Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Nukes Fade As Wind and Solar Soar | EcoWatch



With nuclear power falling ever further behind renewables as a global energy source, and as the price of oil and gas falls, the future of the industry in 2015 and beyond looks bleak.

nukesrenewablessoar
Investors are increasingly skeptical about putting their money into nuclear—whereas renewables promise an increasingly rapid return on investment, and may get a further boost if the governments of the world finally take climate change seriously.


Renewables now supply 22 percent of global electricity and nuclear only 11 percent—a share that is gradually falling as old plants close and fewer new ones are commissioned.
New large-scale installations of wind and solar power arrays continue to surge across the world. Countries without full grids and power outages, such as India, increasingly find that wind and solar are quick and easy ways to bring electricity to people who have previously had no supply...

read more: Nukes Fade As Wind and Solar Soar | EcoWatch



A Nuclear Submariner Challenges a Pro-Nuclear Film


...When I saw “Pandora’s Promise,” I didn’t believe a word of it. I served as a submarine nuclear engineering officer for my four-year stint in the Navy years ago. I qualified as an Engineering Officer of the Watch (a guy who’s in charge of the plant and its other technicians during four-hour shifts) on two different sub reactors. I know the truth about reactors, and the movie replaces it with the demonstrably false Nuclear Dream, a just-so mythical story claiming that nukes are safe, clean and cheap...

READ: A Nuclear Submariner Challenges a Pro-Nuclear Film - NYTimes.com



Sunday, December 28, 2014

E.P.A. Wrestles With Role of Nuclear Plants in Carbon Emission Rules - NYTimes.com



WASHINGTON — Trying to write a complicated formula to cut carbon emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency thinks it has found a magic number: 5.8.

The agency is trying to complete a rule governing carbon emissions from power plants, and among the most complicated and contentious issues is how to treat existing nuclear power plants. Many of them are threatened with shutdowns because cheap natural gas has made their reactors uncompetitive.

The agency’s proposal gave an odd mathematical formula for evaluating nuclear plants’ contribution to carbon emissions. It said that 5.8 percent of existing nuclear capacity was at risk of being shut for financial reasons, and thus for states with nuclear reactors, keeping them running would earn a credit of 5.8 percent toward that state’s carbon reduction goal.

Since receiving tens of thousands of comments on the proposal, the agency is now reviewing the plan. It must evaluate all comments before it sets a final rule, which it hopes to do by June. That rule, however, is likely to be challenged in court...



more: E.P.A. Wrestles With Role of Nuclear Plants in Carbon Emission Rules - NYTimes.com


Monday, December 15, 2014

PETITION :: No New Nukes, Dismantle Old Ones | RootsAction



TO: U.S. CONGRESS, PRESIDENT, DEPARTMENT OF "DEFENSE"




Build no new nuclear weapons. Stop struggling with an aging arsenal and begin dismantling it, as required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.


SIGN NOW – No New Nukes, Dismantle Old Ones | RootsAction


Tell Secretary of State Kerry: stop blocking new international nuclear safety rules



Tell Secretary of State Kerry: stop blocking new international nuclear safety rules

The U.S. government, led by the State Department, is trying to block a new post-Fukushima nuclear safety approach proposed by European nations from taking effect. Apparently the government fears that U.S. reactors would be required to make upgrades that the nuclear utilities here don't want to pay for. The U.S. ally in this effort? Russia--not exactly a nuclear safety leader!
Rather than working to prevent new nuclear safety rules, the U.S. should both actively welcome them and follow the lead of our European ally Germany in acting to end the use of nuclear power entirely--replacing it with clean energy resources. If Germany, a major industrialized nation, can do it, so can we.
Make your voice count. Sign the petition below; we will deliver it to the State Department and NRC in January, well before a scheduled mid-February international meeting on this issue.



SIGN NOW: Tell Secretary of State Kerry: stop blocking new international nuclear safety rules


Saturday, December 13, 2014

12.16-18 Uranium Film Festival in Jordan, Amman





Uranium Film Festival in Jordan, Amman, Rainbow Theater, 16 to 18 Dec, 2014 www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/en

International Uranium Film Festival
Urânio em Moviemento - Uranium Film Festival


2.28 - 3.1: NYC Top Anti-Nuclear Authorites to Convene


LIVESTREAM & ARCHIVE LINK for Symposium: The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction (2.28-3.1.2014 ) | The Helen Caldicott Foundation


HERE'S THE LIVESTREAM LINK FOR Helen Mary Caldicott's SYMPOSIUM IN NYC ON FEB. 28TH-MAR 1ST!

Growing threat of planet-wide nuclear extinction will bring world's leading scholars and activists to New York City for two-day symposium Feb. 28-March 1, 2015


This conference will be held at the New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Ave., N.Y., NY, sponsored by The Helen Caldicott Foundation For a Nuclear Free Future. The press is invited.
Dr. Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, and nuclear weapons. She has been awarded 21 honorary doctoral degrees and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling.

This symposium will be unique, linking the existential threat of Artificial Super Intelligence(ASI) with the current existential threat of nuclear war. It will examine a future in which intelligent machines could launch a nuclear war with no human input.

This threat is compounded as the escalating crisis in the Ukraine has significantly increased nuclear risk. According to Dr. Caldicott: “As the Cold War heats up again, the U.S. and Russia each maintain over one thousand nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert to be launched with a press of a button, increasing the risk of a global conflagration.”

“Between them,” she goes on to day, “the U.S. and Russia possess 93% of the world’s 16,400 nuclear weapons arsenal, a situation which is made worse by outdated equipment, negligence, poor maintenance, viruses, and hacking within the arsenals of both countries.”

Far from his past disarmament promises, “President Obama plans to earmark $1 trillion over the next 30 years to replace every nuclear weapon, missile, ship, submarine and plane.”



▶ Helen's War: Portrait of a Dissident - YouTube

read more:
Top Anti-Nuclear Authorites to Convene in New York City | Veterans Today

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Anti-Nuke Activists Fight to Close Diablo Canyon | EcoWatch


California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors are surrounded by earthquake faults they were never designed to withstand. They are riddled with design flaws and can’t meet basic fire safety standards. They dump huge quantities of hot water into the ocean in defiance of state water quality standards, killing billions of sea creatures.

more: Anti-Nuke Activists Fight to Close Diablo Canyon | EcoWatch

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Sunday, December 7, 2014

GOP gains put nuclear power back on the table | TheHill


Republicans and the nuclear power sector are hopeful that GOP control of the Senate will improve the political landscape for an industry that hasn’t opened a new generator in nearly two decades.

As Senate Democrats this week held their tenth hearing on nuclear safety since Japan’s Fukushima Daichii meltdown three years ago, Republicans and observers looked forward to a future with a more business-friendly approach to the industry.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), long a champion of nuclear power and a critic of environmental rules, is set to become chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees nuclear safety. The committee is also likely to retain nuclear fans like Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).
“It’ll be clearly a more favorable committee, and there may be some things that we can do” to help the industry," Sessions said...


more: GOP gains put nuclear power back on the table | TheHill


Thursday, December 4, 2014

Tell your Senators NOW: Do not fund Yucca Mountain to become a nuclear dump.



December 4, 2014,

Dear Friends,

The Yucca Mountain site never should have been chosen for permanent disposal of highly radioactive waste. The Department of Energy (DOE) declared the site to be unworkable and it was taken off the table by President Obama in 2010. DOE withdrew the license application but it is still pending.

But the incoming Republican-led Congress could well try to revive the failed project--many members of the House of Representatives have been pushing for that for the past four years.

Yucca Mountain would leak radioactivity because it is plagued by combined risks from earthquakes, volcanic activity, eventual groundwater contamination and air emissions projected to violate the lax regulations that were weakened to accommodate the site. Because of the refusal of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow taxpayer funding for Yucca Mountain, the project has received no money for more than 4 years.

Yucca Mountain has failed as a permanent radioactive waste repository.Here's a new NIRS fact sheet on some of the technical reasons for that failure. It's time to move on.As the Congress now negotiates budget deals, tell your Senators and Representatives below: No Funds For Yucca Mountain Licensing. 


Notes: You must have a U.S. address to participate in this action. Please use the icons above to share this action page before sending your letter to your Congressmembers. Please feel free to edit the letter to reflect your own concerns.


SIGN NOW & ALSO SEND A LETTER TO THE EDITOR >

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Diablo Canyon: Boxer will seek answers on earthquake risks in Senate hearing | F.O.E. News releases


WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 3, Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners will face tough questions from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) over the NRC’s suppression and rejection of a report that cited dangers at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The report, by Diablo Canyon’s former chief inspector Michael Peck, warned that the plant may not be safe from earthquakes.

Sen. Boxer, chair of the Environment & Public Works Committee, called the hearing after revelations surfaced in August that Peck had filed a formal dissent over inaction by the NRC on startling new seismic information. The dissent detailed how the discovery of new faults, unknown when the plant was designed and built more than 40 years ago, casts doubt on whether the plant can withstand shaking from newly identified earthquake faults surrounding the 1960s-era nuclear reactors on California’s Central Coast.

The NRC kept Peck’s dissent secret for more than a year before denying it in September. Expert testimony will also address the seismic report released by PG&E on the same day as the NRC decision, which revealed that faults surrounding Diablo are far larger and interconnected and therefore capable of stronger shaking than the plant was designed to withstand.

What: Environment & Public Works Committee hearing
Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 406, Washington, D.C.
When: 10 a.m. EST/ 7 a.m. PST, Wednesday, December 3
Webcast: A live webcast can be accessed at that time by clicking the red Live Hearing icon here.
  • NRC Chair Allison M. Macfarlane, who is leaving her post at the end of this year
  • Four NRC commissioners
  • Former California State Senator Sam Blakeslee, a seismologist and former member of the state Seismic Safety Commission, whose district included the plant
  • Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear safety expert who is a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Anthony R. Pietrangelo, Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute
###

Expert Contact:
Damon Moglen, (202) 352-4223, dmoglen@foe.org

Communications Contacts:
Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org (East Coast)
Bill Walker, (510) 759-9911, bw.deadline@gmail.com (West Coast)


News releases


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Nukes, climate, and the actions of thousands | GreenWorld




Yesterday was, in some ways, the culmination of months of NIRS’ work on nuclear power and climate issues, as we showered the Environmental Protection Agency with many thousands of public comments on its proposed Clean Power Plan. That followed months of outreach that resulted in the turnout of many thousands–far more than we had expected–for the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent to the People’s Climate March in September.

In general, we support the EPA Plan’s intent–to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. But the Plan fell short in that goal, did not give enough credit nor do enough to promote renewable energy, and, most importantly, provided unwarranted support for aging, uneconomic nuclear reactors already rejected by the marketplace, and which can easily be replaced with cleaner renewables and energy efficiency programs.

In other ways, however, far from a culmination, yesterday seems more like a beginning. Now that we have explained to the EPA, in formats ranging from a paragraph to hundreds of pages of great detail, both the shortcomings of its proposal and how to fix them, we already are turning our attention to what comes next.

That will mean dealing with the Plan as it is actually read when finalized, which is unlikely to be exactly how we have encouraged it to be modified. And that will mean working in the states, with regional, state and local grassroots clean energy organizations to prevent the nuclear power industry from claiming its dirty old reactors and toxic fuel chain are somehow an appropriate solution to the defining environmental problem of our day–the climate crisis. Besides preventing that silliness threatening to be catastrophe, it also means supporting the genuine clean energy technologies that can power our future without carbon emissions and without strontium, cesium, plutonium, tritium, you-name-it emissions as well.

That’s where we’re headed next and that’s where we hope every one of you will be joining us. In the meantime, below is the press release we sent out yesterday about the nuclear power/climate issue and the thousands who made their voices heard to the EPA and which thus was wholeheartedly ignored by the media.

148 ORGANIZATIONS, THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUALS, WHILE BACKING INTENT OF EPA’S PROPOSED CLEAN POWER PLAN,
URGE AGENCY TO REMOVE SUPPORT FOR DIRTY NUCLEAR POWER AND INSTEAD ENCOURAGE CLEAN ENERGY


While supporting the general intent of the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan to address our climate crisis, 148 organizations—representing millions of Americans–today submitted comments to the agency urging it to reconsider and remove its unwarranted support for nuclear power in the plan...

more: Nukes, climate, and the actions of thousands | GreenWorld


whats up: #BustTheMyth
you can't nuke global warming!



Monday, December 1, 2014

Stop plans to build small nuclear reactors in Saskatchewan to power oil extraction from the Alberta Tar Sands.




The Saskatchewan government and nuclear industry – with public and corporate money “laundered” through the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) – plan to build a small nuclear reactor to power extraction of oil from the Alberta Tar Sands.

When elected in 2007, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall (his Saskatchewan Party is ideologically tied to Harper’s federal Conservatives) created the Uranium Development Partnership (UDP), chaired by one of the U of S vice-presidents. With industry support from Bruce Power (nuclear reactors) and its majority shareholders, Cameco (uranium mining) and TransCanada Corporation (the Keystone pipeline), the UDP pushed to establish a nuclear program at the University.

Public consultations in 2009 gave a resounding 88% “NO” to this nuclear agenda , but the government/corporate/university consortium have used the U of S to bypass this overwhelming expression of public opinion. The Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI) was announced in March 2011 with $30 million of Government funding over 7 years. Its first goal is to build a prototype small nuclear reactor on campus. In August 2011 the Government and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd announced another $10 million towards that objective.

Current U of S President MacKinnon and Board of Governors Chair Nancy Hopkins have been deeply involved in this project. Hopkins owns nearly $2 million in Cameco investments and is a paid Cameco director ($175,872 in 2009). MacKinnon accepted an all-expenses-paid trip to Cameco’s northern operations and exclusive lodge in 2009, at the peak of the public debate about the UDP report.

But MacKinnon retires from the U of S on June 30. We must send a clear message to his successor, Ilene Busch-Vishniac, to step off this destructive path.

Brad Wall’s government has starved the University of essential funding – U of S has an accumulated $90 million debt. Existing infrastructure is crumbling. New buildings on campus can’t open. And the $40 million for the CCNI and related nuclear projects won’t help U of S out of this crisis.

The University of Saskatchewan, founded in 1907, was once proudly called “the people’s university” – set in the heartland of the Canadian cooperative movement, home to Tommy Douglas, the greatest Canadian, the father of Medicare. Today the University has become an easy target for corporate takeover and a tool for the nuclear and petroleum industries. But right now we have a chance to stop this from happening.


SIGN NOW > Stop plans to build small nuclear reactors in Saskatchewan to power oil extraction from the Alberta Tar Sands.


1205 再稼働反対!首相官邸前抗議 | MCAN.JP





1205 再稼働反対!首相官邸前抗議

原発を妄信するネトウヨカルト安倍自民党政権に、怒涛の激烈抗議を!

日時:2014年12月5日(金)18:00〜20:00 予定
場所:首相官邸前および永田町・霞が関一帯
(国会議事堂前駅、霞ヶ関駅、虎ノ門駅、桜田門駅をご利用ください)
呼びかけ:首都圏反原発連合

・官邸前抗議エリアでは基本的に、18:30、19:00、19:30が抗議スピーチ時間となっており、
19:00過ぎにフリーマイク(顔を映されたくない方がその場でスピーチできます。
電波の関係上可能な場所は国会議事堂前駅3番出口付近まで)の時間があります。

▼注意事項

【重要!】
12/2(火)衆議員選挙が公示されましたので『1205 再稼働反対!首相官邸前抗議』の
抗議スピーチに際し、特に以下の点にご注意下さい。

・選挙にかかわるスピーチやコールは公職選挙法上できません。
・特定の候補者・政党への投票依頼、支持の呼びかけはできません。
・「選挙」「投票」など、選挙に関する言葉を使うことはできません。
・「投票に行こう」もご遠慮下さい。
 (「原発推進の○○党は認めない!」など、政党の政策の紹介や批判は自由にできます。
  「12月14日に私たちの選択で原発をなくそう。政治を変えよう」などはOKです。)

※反原発・脱原発というテーマと関係のない特定の政治的テーマに関する旗やのぼり、プラカード等はご遠慮ください。
詳しくはこちら→ http://coalitionagainstnukes.jp/?p=789
※現場が混雑しているため、ビラ配布や署名集め等は抗議終了後の20:00以降にお願いします。
※この首相官邸前抗議は、あくまで非暴力直接行動として呼びかけられたものです。その趣旨を十分にご理解頂き
ご参加いただきますよう、宜しくお願い致します。
※その他、基本的に主催者の指示に従っていただきますようあらかじめご了承お願いたします。
※スピーチに関しましては以下のご協力をお願いいたします。
・一人あたり 「1分以内」 でお願いします。
・反原発・脱原発テーマに関係のないスピーチはご遠慮ください。
・特定の団体のアピールにつながるスピーチはご遠慮ください。個人としてアピールをお願いします。
・主催者側の意向に沿わない内容であると判断した場合、中断をお願いすることもあります。あらかじめご了承ください。

▼お知らせ

報道関係各位さま/取材のお問い合わせに関して
取材のお問い合わせは下記へお願いします。
press@coalitionagainstnukes.jp

http://coalitionagainstnukes.jp/?p=4142

1205 rework opposite!

Netuyocult Abe Liberal Democratic Party to suspicions the Prime Minister's Office before protest nuclear power the fierce protests raging!
Re: 12/5/2014 (money) 18:00-20:00 appointment place: before the Prime Minister's official residence and Nagata-Cho, at Kasumigaseki 1 zone (kokkai-gijidomae station, Kasumigaseki, Toranomon station, sakuradamon station take a) call: Metropolitan anti-nuclear Association, Downing Street before protest area basically, 18:30, 19:00, 19:00 past the protest speech time and 19:30 free Maik ( can speech might not want to face reflected on the spot.

Relationship on the radio where the Parliament building front until the station number 3 exit ) of there time. • Precautions [important! : 12 / 2 (fire) House of representatives election was gazetted as "1205 rework opposite!

Prime Minister's official residence before protest ' of protest speeches, especially Please note the following points.
Election speeches related to the election and calls are not on the law.
-Ballot requests to a particular candidate, political party, cannot call for support.
-Can't use terms such as "election" and "vote" election.
 And also go to vote please refrain. ( "00 party promote nuclear power are not allowed!
  "The introduction of the policies of the political parties and criticism can be freely. "12/14 so no nuclear power plant in our selection. Change the politics ', such as the is OK.
) not related to the theme of anti-nuclear power, nuclear and certain political themes concerning flags and banners, placards, please.
For http://coalitionagainstnukes.jp/?p=789 * site is crowded with → click here for more information in protest after 20:00 please, distribute leaflets or collecting signatures. * This Prime Minister's official residence before protests are, one last call as a non-violent direct action.
Fully understanding its purpose will join us to thank.
* And other basic instructions of the organizers to follow you will first note that please.
* About speeches please our.
And thank you within one minute per person.
-Please do not is not related to the anti-nuclear and nuclear theme speeches. And please refrain from speech lead to groups of specific appeal.
As a personal thank you appeal. And may be asked to stop if the contents does not address the intention of the organizers determined.

Please be forewarned.
▼ about contact news media relations Dear customer / coverage coverage inquiries to the following please. Press@coalitionagainstnukes.jp http://coalitionagainstnukes.jp/?p=4142
Translated by Bing








DEADLINE TODAY Tell EPA to keep nuclear out of Clean Power Plan !!