Vermont Yankee reactor rocked by election day results!

Less than two weeks after Vermont Yankee (VY) sprung yet another radioactive leak from aged, degraded systems, the headlines in the Brattleboro Reformer hold huge implications for the future -- or lack thereof -- of the highly controversial, nearly 40-year old reactor: "Dubie Concedes to Shumlin." Democrat Peter Shumlin, who led last February's 26 to 4 victory in the Vermont State Senate to block VY's 20 year license extension, defeated pro-nuclear Republican Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie in Vermont's gubernatorial race on Nov. 2nd. Another headline, "VY eminent domain issue gets nod," referred to the fact that Vermont Yankee, located in Vernon, even lost a referendum in its backyard when nearby Brattleboro voters approved a measure urging the state to study the potential to take over and shut down VY. Entergy Nuclear's response to all this bad news about VY's future prospects? "Entergy to put Vermont Yankee on market"!

Great new anti-nuclear signs!

At left, sign used by the Heinrich Boell Foundation at the Keep Fear Alive rally in DC on October 30. At right a sign used by Greenpeace Italy.

Update on November 3, 2010 by admin

Both these images can be reproduced AS IS without changes and used freely. Use of the Nuclear Emergency art (above right) must be accompanied by the following credit: Greenpeace: The Scream - Malgorzata Bedowska - Poland - Good50x70.

Update on November 19, 2010 by admin

Here's a video of I Have A Scream in action - the German Greens at the Stewart/Colbert DC rally.

Train carrying most radioactive cargo ever about to leave France for Germany

On November 5 and 6, a train carrying vitrified radioative waste from the La Hague reprocessing facility in France will begin its Germany to Gorleben, Germany, constituting the most radioactive train cargo to date. Eleven CASTOR casks will travel to Germany's temporary waste site, the scene of numerous protests. The transport risks exposures to citizens along the route as well as posing a serious security target. The French anti-nuclear network, Sortir du Nucleaire, has published the cask transport timetable and has expressed grave concerns at the risks posed by the transport. The network also points out that it is reprocessing that has necessitated the dangerous transport of this highly radioactive waste in the first place.

Update on November 3, 2010 by admin

Great new logo to go with the protest.

2,000 German activists form human chain around parliament as government approves reactor license extensions

The German Bundestag (parliament) voted on Thursday to extend the lifespan of the country's 17 nuclear power plants, overturning a decision made 10 years ago by the then ruling Social Democrat-Green Party. The decision has infuriated the opposition as well as hundreds of thousands of activists who have already taken to the streets on several occasions in huge numbers to protest relicensing. As the decision was made, 2,000 protesters formed a human chain around the Bundestag. The Social Democrats and Greens have decried the decision and promise to reverse it should they regain leadership of the country. They also object to the government's apparent by-passing of the lower house, or Bundesrat, where Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats do not enjoy a majority. During the protest against the vote, Greenpeace climbers scaled the roof of the CDU party headquarters and unfurled a banner showing Merkel celebrating with a leader of one of the major nuclear companies.

Serious corrosion and a hole found in Turkey Point reactor containment

Workers at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in South Florida have discovered a rusty quarter-sized hole in the steel liner of  the containment of one of the two reactors there along with a 30-inch section of corrosion. The hole and corrosion were found during a refueling shutdown. Turkey Point is now the fourth reactor to have discovered a containment liner hole in the last two years but the problem is feared to be widespread within the aging U.S. reactor fleet. According to Arnie Gundersen, a Vermont-based nuclear engineer and consultant who produced a report detailing holes and cracks at half a dozen U.S. reactors, a hole such as that found at Turkey Point could allow enough radiation to escape to threaten public safety.