Alliance pitches three strikes – why isn’t the nuclear industry out?
WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE - DONATE NOW
A Message from Rochelle
- Strike 1 – A bill to overturn California’s 1976 nuclear safeguard laws is soundly defeated
- Strike 2 – An initiative to overturn California’s 1976 nuclear safeguard laws is withdrawn
- Strike 3 – $50 billion in subsidies were reduced to $18.5 billion and the nuclear industry has to pay fees to jumpstart the subsidies - doesn't sound like a "nuclear renaissance" to us.
Religious, consumer and environmental organizations are united on the subject of "Nuclear power – NO THANKS!" Unlike the pro-nuke advocates, who have been remarkably ineffective for the amount of money they have spent, grassroots organizations came together and successfully protected California's nuclear safeguard laws.
In late November and early December the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility listened to the nuclear industry trying out new sound bites such as: "We believe we may have found a few communities that might be willing to take high level radioactive waste until Yucca Mountain and reprocessing become a reality." Though the communities remained unnamed, it was clear that these were not affluent communities who have other choices to earn a decent livelihood. The issue of transporting radioactive waste more than once becomes another economic nail in the nuclear coffin.
The pro-nukers were clearly not getting their way and the childish anger and personal attacks by one assemblyman and the main Fresno proponent of new nuclear plants in California was a sight to behold.
Alliance efforts also went towards notifying California legislators of the Department of Energy’s proposed radioactive waste transport routes within our state and this effort successfully crossed partisan and pro and anti-nuclear lines. David Weisman, our invaluable outreach coordinator and film producer, drove six hours to the only DOE hearing held in California in Lone Pine to speak for six minutes, asking questions that the DOE was unable or unwilling to answer. David garnered coverage of the event in the LA Times and on the cover of The Tribune in San Luis Obispo. The Alliance questions of the DOE can be found at http://a4nr.org/library/transportation/11.2007-doemtglonepine/view
2008 GOALS - YOU CAN HELP!!!
So how can we further the drive to halt the production of high-level radioactive waste on our seismically active coast? No matter where you live please ask all candidates for all offices this basic question: “How much radioactive waste do you want Californians to store on our fragile coast - and for how long? If you ask these questions, please let us know the candidates responses. No matter how they answer, the press will hear the question over and over and we can work to educate those who believe that nuclear power can be the answer to Climate Change.
So Happy Holidays to all our supporters and pat yourselves on the back because we could not have done this without you. And if you have not already signed up for our newsletters and/or alerts you can do so at www.a4nr.org
And to those supporters who know how proud I am of my grandgirls, last years gift of hope has now become a Tradition of Hope http://a4nr.org/articles/12.2007-tradition and Sierra proudly sold her wares to donate $38 to the Alliance, and her older sister, Marina, donated as well to our legal fund. As the Alliance is working to make a safe world for future generations, we are grateful to know they will be there to speak out for themselves.
In Peace, with wishes for a beautiful holiday season and continued successes in the New Year for us all.
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
Breaking News
Here's the latest news
-
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
LA Times Letter to the Editor
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
The Misconception of Nuclear Power
Read more -
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
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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?
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more
Recent Articles
Recent articles of interest posted on the ANR website
