Homehttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/en-US2010-03-21T07:47:24ZSquarespace Site Server v5.9.3 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Illinois votes to reverse ban on new reactorshttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/16/illinois-votes-to-reverse-ban-on-new-reactors.htmladmin2010-03-16T21:35:38ZWith little debate, according to news reports, and even less press coverage, the Illinois State Senate voted to reverse a ban on building new nuclear power plants in the state. Illinois is already the state with the most reactors - 11 - in the country. There was a loan vote against the reversal fromSen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston. The condition of the original ban was that no new nuclear plants could be built " until such time as the federal government has an operational disposal facility for the dangerous and long-lived high-level radioactive wastes (HLRW) they would generate," according to Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service. Kraft decried the vote, stating: "Beware the Ides of March – and the ignorance of the some Illinois legislators on nuclear matters."

]]>Suspected al-Qaeda member worked at 6 U.S. nuclear power plantshttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/12/suspected-al-qaeda-member-worked-at-6-us-nuclear-power-plant.htmladmin2010-03-12T18:53:43ZAssociated Press is reporting that suspected al-Qaeda member Sharif Mobley, who was wounded in a March 2010 shoot out and escape attempt  from a Yemeni hospital, had previously worked at six US nuclear power plant sites containing 10 separate reactor units from 2002 to 2008 before moving to Yemen.  Mr. Mobley is reported to have worked as a contract worker at New Jersey’s three unit Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plant site, Pennsylvania’s two unit Peach Bottom nuclear reactors, the two unit site at Limerick, and the single operating unit at Three Mile Island as well as Maryland’s two unit Calvert Cliffs nuclear power station.  

Mr. Mobley had cleared all federal background checks to gain access as a contract worker to the nuclear power stations. The Baltimore office of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a case. Nuclear power plant authorities and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission are reported to be collaborating in the investigation.

Regardless of any finding of the investigation into the allegations against Mr. Mobley, the news stories underscore the concern that nuclear power plants are vulnerable pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear power plants have been identified by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in its 911 Commission report, as high profile targets because of the potential far reaching radiological consequences of successfully sabotaging a reactor and/or the tremendous amounts of highly radioactive waste stored onsite in vulnerable pools and dry casks.  The original al-Qaeda attack plan was to hijack ten commercial aircraft and fly two into US nuclear power stations. Mohammed Atta is reported to have surveilled the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County, New York during his flight training.

Clearly, a sophisticated enemy of the state can introduce a would-be saboteur or an inside informant penetrating  even with the most thorough criminal background checks if there is no prior record on such an individual.  A determined, knowledgeable and well trained adversary can render large portions of the United States uninhabitable if successful.

]]>Doris "Granny D" Haddock passes away after a century of "raising a little hell"http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/10/doris-granny-d-haddock-passes-away-after-a-century-of-raisin.htmladmin2010-03-10T15:35:07ZDoris "Granny D" Haddock, who at the age of 89 walked across the United States in favor of campaign finance reform, has died at the age of 100. She became legendary for her walk and went on, in her 90s, to protest the war in Iraq. In 2003, she drove around the country on a nationwide voter registration effort and a year later ran for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire where she made her home. Her activism, however, began far earlier when, with her huband Jim, she protested successfully in 1960 to prevent the testing of hydrogen bombs in Alaska, saving the Inuit village of Point Hope. (Photo of Granny D courtesy of Project Laundry List) A full tribute to "Granny D" can be found on the blogsite of Project Laundry List on whose board of advisors she served, alongside Beyond Nuclear's founding president Helen Caldicott (who inspired the idea of phasing out nuclear power by phasing out electric clothes dryers in the first place). Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, who was arrested with Granny D in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in 2000 to get corrupting corporate money out of environmental law making, has recalled some memories of that powerful experience.

]]>Act now! Tell Congress not to crush us under the burden of a nuclear bailout!http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/9/act-now-tell-congress-not-to-crush-us-under-the-burden-of-a.htmladmin2010-03-09T16:12:00ZPlease download and print our ad here (and shown left) and send it to your Members of Congress today. The White House has requested $54.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for new reactors, a burden that will largely be shouldered by taxpayers. This amount represents a near tripling of the previously authorized $18.5 billion for new reactors. Already, President Obama has announced the allocation of $8 billion for two new reactors in Georgia. The time to stop this bailout is now, and the place is Capitol Hill. Please use our ad as a handout, a flier and submit it to newsletters and other print publications. Thank you.

]]>Leaked documents show EPR reactor could explodehttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/8/leaked-documents-show-epr-reactor-could-explode.htmladmin2010-03-08T20:59:29ZDocuments leaked by an inside source at Electricite de France show that the French reactor - the EPR - could explode due to design flaws that could cause a major accident. Beyond Nuclear immediately responded with a press release urging a ban on the EPR in the US where it was originally slated for six sites. Calvert Cliffs in Maryland remains the only candidate still moving forward. More details and links can also be found in the Sortir du nucleaire press release.

]]>Tritium: a universal health threat released by every nuclear reactor.http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/3/tritium-a-universal-health-threat-released-by-every-nuclear.htmladmin2010-03-03T16:20:49Z“…as an isotope of hydrogen (the cell’s most ubiquitous element), tritium can be incorporated into essentially all portions of the living machinery; and it is not innocuous." R. Lowry Dobson MD, PhD quoted from The toxicity of tritium 1979. 

Beyond Nuclear presents a new fact sheet on tritium discussing where it comes from, how it acts in the environment and humans and what the health hazards of exposure are. References are included.

]]>"Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive: The Verdict is in on Nuclear Power" -- a Beyond Nuclear pamphlethttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/2/dirty-dangerous-and-expensive-the-verdict-is-in-on-nuclear-p.htmladmin2010-03-02T20:21:42ZRalph Nader says “Just recently, a well-designed and documented pamphlet from Beyond Nuclear summarizes the case against nuclear power as ‘Expensive, Dangerous and Dirty.’ The clear, precise detail and documentation makes for expeditious education of your friends, neighbors and co-workers.”   

Please download and reprint the pamphlet for free or contact us for multiple hard copies to educate your community and to take to events.

]]>Nuclear industry "comingling" reactor decommissioning funds possibly inflating actual funds on hand for radioactive cleanuphttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/3/2/nuclear-industry-comingling-reactor-decommissioning-funds-po.htmladmin2010-03-02T19:58:06Z 

It could be the beginning of the revelation of a giant shell game involving limited liability corporations and the accounting for billions of dollars in decommissioning “trust” fund shortfalls. The nuclear industry is required to adequately accrue and set aside money for the environmental clean up of shuttered nuclear power plants. But when the bottom fell out of Wall Street market many of the invested decommissioning funds experienced steep losses and have yet to recover. Meanwhile, the final cost of deconstructing and cleaning up after a nuclear power plant is determined to be about as reliable as the cost to build a new one.

Paul Gunter, Director of Beyond Nuclear's Reactor Oversight Project  participated in a meeting with the Commissioners of the NRC on February 23, 2010 along with two representatives from the nuclear industry, a state regulator and an industry consultant on the issue concerning decommissioning fund shortfalls for the massive and costly radioactive cleanup of shuttered nuclear power plants.  The meeting was covered in the Brattleboro Reformer where the embattled Vermont Yankee nuclear power station, now scheduled for closure on March 12, 2012 is presently more than $500,000,000 short in its decommissioning trust fund.  The Beyond Nuclear testimony focused on the uncertain and escalating costs of decommissioning caused by uncontrolled radioactive leaks from buried pipe beneath the reactors.

]]>Cesium-137, additional radionuclides, discovered in Vermont Yankee soilhttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/2/26/cesium-137-additional-radionuclides-discovered-in-vermont-ya.htmladmin2010-02-26T19:52:20ZVermont's Times Argus reports that Ce-137, a radioisotope with a hazardous persistence of 300 to 600 years and that lodges in human muscle tissue (and has been blamed by Belarussian scientist Bandashevsky for the condition in children known as "Chernobyl Heart," the focus of a short documentary by the same name, which won an Oscar in 2003), has been discovered in the soil beneath Vermont Yankee atomic reactor during the course of Entergy Nuclear's search for the origin of underground tritium leaks. While Entergy was quick to blame atmospheric bomb tests and the Chernobyl cloud's fallout itself as the origin of the Ce-137, nuclear engineers such as Arnie Gundersen of the Vermont Legislature's Public Oversight Panel, and radiological health chief for the Vermont Department of Health William Irwin, said it's too soon to tell where the Ce-137 has come from, but it could very well be from the same leak releasing tritium into groundwater at the site. The Vermont Digger has reported that, in addition to Ce-137, radioactive isotopes of manganese and zinc have also been discovered in Vermont Yankee's soil. The Digger also reports that a visible crack in the "advanced off gas" (AOG) system pipe may account for some -- although perhaps not all -- of the tritium and other radioactivity leaks into site groundwater. Such a growing list of radionuclides in the soil and groundwater is reminiscent of the Big Rock Point reactor -- even post-decommissioning, two dozen hazardous radionuclides, including those now being found at Vermont Yankee, were still present in the Michigan nuclear power plant site. Despite this, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has declared it a "green field," available for "unrestricted re-use."

]]>Uranium power: the antithesis of energy independencehttp://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/2/25/uranium-power-the-antithesis-of-energy-independence.htmladmin2010-02-26T03:25:17ZGiven breaking developments in Kazakhstan and Niger, leading uranium exporting countries, it's increasingly clear that nuclear power represents the antithesis of energy independence for the U.S. and Europe. On the heels of President Obama’s announcement to increase the United States’ reliance upon nuclear energy as part of his plan for energy independence, the Washington Post published its story on the growing political instability and corruption mushrooming in Kazakhstan, already ravaged by Soviet atom bomb testing, and one of the world’s largest known uranium reserves, where the United States, China, Russia, Japan and Canada are among those jockeying for control of this valued and dangerous uranium ore. Meanwhile, the February 18, 2010 military coup in the sub-Saharan nation of Niger raises more questions than answers about the West African country’s future. While uranium mining makes up the bulk of Niger’s foreign income, 80% of its population lives on subsistence farming, with 60% below the poverty level amidst recurring famines. Coup leaders have made a pledge to bring democracy to the resource rich but impoverished country. (Sidi-Amar Taoua, pictured at left, a Touareg from Niger, spoke out against uranium mining in his homeland at a Beyond Nuclear sponsored appearance at the National Press Club, as well as a standing room only session at the Energy Action Coalition's 2009 PowerShift). However, international intrigue and conflicts continue to brew in Niger as Areva of France's monopoly control of uranium mining is being challenged by China. In our view, nuclear power is the antithesis of “energy independence” as claimed by the industry and its backers, including President Obama. The worsening conflicts in Kazakhstan and Niger illuminate how continued and expanded reliance on uranium power comes at the expense of future resource conflicts, environmental ruination, and economic injustice. In fact, the keys to real energy independence are found in substantially expanding energy efficiency, conservation and expanded renewable energy programs.



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