Hot News and Actions
August 25, 2010. Letter from Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition to Rep. Steny Hoyer detailing current problems with proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor and describing support for it as ill-advised. 
August 14, 2010. Russian authorities removed information on forest fires in radioactively contaminated areas. Ecodefense press release
August 5, 2010. Nuclear renaissance in disarray: French move to set aside funds for anticipated losses at troubled Calvert Cliffs reactor, even as pressure grows for $8-$10 billion U.S. bailout. News release
July 15, 2010: Sign resolution against shipment of highly radioactive reactor components through the Great Lakes to Sweden for processing and “recycling” into consumer goods.
July 10, 2010: Letter from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash to Senator Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) urging her opposition to more taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power.
July 1, 2010. New NIRS report finds that foreign companies and workers would be the big winners from U.S. taxpayer loan guarantees for new reactors. | Report. | Press release. | Audio recording of the press conference.
June 28, 2010: Intervenors Submit New Challenge to Calvert Cliffs-3 in NRC Licensing Hearing. NIRS Press Release.
June 17, 2010: Southern Company expected to accept nuclear loan “guarantee” Friday, June 18; Groups alert journalists to under-reported issues surrounding nuclear loans and the Vogtle reactor project.
June 17, 2010: New analysis from EarthTrack for Friends of the Earth details massive new taxpayer subsidies for new reactors in Kerry-Lieberman’s American Power Act.
June 2010: Physicians for Social Responsibility analysis of nuclear power provisions of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act. Long version. Two-page summary.
May 13, 2010: It's Not Just Vermont: State Lawmakers Do Not Share Congress' Love for the Nuclear Industry, Which Gets Shut Out 0-8 in State Legislatures During 2010. NIRS Press Release. Click here for an audio recording of the press conference.
May 12, 2010: Radioactive Steam Generator Shipments Put the Great Lakes and Global Consumer Products at Risk. Press Release.
May 12, 2010: 200 organizations announce opposition to Kerry-Lieberman dirty energy “climate” bill. Press release (now with 213 organizational signers).
April 16, 2010: West Valley Action Network groups outraged with dangerously inadequate, incomplete cleanup decision by DOE: Group Press Release re DOE Record of Decision on West Valley Nuclear Power, Weapons and Reprocessing Waste Site. (DOE decision is at www.westvalleyeis.com)
March 24, 2010: FOIA documents reveal Bush Administration signed contracts with nuclear utilities for government to take waste from new reactors—enough to fill two Yucca Mountain waste dumps—leaving taxpayers at risk for tens of billions of dollars. Press release.
March 17, 2010. Environmental group letter to Department of Energy expressing concern about the lack of transparency and openness in the DOE’s loan guarantee program. DOE is keeping almost everything about this program secret, contrary to the President’s openness directives.
March 2010: Analysis of S. 2776, Alexander-Webb’s trillion-dollar nuclear bailout bill, from Physicians for Social Responsibility.
March 1, 2010: New public opinion poll: Vermonters overwhelmingly support Vermont Yankee shutdown.
February 25, 2010: Vermont Senate votes 26-4 to close Vermont Yankee! Statement from Citizens Awareness Network.
February 17, 2010: Other reaction to President Obama’s announcement of loan guarantees for Georgia’s Vogtle reactors:
Statement of Sierra Club.
Statement of Ralph Nader.
Statement from Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Statement of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Statement of Environment America.
February 17, 2010: International Panel on Fissile Materials: Fast Breeder Reactors Are No Solution to Radioactive Waste. Press release and link to full report.
January 2010: Nuclear Industry has spent more than $600 million on lobbying for a nuclear revival. Thorough report from Investigative Reporting Workshop.
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Reports, Papers and Info You Can Use
July 8, 2010. Solar power is now cheaper than nuclear power in North Carolina, and will gain even more cost advantage in coming years. New report for NC WARN by former Duke University Chancellor.
May 11, 2010. Major new report from Synapse Energy Economics for the Civil Society Institute: Beyond Business as Usual: Investigating a Future without Coal and Nuclear Power in the U.S. Press release. Full report .
April 12, 2010. New in-depth report from Russia’s Ecodefense finds Russian plutonium fuel program may produce more plutonium than is disposed; the report also cites safety and cost problems with Russian surplus weapons-grade plutonium disposition program. Press release. Full report in English.
March 23, 2010: Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors. Basic position paper signed by 170+ organizations in opposition to reprocessing of radioactive waste and providing principles for acceptable waste storage practices.
March 25, 2010: A Perspective on U.S. Nuclear Waste Policies for the Last 40 Years, paper by Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information Center presented for the opening session of the Department of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission re-evaluating U.S. radioactive waste policy.
March 2010: Center for American Progress explains nuclear loan guarantee credit subsidy costs, and finds current practice underestimates risk to taxpayers.
Powering a Green Planet. Interactive website put together by Scientific American that amplifies on the November 2009 cover story: A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030, in which two California professors lay out a clear plan for the U.S. to become 100% renewable-powered by 2030.
November 2009: All Risk, No Reward. New study from Marc Cooper of Univ. of Vermont on why Wall Street refuses to take the risk of investing in new reactors, and why Congress and States shouldn’t expose taxpayers to those risks.
October 2009: New study reveals French nuclear construction costs tripled per kilowatt/installed from 1970-2000. So much for a learning curve.
October 13, 2009: “Four Nuclear Myths: A commentary on Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline and on similar writings.” New piece by Rocky Mountain Institute’s Amory Lovins debunks four key myths often propounded by nuclear power supporters.
September 2009: World Nuclear Status Report 2009, with special emphasis on economics. Study released by German Department of the Environment. Study shows nuclear power is on a downward trend worldwide.
July 2009: Brief Virginia Tech paper showing nuclear power by far the most water-intensive means of producing electricity (page 8). This has enormous implications because, as the report notes, 36 states face water shortages in the next 10 years.
July 2009: Important article on studies of childhood leukemia and cancers near German reactors. Childhood Leukemia and Cancers Near German Nuclear Reactors: Significance, Context, and Ramifications of Recent Studies, Rudi Nussbaum, Journal of Occupational Environmental Health. July-September, 2009.
May 2009: Nuclear France Abroad: History, Status and Prospects of French Nuclear Activities in Foreign Countries. A new report from Mycle Schneider Consulting on the expansion of the French nuclear power industry across the world.
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