.2008-comments/view ) and also on the California Water Board’s draft study on the impacts of once-though-cooling at on the state’s coastal habitat and marine life.( http://a4nr.org/library/04.08-enviro/05.20.2008-comments/view?searchterm=water )
And what of new nuclear reactors our Governor announced as a “Great idea” in March of this year? In Florida cost estimates have tripled and applications are not yet complete. Florida is not reconsidering and looking closely to a solar future. In Texas estimates for new reactors have doubled – again before applications are finalized.
Neither California, not the rest of the nation can afford the so-called “nuclear renaissance.” Twenty billion dollars have been ear-marked to subsidize a fifty-year old industry that still cannot stand on its own. This twenty billion dollar subsidy does not include costs of uranium fuel, waste disposal, security, water problems that go hand-in-hand with the operation of nuclear reactors. Nor does this twenty billion dollar subsidy include the provision that one kilowatt of electricity be produced to qualify for funding.
So where should California invest in future generation? There are a myriad of opportunities, and while leading the nation in efficiency programs we are still at the tip of that iceberg’s potential.
Tell the Governor that new reactors are not the answer for California ( http://a4nr.org/articles/03.2008-actionalert/?searchterm=governor )
Tell the CPUC that we cannot afford $16 million for a premature study of license renewal for San Onofre and that PG&E’s $17 million should be used to offset rate increases with efficiency programs for ratepayers in under-served and energy-challenged communities. ( http://a4nr.org/articles/04-2008-songscpuc/?searchterm=SCE ).
And please support the Alliance efforts to end production of highly-radioactive waste on our coast by 2025. Listed below are some of our average costs for doing this public advocacy, and how you can help offset these expenses.
- $150 - a round-trip ticket to Sacramento to educate our legislators and oversight agencies
- $100 – a hotel for one night on trips or speaking engagements to educate California ratepayers as well as Sacramento and Washington, DC representatives
- Donation of frequent flyer miles
- Donation of hotel coupons
Any amount helps, but these are our major expenses.
This month we received a generous donation from Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt donated proceeds from tickets to her May 22nd concert in Friant, California. We are most grateful for the support of these longtime friends.
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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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
Areva faces 50 pct cost rise for Finnish nuclear reactor