SAPL “Nuclear Dangers” Film Series

Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2012 by Herb Moyer

The next film to be shown in the series:

The China Syndrome  (122 minutes)

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 – Durham Community Church; Fellowship Hall:    6:30-9:00 PM

Gripping Drama About A Nuclear Accident And Corporate Greed...That Presaged The Real Accident At Three Mile Island in 1979

China Syndrome

This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane_Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael_Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack_Lemmon). While Wells and Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station, Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant’s construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the “China syndrome” of the title), to the station’s soundman to deliver to Wells and Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown, Godell takes over the plant’s control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant’s management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film’s clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore. Don Kaye, Rovi

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The next film in the SAPL “Nuclear Dangers” film series

Posted on Saturday, August 11, 2012 by Herb Moyer
Seacoast Anti-Pollution League Logo

SAPL Logo

Exploding Fukushima Reactor Number 4

The same design as 23 U.S. General Electric Mark I nuclear reactors

 

 

 

Inside Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown

Wednesday, August 15 – 6:00-8:00 PM
Rye Library – 581 Washington Road

An unprecedented account of the crisis inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex. A rare inside look at what happened at Fukushima in the hours and days after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. At one point in the disaster, Japan’s Prime Minister cautioned the nuclear plant workers, “You cannot abandon the plant. The fate of Japan hangs in the balance. Otherwise we’re handing Japan over to an invisible enemy. This will affect not just Japan — but the whole world.”
We now know that it has !


www.saplnh.org
(501©3 – tax deductible) PO Box 1136 Portsmouth, NH 03802
For info/directions, call 603-772-6910

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Activism, Fukushima, Nuclear Accident, Nuclear Politics, Nuclear Safety, Radiation Exposure, Seabrook Is Crumbling, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NRC FREEZES ALL NUCLEAR REACTOR CONSTRUCTION & OPERATING LICENSES IN U.S.

Posted on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 by Herb Moyer

AUGUST 8, 2012 – As promised in yesterday’s NEC “Early Word” release, we have appended below a press release from the nuclear intervenor’s group that successfully petitioned the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt issuance of new or renewed nuclear plant licenses until nuclear waste storage impacts are more thoroughly and properly addressed. This more comprehensive release names 24 petition sponsors, involved in 22 licensing proceedings, for whom the NRC Commission Order is a signal victory.

NATIONAL FOLLOW-UP

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER Re-Petition to Suspend Final Decisions in All Pending Reactor Licensing Proceedings Pending Completion of Remanded Waste Confidence Proceedings

Decision Follows 24 Groups’ June Petition in Wake of Major Waste Confidence Rule Decision;   Most Reactor Projects Already Stymied by Bad Economics and Cheaper Fuel Alternatives

WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 7, 2012 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acted today to put a hold on at least 19 final reactor licensing decisions – nine construction & operating licenses (COLS), eight license renewals, one operating license, and one early site permit – in response to the landmark Waste Confidence Rule decision of June 8th by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The NRC action was sought in a June 18, 2012 petition filed by 24 groups urging the NRC to respond to the court ruling by freezing final licensing decisions until it has completed a rulemaking action on the environmental impacts of highly radioactive nuclear waste in the form of spent, or ‘used’, reactor fuel storage and disposal.

In hailing the NRC action, the groups also noted that most of the U.S. reactor projects were already essentially sidetracked by the huge problems facing the nuclear industry, including an inability to control runaway costs, and the availability of far less expensive energy alternatives.

Diane Curran, an attorney representing some of the groups in the Court of Appeals case, said:  This Commission decision halts all final licensing decisions — but not the licensing proceedings themselves — until NRC completes a thorough study of the environmental impacts of storing and disposing of spent nuclear fuel.  That study should have been done years ago, but NRC just kept kicking the can down the road.  When the Federal Appeals Court ordered NRC to stop and consider the impacts of generating spent nuclear fuel for which it has found no safe means of disposal, the agency could choose to appeal the decision by August 22nd or choose to do the serious work of analyzing the environmental impacts over the next few years.  With today’s Commission decision, we are hopeful that the agency will undertake the serious work.”   

Lou Zeller, executive director of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, another petitioner to the Court, said: said:  “It appears that the Commissioners have, at least initially, grasped the magnitude of the Court’s ruling and we are optimistic that it will set up a fundamentally transparent, fair process under the National Environmental Policy Act to examine the serious environmental impacts of spent nuclear fuel storage and disposal prior to licensing or relicensing nuclear reactors.”

 Former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford said:   “It is important to recognize that the reactors awaiting construction licenses weren’t going to be built anytime soon even without the Court decision or today’s NRC action. Falling demand, cheaper alternatives and runaway nuclear costs had doomed their near term prospects well before the recent Court decision. Important though the Court decision is in modifying the NRC’s historic push-the-power-plants-but-postpone-the-problems approach to generic safety and environmental issues, it cannot be blamed for ongoing descent into fiasco of the bubble once known as ‘the nuclear renaissance’.”

In June, the following groups filed the petition with the NRC:

Beyond Nuclear, Inc. (intervenor in Fermi COL proceeding, Calvert Cliffs COL proceeding, and Davis-Besse license renewal proceeding; potential intervenor in Grand Gulf COL and Grand Gulf license renewal proceedings);

  • Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Inc. and chapters (“BREDL”) (intervenor in Bellefonte COL proceeding and North Anna COL proceeding; previously sought intervention in W.S. Lee COL proceeding);
  • Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, Inc. (former intervenor in Turkey Point COL proceeding);
  • Citizens Environmental Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Inc.  (intervenor in Fermi COL proceeding and Davis-Besse license renewal proceeding);
  • Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (intervenor in Fermi COL proceeding);
  • Don’t Waste Michigan, Inc. (intervenor in Fermi COL proceeding and Davis-Besse license renewal proceeding);
  • Ecology Party of Florida (intervenor in Levy COL proceeding);
  • Eric Epstein (potential intervenor in Bell Bend COL proceeding);
  • Friends of the Earth, Inc. (potential intervenor in reactor licensing proceedings throughout U.S.);
  • Friends of the Coast, Inc. (intervenor in Seabrook license renewal proceeding);
  • Green Party of Ohio  (intervenor in Davis-Besse license renewal proceeding);
  • Dan Kipnis  (intervenor in Turkey Point proceeding);
  • National Parks Conservation Association, Inc.  (intervenor in Turkey Point COL proceeding);
  • Mark Oncavage  (intervenor in Turkey Point COL proceeding);
  • Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Inc.  (Petitioner in Callaway license renewal proceeding; intervenor in suspended Callaway COL proceeding)
  • New England Coalition, Inc. (intervenor in Seabrook license renewal proceeding);
  • North Carolina Waste Reduction and Awareness Network, Inc.  (admitted as an Intervenor in now-closed Shearon Harris COL proceeding);
  • Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Inc.  (intervenor in Calvert Cliffs COL proceeding and Levy COL proceeding);
  • Public Citizen, Inc.  (intervenor in South Texas COL proceeding; admitted as intervenor in now-closed Comanche Peak COL proceeding; potential intervenor in South Texas license renewal proceeding);
  • San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Inc.  (intervenor in Diablo Canyon license renewal proceeding);
  • Sierra Club, Inc. (Michigan Chapter)  (intervenor in Fermi COL proceeding);
  • Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Inc.  (intervenor in Watts Bar Unit 2 OL proceeding, Turkey Point COL proceeding, Bellefonte COL proceeding; former intervenor in Bellefonte CP proceeding);
  • Southern Maryland CARES, Inc.  (Citizens Alliance for Renewable Energy Solutions) (intervenor in Calvert Cliffs COL proceeding);
  • Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (“SEED”) Coalition, Inc.  (intervenor in South Texas COL proceeding; admitted as intervenor in now-closed Comanche Peak COL proceeding; potential intervenor in South Texas license renewal proceeding).

The 24 groups that sponsored the June 18th petition will strategize in September regarding next steps.

On June 8th, the Court threw out the NRC rule that permitted licensing and re-licensing of nuclear reactors based on the supposition that (a) the NRC will find a way to dispose of spent reactor fuel to be generated by reactors at some time in the future when it becomes “necessary” and (b) in the mean time, spent fuel can be stored safely at reactor sites.

The Court noted that, after decades of failure to site a repository, including twenty years of working on the now-abandoned Yucca Mountain repository, the NRC “has no long-term plan other than hoping for a geologic repository.”  Therefore it is possible that spent fuel will be stored at reactor sites “on a permanent basis.”  Under the circumstances, the NRC must examine the environmental consequences of failing to establish a repository when one is needed.

The Court also rejected NRC’s decision minimizing the risks of leaks or fires from spent fuel stored in reactor pools during future storage, because the NRC had not demonstrated that these future impacts would be insignificant.  The Court found that past experience with pool leaks was not an adequate predictor of future experience.  It also concluded that the NRC had not shown that catastrophic fires in spent fuel pools were so unlikely that their risks could be ignored.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Alex Frank, (703) 276-3264 or afrank@hastingsgroup.com.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NEC RELEASE FOR AUGUST 8th

EARLY WORD/ For Immediate Release

NEC and ALLIES SCORE NATIONAL WIN IN NUCLEAR WASTE CASE

Contact – Raymond Shadis -207-882-7801/207-380-5994 (c)

The Commission granted  the motion of Seabrook License Renewal Intervenors, Friends of the Coast (Maine) and New England Coalition (Vermont) AND nuclear intervenors at 21 other plants across the country, to suspend all licensing decisions that are dependent on the  agency’s  Waste Confidence  Rule until NRC  resolves  just how it will comply with  a recent federal Court order vacating the agency rule.   The order also  grants a request by intervenors  that assures  the public of an opportunity to participate, regardless of how the Commission proceeds.   The Commission  order  further states that  individual  contentions based on the federal court decision  should be held in abeyance pending a further order.  

The vacated Waste Confidence Rule held that the agency found all nuclear waste kept at the nation’s reactor sites was stored safely and would be until a national repository was ready to receive it.  Referring to the waste confidence rule, the NRC would permit no discussion of spent nuclear fuel storage hazards in any of its licensing proceedings; thus, intervenors say, stifling legal expression one of the public’s deeply held concerns with nuclear power. That will now be changed, although it is uncertain what form the changes will take.

Proceedings Intervenors were jubilant following today’s NRC notice of a decision.  Attorney Diane Curran, one of the attorneys spearheading the litigation project, summed up from her Washington, D.C. office, “ This order pretty much gives us all we asked for ,” noting however that the order is unclear as to which recent NRC licensing decisions  the agency deems dependent on the Waste Confidence Rule . The Commission does not say  if  it  intends to appeal the court’s decision (although this decision implies that the NRC has decided not to appeal.)  

Raymond Shadis, pro se representative for citizen advocates, Friends of the Coast and New England Coalition in the Seabrook license renewal proceeding said he is working with intervenors at other nuclear sites on a preliminary analysis of how the Federal Court and NRC decisions regarding reconsideration of the impacts of onsite nuclear waste storage may be brought to bear on recent license renewal issuances at plants such as Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee.

NEC will forward press releases from its companion intervening organizations and individuals as the are received.

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Nuclear ‘Hard to Justify’, Says General Electric Chief

Posted on Friday, August 3, 2012 by Herb Moyer

By Pilita Clark, Environment Correspondent

Financial Times

July 30, 2012

Nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy that it has become “really hard” to justify, according to the chief executive of General Electric, one of the world’s largest suppliers of atomic equipment.

“It’s really a gas and wind world today,” said Jeff Immelt, referring to two sources of electricity he said most countries are shifting towards as natural gas becomes “permanently cheap”.

“When I talk to the guys who run the oil companies they say look, they’re finding more gas all the time. It’s just hard to justify nuclear, really hard. Gas is so cheap and at some point, really, economics rule,” Mr Immelt told the Financial Times in an interview in London at the weekend. “So I think some combination of gas, and either wind or solar … that’s where we see most countries around the world going.”

Mr Immelt’s comments underline the impact on the global energy landscape of the US shale gas revolution, Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown and falling prices for some types of renewable power.

The shale boom has sent US natural gas prices down to 10-year lows, a trend some analysts believe will spread elsewhere, while the nuclear industry faces added costs and uncertainty after Fukushima.

At the same time, a 75 per cent fall in solar panel market prices in the past three years has made solar power competitive with daytime retail electricity prices in some countries, according to a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, while offshore wind turbine prices have steadily declined.

Such factors pose dilemmas for countries such as the UK, which is trying to build new nuclear plants without public subsidy. The ruling coalition is also split over whether to set a new target to make the electricity sector virtually free of carbon emissions by 2030 – a plan George Osborne, the Conservative finance minister, opposes but many Liberal Democrats back.

Mr Immelt lent weight to the Lib Dem argument, saying GE had found existing EU carbon targets helpful. “I think standards sometimes really drive innovation,” he said. “To a certain extent at least, knowing what the rules are and being able to innovate against it is not a bad thing.”

Mr Immelt played down the impact of changing energy trends on a company as large as GE, which reported annual profits of $13bn for 2011 (on revenues of $142bn) and sells products for every leading source of energy, from gas and wind turbines nuclear reactors and oil drilling gear, to gas and wind turbines.

“We’ve got them all, so in some ways when you have them all you don’t have to be so smart about anything,” he said.

Analysts estimate GE’s nuclear revenues, from a joint venture with Japan’s Hitachi, at an estimated $1bn, or less than 1 per cent of annual global sales.

Mr Immelt is visiting London during the Olympic Games, which GE sponsors.

The company will announce on Monday that it has made more than $1bn in sales from Olympic host cities since 2006, including $100m from the London games, where GE has sold several power systems, 120 electric vehicle charging stations and thousands of lights.

 

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Activism, Nuclear Politics, Seabrook Is Crumbling, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Bill Magwood, NRC Democrat, Is ‘Treacherous, Miserable Liar’ And ‘First-Class Rat,’ Says Harry Reid

Posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2012 by Herb Moyer

Posted: 07/30/2012 12:16 am Updated: 07/30/2012 2:13 am

Harry Reid , Video, Greg Jaczko, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Bill Magwood, Bill Magwood Nrc, Democratic Party, Magwood, Magwood Nrc, Nrc, William-Magwood, Green News

 

Harry Reid Excoriates NRC Commissioner Bill Magwood

Harry Reid Excoriates NRC Commissioner Bill Magwood

Bill Magwood is not Harry Reid’s favorite person.

WASHINGTON — Harry Reid isn’t known for hyperbole. The soft-spoken Senate majority leader tends to wield his power behind the scenes, and when he does speak at his weekly press briefing, reporters lean in and bend their ears to make out the words.

 

 

But if Reid is lied to, all that changes. It may sound dissonant to the public to say that honesty is the mostly highly valued quality in Washington. But while members of Congress may lie to their constituents with regularity, lying to one another is considered an unforgiveable sin.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, the Nevada Democrat savaged Bill Magwood, a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, when asked if he thought the Democrat had a chance to become NRC chairman.

“You know, when you’re in this government, this business of politics, the only thing that you have is your word,” said Reid, seated in his Capitol office. “I can be as partisan as I have to be, but I always try to be nice. I try never to say bad things about people. Bill Magwood is one of the” — Reid paused, deciding which adjective to reach for, before picking them all — “most unethical, prevaricating” — he paused again, this time for 10 full seconds — “incompetent people I’ve ever dealt with. The man sat in that chair — right there — and lied to me. I’ve never, ever in my life had anyone do that. Never.”

Magwood didn’t respond to a request for comment left with his assistant.

Reid is a vociferous opponent of storing nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. By backing Obama early in his campaign for president, he persuaded the candidate to promise to block the project. A former staffer of Reid’s was named chairman, and Reid said he was assured by Pete Rouse, a senior White House official, that Magwood would also oppose Yucca. Instead, according to Reid and confirmed by sources familiar with the internal dynamics of the NRC, Magwood worked against the effort to shut down Yucca.

“That man I will never, ever forget what a treacherous, miserable liar he is. I met with him because Pete Rouse asked me to meet with him. I said, ‘Is he OK on Yucca Mountain?’ Pete said, ‘Yeah.’ So I went through some detail with him as to how important this was to me. ‘Senator, I know this industry like the back of my hand. You don’t have to worry about me,’ [Magwood said]. And the conversation was much deeper than that.”

Late in 2011, HuffPost reported that Magwood was working with Republicans and the nuclear industry to oust then-NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko, just as he had done to his boss Terry Lash at the Department of Energy in the 1990s.

“What I eventually found was that he had been deceptive and disloyal,” Lash said of his then-number two, when told what Reid said. “I’m surprised at the strength of it, but it’s certainly consistent with what I’ve seen.”

Reid and Lash have company in their critique of Magwood. In the earlier story about Magwood and the industry, multiple people who’ve worked closely with him questioned his integrity, but none did so on the record like Reid and Lash:
Magwood built a reputation at the Department of Energy as a sharp-elbowed operator. “He was a consummate inside player, a bureaucratic power player of the first order,” recalled a former Department of Energy colleague, who, like many others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity because his current work has him interacting regularly with industry clients.

But that level of ambition is hard to contain over a long period of time in a relatively small industry. Every source to whom HuffPost spoke for this story referred to other players, whether friends or foes, by their first names. Magwood never understood it’s a small world. “He always struck me as a guy who thought he was playing in a bigger political pond than he was. I mean, there are about 50 people here in town who care about nuclear energy. So it seemed like a lot of politics for no good reason,” said one Democratic lobbyist who worked in the Senate while Magwood served in the Department of Energy.

Reid’s public rebuke makes it nearly impossible for Magwood to attain the chairmanship. Even if Reid leaves the Senate, it would be difficult for Magwood to overcome such a judgment having been rendered.

In June, Magwood’s internal wrangling against Jaczko culminated in the chairman’s resignation. Magwood was immediately floated as a replacement chairman, but the Obama administration, aware of Reid’s opinion of Magwood, passed him over. The term of the new chair, Allison Macfarlane, ends in 2013.

Reid said that Magwood’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering was unforgivable. “He’s a first-class rat. He lied to Rouse, he lied to me, and he had a plan. He is a tool of the nuclear industry. A tool,” Reid said. “Magwood was a shit-stirrer. He did everything he could do to embarrass Greg Jaczko.” Reid has donated $10,000 to help Jaczko pay the considerable legal bills he racked up defending against Magwood’s allegations.

Jaczko was “the first chair that has never been part of the nuclear industry,” Reid said, explaining the intense opposition. “That commission was a tool to the nuclear industry. Greg Jaczko, this young guy, he of course worked for me. He was against Yucca Mountain. But they knew that going in.”

Reid can tolerate ideological or political disagreement, he said, as long as his opponent is honest. He cited GOP Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, a former aide for Larry Craig (R-Idaho). “I have no problem with her, she told us who she is. I mean, you know, [Calif. Sen. Barbara] Boxer is upset at her because Boxer thinks she didn’t level with her, but I have no problem with her, cause we knew what she was going in there: she was a tool of the industry. That’s most everybody that’s gone in there, so she had a qualification that fit into the past recipients of going to that agency.”

Reid said that he wasn’t looking to eviscerate Magwood and would have kept his concerns private if he hadn’t been asked. “I have told Pete Rouse what I think, but no one publicly has ever asked me. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to bring it up. You brought it up, and I do not have words to describe how little I think of this person. And as long as I have this job, he will never be chairman of anything that takes Senate confirmation.”

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this article, Larry Craig’s political affiliation and state were listed incorrectly.

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Activism, Nuclear Accident, Nuclear Politics, Nuclear Safety, Radiation Exposure | 2 Comments

Seabrook ’77′: The next film to be shown in the series

Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2012 by Herb Moyer

SAPL “Nuclear Dangers” Film Series

The next film to be shown in the series:

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 – Seabrook Library:  “Seabrook 77” (80 minutes ) 6:00-8:00 PM

 

In April 1977, the small coastal town of Seabrook, New Hampshire became an international symbol in the battle over atomic energy. Concerned about the dangers of potential radioactive accidents, over 2,000 members of the Clamshell Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups, attempted to block construction of a nuclear power plant in Seabrook. 1,414 people were arrested in that civil disobedience protest and jailed en masse in National Guard armories for two weeks.

SEABROOK 1977 tells the story of this seminal event of 1970′s environmental activism and shows people making history from the grassroots.

As the nuclear power industry is currently pushing for an expansion of nuclear plants to be built in the United State as a “clean alternative” to fossil fuels, the experiences of 1970’s anti-nuclear activists are more relevant than ever.

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Activism, Fukushima, Nuclear Accident, Nuclear Politics, Nuclear Safety, Radiation Exposure, Seabrook Is Crumbling | 1 Comment

Tokyo Rally Is Biggest Yet to Oppose Nuclear Plan

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2012 by Herb Moyer

Tokyo Rally Is Biggest Yet to Oppose Nuclear Plan

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Activism, Fukushima, Nuclear Accident, Nuclear Politics, Nuclear Safety, Radiation Exposure | Leave a comment

Guidance for a New Nuclear Policy

Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 by Herb Moyer
 
You already know that nuclear war is bad for you and the world’s health. Now we have new data that requires a fundamental rethinking of our nuclear weapons policy. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) just released a report titled ‘NuclearFamine: Abillionpeopleatrisk.’ The authors explore a scenario based on a war between India and Pakistan where 100 Hiroshima sized bombs are exploded, causing the sun to be ‘blotted out.’ They estimate that one billion people, one sixth of the human race, could starve over the following decade. The study illustrates that smaller nuclear powers, not just the US and Russia, pose a threat to the entire planet.

 In another recent report issued by Global Zero, Gen. James E. Cartwright, the retired vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former commander of all US nuclear forces, calls for large cuts in our nuclear arsenal, to 900 warheads, with only half of them deployed at any one time. The report concludes with, “an urgent and transformational change in U.S. nuclear force structure, strategy and posture is needed to squarely address the security threats facing the nation in the 21st century.”

 President Obama has pronounced a goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, but the specific steps and timetable remain aspirational. We need to make sure the findings of these reports have a direct impact on our nation’s policy. Together we can declare our commitment to a world without nuclear weapons and demand urgent action to preserve life on this precious planet.

 Tell President Obama it is time for him to turn his stated goal into action. Ask him to see that these two recent reports, ‘NuclearFamine: Abillionpeopleatrisk,’ and ‘Modernizing U.S. Nuclear Strategy, Force Structure and Posture,’ guide our nation’s nuclear policy toward nuclear abolition.  If you have time, please send a similar message to your Senators and Representative.

 President Barack Obama

Web: www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Tel: 202 456-1111 (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)

Fax: 202 456-2461

Mail:

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

 Write, Call, Email? What’s Most Effective?

Policymakers tell us that personal hand written letters, printed letters, phone messages, and emails, in that order, get their attention. You may want to fax your letter so it arrives more quickly: regular mail can take weeks due to anthrax inspections.

 Petitions and ‘cookie cutter’ emails that are exactly the same don’t carry as much weight. Make your message as personal as possible. Say why the issue is important to you and make your request clear. Say that you want to be informed about what action they take on this issue. If true, you can add that the action they take on this issue will influence how you will vote. 
Join 2020 Action! Our mission is to inform and inspire Americans to turn their concern, passion, and outrage into meaningful action for a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. Each month you’ll receive, via email or post, a beautiful postcard with a well-researched action and a photograph that celebrates the beauty and wonder of the natural world. On the printed cards, the back of each photo is blank so you can separate it and reuse it as a postcard. $20/year for individuals.
Join Massachusetts Peace Action – or renew your membership today for 2012!  
Dues are $40/year or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Your financial support makes this work possible!

Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter

 
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

SAPL “Nuclear Dangers” Film Series

Posted on Wednesday, July 4, 2012 by Herb Moyer

SAPL Nuclear Film Series-Poster

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Activism, Fukushima, Nuclear Accident, Nuclear Politics, Nuclear Safety, Radiation Exposure, Seabrook Is Crumbling | Leave a comment

NRC Lawyers: Delay Power Plant Licensing Decisions

Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 by Herb Moyer


Federal Attorneys Side With Nuclear Critics and Call for Probe of Threats Posed by Storage of Radioactive Spent Fuel Rods

By Shir Haberman
news@seacoastonline.com
Portsmouth Herald
June 28, 2012 2:00 AM

SEABROOK ­ Twelve Nuclear Regulatory Commission attorneys announced this week they agree with a petition filed by environmental and nuclear safety groups asking the agency to delay nuclear plant licensing and license extensions. The petition asks for an investigation of the threats posed by storing highly radioactive, spent fuel rods at nuclear plants before licensing resumes.

The national issue is timely at the Seabrook Station nuclear plant, where large concrete containers are being delivered this week for on-site storage of spent fuel rods. Seabrook Station is seeking a 20-year extension of the plant’s operating license, which is set to expire in 2030.

A pool at the Seabrook Station site, where its spent fuel rods have been kept, is close to capacity. The casks are meant to serve as an alternative for long-term storage. The federal government has suspended its search for a national storage site.

The NRC attorneys’ statement came in response to a petition filed last week by 24 individuals and groups across the country, including the interveners in the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant license extension case.

“While the (NRC) staff agrees that no final decision to grant a combined license, operating license or renewed operating license should be made in (the cases involving nuclear power plants) until the NRC has appropriately dispositioned the issues remanded by the court, there are no imminent final initial or renewed reactor licensing decisions,” the staff’s answer to the petition states.

The petition seeks to force the NRC to comply with an order from the First District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., which vacated the so-called “Waste Confidence Rule” set up by the commission. That rule essentially stated that the environmental effects of spent fuel currently being stored at nuclear plant sites across the country did not have to be part of discussions about nuclear plant license extensions.

The petition, if it is granted by the commission, would require the NRC to:

  • Suspend all final decisions in ongoing reactor licensing proceedings, pending conclusion of an evaluation of the environmental effects of spent fuel storage and disposal.
  • Ensure that any environmental assessments or environmental impact studies issued by the NRC will be published with a reasonable opportunity for public comment.
  • Provide a period of at least 60 days for raising site-specific concerns relating to spent fuel storage.

On June 25, the same day NRC attorneys issued their report, NextEra filed its opposition to the petition.

“With respect to (the Seabrook Station license extension) proceeding, a final licensing decision is currently not expected until next year,” NextEra officials wrote. “Thus, any request now to delay the final licensing decision is premature, to say the least.”

Doug Bogen, the executive director of the Exeter-based Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, which has been involved in the fight to stop the license extension process for Seabrook Station, cited what he called irony in NextEra’s response.

“Evidently, ‘prematurity’ is only reserved for pesky interveners, not to be applied to this whole sordid relicensing farce, occurring almost 20 years ahead of the existing license expiration,” Bogen said.

Raymond Shadis, the attorney representing the two remaining interveners in the Seabrook Station case (the Maine-based group Friends of the Coast and the Vermont-based New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution), said he was happy that the court overturned the “Waste Confidence Rule.” But Shadis didn’t see the statement issued by the NRC attorneys as a victory for nuclear power opponents.

The Seacoast Anti-Pollution League and the Washington, D.C.-based Beyond Nuclear group were prohibited from participating in the petition because of contentions they raised about the need for the power Seabrook Station would be producing in 2030. The contentions had cited advances in “clean” energy technology, which had been previously accepted for adjudication by the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, but they were dismissed by the agency. That action gave rise to the federal lawsuit brought by the two groups against the NRC, claiming that in denying those contentions, the NRC violated the National Environmental Protection Act.

 

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