April 16, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rochelle Becker, (858) 337-2703
NUCLEAR REVIVAL DIES IN COMMITTEE:
Bill to lift 30-year state ban defeated
Today, a controversial bill that would have allowed the construction of
nuclear power plants to resume in California died in committee before
reaching the floor of the State Assembly.
AB 719 (Devore) would have struck down California's 1976 Nuclear
Safeguards Act, a moratorium on building nuclear power plants until a
permanent solution to the storage of high-level radioactive waste is
developed. The Assembly's Natural Resources Committee, chaired by
Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, voted
4 to 2 to uphold the ban. Several
members who expressed concern about lifting the ban were not there when
the vote was counted as they had conflicting bills in other Committees.
The California legislature enacted the Nuclear Safeguards legislation to
prohibit new plant construction because of the federal government's
failure to create a central nuclear waste repository. Thirty-one years
later, no such solution exists and approximately 75,000 tons of
radioactive byproducts of nuclear power generation have accumulated and
are stored adjacent to the nation's rivers, lakes and oceans awaiting
disposal.
According the Resources Committee's analysis of the Devore bill, "the
federal waste disposal program has been plagued with technical and legal
challenges, managerial problems, licensing delays, persistent weaknesses
in quality assurance for the program, and increasing costs."
The Devore bill claimed to address the need to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions to curb global warming. According to the California Energy
Commission, the most significant reductions in CO2 emissions from
electricity generation can be achieved through energy efficiency
programs and integrating renewable energy resources -- solar, wind,
thermal, biomass and hydropower-- into electricity supplies.
"The so-called nuclear renaissance and the idea the nuclear power is the
way to combat climate change is based on a tall stack of fallacies,
unsupported by past experience or future promises," said Rochelle
Becker, Executive Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility,
which spearheaded opposition to the Devore bill. “Just because nuclear
power proponents call their technology green, doesn’t make it so,”
"The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility welcomes every opportunity to
discuss issues of nuclear power and waste versus solutions to global
warming that focus on efficiency and renewable energy with Assemblyman
Devore and all members of our state legislature. We anticipate the
results of an upcoming study by the California Energy Commission that
will analyze the costs, benefits and risks of continuing down a nuclear
energy path will lead us to a clearer understanding of where to invest
our energy dollars,” Becker said.
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility is an educational and advocacy
organization that works with other environmental and policy groups to
stop nuclear power development and relicensing of aging nuclear
facilities in California and promote create clean, renewable and
economic energy sources that will create jobs, provide energy
independence and serve as a model for other states and countries. For