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The US government’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (BRC) will be hosting public meetings to solicit feedback on the draft commission report, in association with state regional groups that work on high-level radioactive waste policy.

Whilst much of the testimony to the BRC was given in Washington, DC, now the BRC is going on tour with a series of one-day meetings to present the draft BRC report (issued on July 29, 2011), and to hear feedback.

The current schedule is:

• September 13, 2011: Denver, CO (Embassy Suites, 1420 Stout Street)
• October 12, 2011: Boston, MA (Harvard Medical School Conference Center, 77 Louis Pasteur, Longwood Harvard University, Cambridge)
• October 18, 2011: Atlanta, GA (Marriot Marquis, 265 Peachtree Center Avenue)
• October 20, 2011: Washington, DC (Hilton Garden Inn, 815 14th Street NW)
• October 28, 2011: Minneapolis, MN (Hyatt Regency, 1300 Nicollet Mall)
• Other dates and locations are to be determined.

The meetings will begin with a briefing from Commission staff on the draft report, followed by comments from elected and appointed state and regional representatives. The latter portion of the meeting will be devoted to a facilitated and interactive breakout opportunity for all who attend, and will conclude with a public comment period.

All public are welcome to attend. Pre-registration will be strongly encouraged but not required. Transcripts (not webcasts) of the meetings will be made available on the website, along with all written comments anyone chooses to offer.

The draft full commission report has been published for comments (see file attachment) until 31 October 2011. Directions on how to comment are contained in the document.

The draft commission report , commission activity details, and pre-registration details are available at WWW.BRC.GOV

A CALL TO JOIN THE ORGANIZING OF A REGIONAL CAMPAIGN OF NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION TO SHUT DOWN VERMONT YANKEE, Sunday, August 28, 2011, 11:30 am - 5:30 pm, Norwich, VT. A People's Campaign to Close Vermont Yankee. Signed by: Randy Kehler, Bob Bady, Nancy Braus for Safe and Green Campaign; Debra Stoleroff, Chris Williams, Robin Cappuccino, David Detmold for the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance; Deb Katz and Chris Williams for VT Citizens Awareness Network; Hattie Nestel for the Shut it Down Affinity Group. Registration and more information link: http://www.clamshellalliance.org/action/?p=196
 
 
CLOSE IT DOWN! ACTION CAMP at Wheelock Mountain Farm, on the evening of Friday, Sept. 9th and all day Saturday Sept. 10th to develop and prepare a response to any effort to keep Vermont Yankee operating beyond March of next year. Sponsored by the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance, Safe and Green Campaign and the Citizen’s Awareness Network, the Shut it Down Affinity Group.  To register and for more info - Robin Cappuccino at 533-2296, Debra Stoleroff at 476-3154, or Wmtnfarm@together.net. For a poster and More information link to: http://www.clamshellalliance.org/action/?p=190

N   E   W   S       R  E  L  E  A  S  E
 
Date: August 11, 2011                                                Contact: Dave McCoy, Director

From the Daily News of Newburyport:

Anti-nuke protesters gathered outside the north gate of NextEra Energy Seabrook yesterday, hoping their presence would resonate amid heightened concern over the safety of nuclear power worldwide.

Around lunchtime, 20 protesters armed with bongos, guitars, Hula-Hoops and banners spent about 30 minutes singing and demanding an end to nuclear power before marching toward the main gate area off The Provident Way.

The protest came 35 years to the day after 18 people were arrested for protesting the groundbreaking of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. One of those arrested in 1976, Renny Cushing of Hampton, N.H., spent a few minutes addressing the crowd.

Cushing called nuclear power an "unforgiving technology" and said it was heartening to see that people were still concerned enough to protest.

In a separate interview, Cushing said what he and others were protesting 35 years ago is still valid today: Nuclear power is an energy option the world can live without.

Read more

From Wicked Local:

Here’s the good news. The nuclear plant’s equipment did what it was supposed to do and there was no release of radiation or damage to the containment vessel.

“This event had no impact on the health and/or safety of the public,” according to the Licensee Event Report (LER) Entergy filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The report also states, however, that back on May 10, inside the control room at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant – just hours before Entergy officials were scheduled to reassure the community that the plant was safe and that events at the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors in Japan had no special relevance to Plymouth – more than a half dozen highly trained engineers significantly messed up a routine restart of the reactor.

The plant was restarting the reactor after it had been offline for the better part of a month for its bi-annual refueling operation, a process Pilgrim has undertaken perhaps 20 times since the plant first began generating electricity in the early 1970s.

Read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
CONTACT: Giselle Barry 202-225-2836, Eben Burnham-Snyder 202-225-6065
 
Markey: NRC Stands For “No Recommendations Considered”

Washington, D.C. (July 28) - Today, Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, issued the following statement in response to news that a majority of Commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has voted to reject Chairman Greg Jaczko’s proposal to act within 90 days on the recommendations of the NRC's Near Term Task Force reviewing Commission processes and regulations in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns.  Instead, Commissioners William Magwood, William Ostendorff, and Kristine Svinicki have voted to direct the NRC staff to endlessly study the NRC staff’s own report before they will consider the recommendations made by the very same NRC staff.

“Commissioners Ostendorff, Magwood and Svinicki have made it all too clear that they believe that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stands for “No Recommendations Considered,” said Rep. Markey.  “They have done this country a tremendous disservice in their collective votes to ensure that the NRC will not lead efforts to ensure the safety of the nuclear industry sector in this country, but will instead actively aid and abet the nuclear industry’s dilatory efforts to ignore, perhaps indefinitely, the recommendations of the Commission’s expert and dedicated staff.”

Last week, Rep. Markey released a letter calling on Commissioners Svinicki and Magwood to reverse their earlier votes to stall action on the Fukushima Task Force recommendations. Today, Commissioner Ostendorff’s vote was released, and with a 3-vote majority, it is now clear that the NRC will not act quickly to even vote on, let alone adopt, the safety upgrades recommended by some of the Commission’s most senior technical staff.

Commissioner Svinicki’s vote can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-kls.pdf

Commissioner Magwood’s vote can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-wdm.pdf

Commissioner Ostendorff’s vote can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-wco.pdf
 

From PressTV:

The nuclear theory 'radiation hormesis' - the hypothesis that low doses of ionizing radiation are beneficial - is "an incredible lie."

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
July 22, 2011 ----------------------------- Contacts: Raymond Shadis, NEC Tech Advisor