Beyond Nuclear Bulletin

Beyond Nuclear Bulletin

September 10, 2009

Beyond Nuclear challenges new reactor & old waste at Fermi, Michigan

Beyond Nuclear has recently scored victories, and suffered defeats, in its intervention against the Fermi nuclear power plant on the Lake Erie shoreline. On July 31st, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) admitted four of the fourteen contentions Beyond Nuclear and its allies submitted opposing the Fermi 3 new reactor proposal. These included contentions on so-called "low level" radioactive waste, endangered species, groundwater contamination, and Lake Eriepollution concerns. On Aug. 21st, the same ASLB rejected Beyond Nuclear's call for security upgrades at Fermi 2's proposed dry cask storage facility for high-level radioactive waste. Beyond Nuclear will vigorously defend the four contentions at upcoming ASLB hearings, and appeal the exclusion of those rejected. Updates, intervention documents, and news articles are posted at our "Nuclear Reactors" Web site section.

"Nuclear Power: The Truth About A Taboo Subject"

PACE (People's Action for Clean Energy), Three Mile Island Alert, and Beyond Nuclear are asking you, and/or the organization with which you are affiliated, to join a list of endorsers who support the presentation of this critical and unique public health event on November 21, 2009. Endorsement does not necessarily include financial support.  It simply means that you believe that the truth about nuclear power should be told to the public. Nuclear Power: The Truth About A Taboo Subject and A Clean Energy Exposition, will take place on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at the Unitarian Society of Hartford, CT. Please download the full endorsement form and submit to Judi Friedman at PACE. If you would like to make a donation to PACE, the host organization, please send a check to: PACE, 101 Lawton Road, Canton, CT06019 and memo the check as "Nuclear: The Truth". Please pass this e-mail on to other individuals and organizations who may wish to endorse and/or attend this event.

Watch for our ad in The Nation

A full page ad will be running in the next edition of The Nationmagazine (cover date September 28 but available as early as September 14). It features our Honorary Chairman, the actor EdAsner. The ad is accompanied by an envelope bound into the magazine that includes an opportunity to sign a letter to President Obama urging him to speak out against nuclear funding in the pending Climate Change Bill which should arrive on his desk for signature sometime this fall. Get a "sneak peak" at the ad and please consider supporting Beyond Nuclear in our efforts to excise all nuclear funding from any climate change legislation.

The French Nuclear Medusa

French EPR in China postponed

The groundbreaking ceremony for Areva's Taishan EPR in Chinawhich was supposed to happen on Aug 27 has reportedly been postponed indefinitely. There is speculation by the French activist network - Sortir du Nuclaire - that the EPR project in China may not now go forward. Areva claimed that the postponement was due to "bad weather" but Sortir du Nucl�aire countered that the Chinese had informed Areva in June that the ceremony would not go forward on the August date. Aside from the financial EPR disaster in Finland, the only country French president, NicolasSarkozy has succeeded in selling the EPR to is...France.

Beyond Nuclear in the News

Beyond Nuclear was supported in its efforts to increase security at the Fermi 2 dry cask storage facility for high-level radioactive waste in a Sept. 3rd Monroe Evening News editorial.

Kevin Kamps was quoted in a Sept. 4th Michigan Messengerarticle about security risks associated with Wackenhut guards at nuclear power plants.

Beyond Nuclear was highlighted in a Sept. 3rd Monroe Evening News article about its intervention against dry cask storage risks at Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Michigan.

Kevin Kamps praised the City of Takoma Park, Maryland's Nuclear-Free Zone Committee for decades of anti-nuclear watch-dogging in the current Takoma Voice newspaper.

Paul Gunter is quoted on September 8th in an Associated Presswire story about ongoing uncontrolled and unmonitored radioactive leaks from buried pipes at Oyster Creek and other nuclear reactors.

Paul Gunter quoted in The Day regarding a new major national study to be conducted by federal regulators.

Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. Beyond Nuclear staff can be reached at: 301.270.2209. Or view our Web site at:www.beyondnuclear.org/