Close to 15,000 protesters, including farmers on tractors, protested against a shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste on November 8 as the waste traveled by train from France to the Goerleben storage site in Germany. Opponents chained themselves to the railway tracks while farmers blocked the road to the storage site. The irradiated reactor fuel is sent to France or Britain for reprocessing then returned to Germany. Read more here.
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate
and activate the public about the connections between nuclear
power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to
safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy
future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
Top Stories
New! It's Back! Obama-Biden Energy plan highlights are back up and still nuclear-free
Change.gov, the Obama transition Web site, has restored its temporarily removed Energy and Environment agenda page which once again lists highlights from the Obama-Biden New Energy for America plan without mentioning nuclear power, an encouraging sign.
New! Urge NRC to Strengthen Safety and Security on High-Level Radioactive Waste Casks
While the only real solution for radioactive waste is to not make it in the first place, we must permanently isolate what already exists from the environment. The C-10 Foundation, in the shadows of the Seabrook nuclear power station near the border of MA and NH, is leading a petition for rulemaking to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission calling for significant upgrades on the quality of the design, manufacture, and operation of dry storage casks - the concrete and steel silos used to contain irradiated nuclear fuel in the open air at an ever-growing number of reactor sites across the country. Whistleblower allegations from within industry and NRC, along with a long list of accidents and incidents, calls into question the structural integrity of many of the casks themselves. Concerns grow with time about the condition of the deadly fuel rods stored within, as well as the risk of leakage from the containers after many decades of exposure to the waste's thermal heat and radioactivity, as well as the vagaries of the weather under which the outdoor casks sit. Given the likelihood that the geologically unsuitable Yucca Mountain dumpsite targeted at Western Shoshone Indian lands in Nevada will never open, we must redouble our efforts to safeguard and secure the wastes where they are, and will likely remain, for decades to come: the reactor sites where they were generated in the first place. Please join Beyond Nuclear and the C-10 Foundation in petitioning NRC for stronger rules on dry cask storage safety, security, and integrity. Read the petition here. To sign on, simply email your personal name, title, group name, street address, city, state and zip code to debbie@c-10.org by Friday, November 21st.
Dennis Kucinich to investigate Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Reactor Safety
Prompted by the shocking revelations in our report on lax fire safety enforcement at nuclear plants (see below) - and the leaks of radioactive water in late October from the Davis-Besse (OH) nuclear plant - Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has announced he will launch a full investigation into the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission and its safety oversight performance. Read the Kucinich announcement here.
Stop EPR USA Campaign Launches
A campaign to stop the seven proposed EPR reactors slated for six U.S. sites, has just launched. The Stop EPR USA campaign plans to block the licensing and construction of the French, Areva-owned reactor. The campaign is modeled on a similar one in France. For more, visit our Stop EPR page.
