Beyond Nuclear Bulletin
August 22, 2024
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ZOMBIE NUKES ALERT!
Resistance on Left & Third Coasts
For years, an environmental coalition, including San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, and Environmental Working Group, have resisted California Governor Gavin Newsom's insanely expensive, extremely high-risk, zombie reactor operating license extension at PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Unit 1 was supposed to close for good this year, and Unit 2 next year. The resistance includes legally intervening in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's license extension proceeding. Similarly, Beyond Nuclear and Don't Waste Michigan are poised to challenge Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's unprecedented restart scheme at the Palisades atomic reactor. Our coalition will intervene by August 27 against Holtec International's possession-only license transfer from the company's controversial decommissioning division, to a brand new holding company.
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HOLTEC’S WASTE
Watch the webinar
Massachusetts Peace Action hosted a webinar recently on nuclear waste, focused on Holtec’s activities in Massachusetts and New Mexico. Diane Turco of Cape Downwinders and Melissa Harding-Ferretti of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe addressed Holtec’s decision to vent evaporated tritium from the closed Pilgrim, MA nuclear power plant, where the company has the decommissioning contract. An attempt to dump liquid tritium into Cape Cod Bay has already been defeated. Rose Gardner (pictured) from Alliance for Environmental Strategies, and Douglas Meiklejohn, a lawyer with Conservation Voters New Mexico talked about Holtec’s plan to build a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility for radioactive waste in their state against the wishes of the local community. Beyond Nuclear’s Linda Pentz Gunter provided an overview and moderated the discussion.
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MOBILE CHORNOBYL!
DOE downplays n-waste transport risks
The U.S. Department of Energy has launched a Request for Information, "Seek[ing] Input on Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation Safety Demonstration." The initiative is not new. It is a thinly veiled rehash of past projects, all geared to downplay the high risks of what environmental critics have long dubbed "Mobile Chornobyls." DOE's "Package Performance Demonstration" is similar to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission proceeding decades ago. Despite good faith engagement by environmental watchdogs, NRC's project was cancelled. DOE is striving to advance its so-called "consent-based siting" for consolidated interim storage. CIS, if opened, would automatically multiply transports risk, for no good reason: shipments from reactors to the facilities; and then, later, shipments to a permanent repository.
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THOUGHTS OF HIROSHIMA
Impacts of atomic bombing
On August 5, 2024, the Hiroshima / Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Region and the WILPF US DMV branch commemorated the 79th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing with Hiroshima survivor Hideko Tamura (pictured), and speakers John Steinbach, Melvin Hardy, Gwen DuBois, Linda Pentz Gunter, Fan Yang, Dennis Nelson, and James Wagner. You can watch the full event here. Pentz Gunter, Beyond Nuclear’s international specialist, focused on the racist elements around the decision to bomb Japan and the plundering of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo for 80% of the uranium used in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. You can watch her presentation as a standalone video here and others and the full event at the link below.
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