Hot News and Actions
December 22, 2008: Joint intervenors (NIRS, et al) reply brief to NRC, UniStar defending standing and admissibility of contentions. 
December 19, 2008: State of Nevada’s petition to intervene in the NRC Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding. The state has raised 229 contentions against this project. Note, this is a very large file (13 megabytes, 1,566 pages).
December 18, 2008: Deal That Could Pave the Way for Four New Nuclear Reactors In the U.S. Is Taxpayer Boondoggle; statement from grassroots groups on UniStar Nuclear/Electricite de France/Constellation Energy buyout arrangement.
December 15, 2008: The NRC’s reactor licensing process is in disarray. NIRS briefing sheet.
December 10, 2008: World's environmental movement says "Keep nukes out of Kyoto Protocol":
Press Release
Press Advisory, including main statement
List of organizational signers
December 9, 2008: 50+ organizations urge Obama to end Bush’s GNEP and reprocessing programs.
November 21, 2008: 50+ Groups tell NRC to take steps to assure public rights in Yucca Mountain licensing; Groups charge that DOE is abusing licensing process.
Read press release here.
Read the letter here
November 19, 2008: National and Maryland groups file legal challenge to proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor.
Read press release here.
Read petition here.
November 19, 2008: Legal motion to hold Calvert Cliffs hearings in abeyance until the Areva EPR reactor design is certified; supports a similar motion made by Texas groups on the ESBWR design. Filed by NIRS, Beyond Nuclear and Public Citizen’s Energy Program.
November 13, 2008: Southeast and national groups file challenge to NRC reactor licensing process and Westinghouse AP 1000 reactor design—now on its 17th revision.
November 9, 2008: Al Gore issues a five-part, non-nuclear plan for the Obama administration to address the climate crisis. NY Times op-ed.
October 10, 2008: State of Nevada challenges EPA radiation standards for Yucca Mountain. Read Attorney General's press release here.
Read Nevada's petition to the U.S. Court of Appeal for the DC Circuit here.
October 1, 2008: New EPA rule on Yucca Mountain would produce 1 cancer per 125 people exposed. Press release from Committee to Bridge the Gap.
September 19, 2008: The Gang of 20 Energy Bill Will Not Be Introduced!
September 11, 2008: PSR analysis of the huge new nuclear subsidies—including unlimited taxpayer loan guarantees for new reactors--in the “Gang of 10” energy bill, due for a Senate vote in mid-September. And you thought the Gang of 10 bill was only about offshore oil drilling……Stay tuned here for more info.
September 5, 2008: The Brave New World of Nuclear Power Economics, a new article by NIRS executive director Michael Mariotte
July 24, 2008: FoE, NC WARN Urge NC and SC Commissions to Revoke Duke Nuclear Cost Approvals Due to Design Problems, Delays. Press release with links to filings.
July 16, 2008: Testimony of Richard Webster, Legal Director for Eastern Environmental Law Center, before Senate Environment Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety. The testimony argues that the NRC's relicensing process is deficient and there are severe weaknesses in the oversight of reactor safety.
July 17 , 2008: Powering Maryland’s Future, a new report from Maryland PIRG, shows that the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor would be too slow and too expensive to meet Maryland’s electricity needs, which can be generated more safely, cleanly, faster and cheaper from renewable energy sources and an aggressive energy efficiency program. Every state should have a report like this one!
July 1, 2008: Mothers for Peace and NRC face off at rare Commissioners’ hearing on dry casks and threat of terrorism.
June 30, 2008: The Department of Energy has issued a solicitation for applications for its loan guarantee program authorized by Congress in late 2007. This solicitation is for $30.5 billion in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees, and includes $18.5 billion for new atomic reactors, $2 billion for front-end nuclear fuel cycle facilities (uranium enrichment plant), and $10 billion for renewable energy, energy efficiency and transmission projects. You can read the reactor solicitation here; the fuel cycle solicitation here; and the renewables/efficiency/transmission solicitation here.
May 15, 2008: Should the U.S. be a dump for foreign nuclear waste? Factsheet from HEAL Utah on EnergySolutions’ proposed import of 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy.
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.
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December 2008: New study from Stanford researcher ranks solutions to climate crisis; concludes nuclear and “clean” coal are least effective, least desirable means of addressing climate change. Press release from Stanford University. Article in Energy and Environmental Science.
December 2008: Nuclear Power in France: Beyond the Myth, a new report by Mycle Schneider Consulting for Greens/EFA in the European Parliament, offers a thorough examination of the French nuclear power industry, noting both its strengths and some surprising weaknesses.... Another major new report on the French nuclear industry, from WISE-Paris, titled Nuclear Power, the Great Illusion - Promises, Setbacks and Threats, is available here. Both reports will be very useful for everyone countering the argument that the French nuclear power program is somehow a great success.
July 22, 2008: Presentation from Synapse Energy Economics on water, climate change and risk in electricity planning.
July 2008: Testimony of David Schlissel, Synapse Energy Economics, before the Maryland Public Service Commission, on the extraordinarily high cost estimates for new nuclear reactors. While this was prepared for hearings on the proposed Calvert Cliffs EPR, most of this testimony will be useful to anyone looking at nuclear power economics for any proposed reactor.
July 2008: New study (which reviews 103 previous studies and finds nearly all lacking) concludes that nuclear power is not carbon-free, and its carbon emissions, while far lower than all fossil fuels, are higher than renewable sources of energy. Published in Energy Policy, by Benjamin Sovacool, University of Singapore & Virginia Tech.
May 27, 2008: An important new article from Rocky Mountain Institute: The Nuclear Illusion by Amory Lovins and Imran Sheikh. “Nuclear power is continuing its decades-long collapse in the global marketplace because it’s grossly uncompetitive, unneeded, and obsolete—so hopelessly uneconomic that one needn’t debate whether it’s clean and safe; it weakens electric reliability and national security; and it worsens climate change compared with devoting the same money and time to more effective options.” Read this to understand the reality of energy in the 21st century, and make sure your elected representatives at every level of government read it too.
June 2008:
New Greenpeace International factsheet on numerous problems with Areva’s European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), which is being proposed for Calvert Cliffs, MD and other sites in the U.S.
June 2008:
New Greenpeace International factsheet on construction problems with Areva’s EPR at Flamenville, France.
June 2008: Four-page summary of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research’s groundbreaking Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free book, with main recommendations.
May 14, 2008: A major new report on the French reprocessing program from the International Panel on Fissile Materials finds that it does not reduce volume of radioactive waste and would have to be half its current cost to be economically competitive with storage of the waste, thus undercutting the Bush administration’s major arguments for reprocessing.
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 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!
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.
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