Hot News and Actions
April 11, 2008: EIS scoping comments from Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition on proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor. 
Chart submitted by Florida Power and Light to the Florida Public Service Commission showing cost estimates for two new reactors at Turkey Point ranging from $12.1 Billion to $24.3 Billion.
April 8, 2008: 185 Organizations/Activists Urge US Senate to Extend Sustainable Energy Tax Credits. Sustainable Energy Network Press Release.
March 27, 2008: Stop the Import of Radioactive Waste! Support HR 5632—Call Your Representative Now. NIRS Alert.
March 27, 2008: 200+ scientists and engineers call for closure of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear facility hit by August 2007 earthquake.
March 20, 2008: Find out how the Presidential candidates stack up on energy issues. A comparison chart from Grist.
March 6, 2008: Environmental Impact Statement Scoping Process for Calvert Cliffs-3. NIRS Alert.
March 2, 2008: Oppose License Applications to Import Massive Amounts of Nuclear Power Waste from Europe to Burn, Melt, Transport and Dump in the US! NIRS Alert.
February 28, 2008: Scheme to Import, Burn and Dump Italy’s Nuclear Power Waste in USA Spurs Call for More Time for Public to Respond, Intervene. NIRS press release. NRC extends to June 10, 2008 the comment period on Energy Solutions’ application to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy to the U.S.
February 20, 2008: Round 2 of Nuclear Loan Guarantee Battle About to Begin. Let's Stop Them Entirely This Time! NIRS Alert.
February 13, 2008: Stop the Lieberman/ Warner Climate Change Bill! NIRS Alert
February 13, 2008: NRC suspends licensing process for proposed South Texas Nuclear Project. NRC order is here. February 8 filing by NIRS and other groups to suspend the process can be found here.
January 28, 2008: Mid-American Nuclear Energy cancels plans to build new reactor in Idaho, citing poor economics of nuclear power. This is especially significant because Mid-American is owned by financier Warren Buffett—if he can’t figure out how to make money on a reactor, who can?
January 16, 2008: Excerpt
from the Democratic Presidential candidates' debate in Las Vegas
January 15, on Yucca Mountain, nuclear power and energy policy.
January 3, 2008: Nine environmental groups file with NRC to halt "cut and paste" reactor license renewals and suspend renewal
process. Press
release. Filing.
January 2, 2008: Here is the final
loan guarantee language passed by Congress in December. It covers
nuclear, coal and renewables.
December 17, 2007: Comments
written by Greenpeace and supported by NIRS and other groups on
NRC proposed rule that requires some--but not all--new reactor designs
to withstand aircraft crashes.
December 17, 2007: 500+
organizations sign statement rejecting nuclear power as a solution
to climate change. NIRS Press Release.
| | Reports, Papers and Info You Can Use
Blowing the Whistle on Nuclear Safety Lapses: Federal Whistleblower Protections Act At A Glance, article by attorney David Marshall at the law firm of Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, April 2008. Potential whistleblowers also may want to review NIRS brochure on whistleblower protection here.
April 3, 2008: Nuclear Power Plant Electricity: A Simple Costing Manual. This is a basic primer from energy consultant Philip D. Lusk that shows how to calculate the kilowatt/hour cost of electricity from a new nuclear reactor. Under the model’s fairly universal assumptions, the cost of electricity from a standard new reactor will be about 19.75 cents per kw/h. Most renewable and efficiency projects would be well below this number, and on an economic basis alone should be implemented first.
March 2008: Got Solar! NIRS Factsheet
March 31, 2008: New report slams President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program, finding—among other problems--that no economic cost-benefit analysis has been done, the technologies proposed do not exist, and the program would be too slow and expensive to address climate change. Report is from Institute for Policy Studies, Friends of the Earth, Government Accountability Project and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
March 21, 2008: Testimony of former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford to South Carolina PSC on the economics of Duke Power’s proposed Lee reactors, nuclear power and climate and more. Very useful!
March 3, 2008: Greenpeace Finland factsheet on Areva's EPR
reactor being built in Finland.
Power Point presentation on
Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. Updated periodically. February 2008.
February 21, 2008: New report from World Wind Energy Association: 19.7 Gigawatts of wind power—the equivalent of 15-20 nuclear reactors—was added in 2007. Wind now generates more than 1% of worldwide electricity, and continues to be the world’s fastest growing source of power.
February 6, 2008: Analysis of FY 2009 Department of Energy Budget, by Robert Alvarez of Institute for Policy Studies.
January 2008: World
Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007. A new report commissioned by Greens in the European Parliament concludes—contrary
to assertions of a nuclear resurgence—that “the number of nuclear
power plants operating in the world will most likely decline over
the next two decades with a rather sharper decline to be expected
after 2020.” The report focuses on the continued poor economics
of nuclear power as well as its lack of infrastructure and manufacturing
capacity.
December 4, 2007: Got
Water? A new issue brief from Union of Concerned Scientists explaining
water use and water issues associated with nuclear reactors.
November 2007: German Green Party has released an English version of its plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020 while keeping to Germany’s timetable for phasing out nuclear power. You can download a copy of the document here.
November 1, 2007: Profitable, Business-Led Solutions to the Climate,
Oil, and Nuclear Proliferation Problems: Powerpoint presentation from Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, at Volvo Environmental Prize Awards, in Stockholm, Sweden.
September 17, 2007: Presentation
by David Schlissel of Synapse Energy Economics before the Utah State
Legislature Public Utilities and Technology Committee on The Risks
of Building New Nuclear Power Plants. Very good primer on nuclear
economics with data on the economic pitfalls and problems that await
a new generation of reactors.
August 2007: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, A new report from Institute for Energy and Environmental Research is available at http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/
July 2007: Study from Oxford Research Group finds nuclear power still poses all of its traditional problems, and cannot help with climate change. “If one were to set out to design from scratch a solution for the problem of climate change in a world without nuclear power, there is little chance that anyone would come up with nuclear power as that solution, or, if they did, that anyone would think that nuclear power was anywhere near acceptable.”
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