Stop producing radioactive waste – there isn’t a place to put it.
CONTENTS
(1) COMMENTARY
(2) LETTER FROM THE PEOPLE WHO STOPPED CALVERT CLIFFS REACTOR. CITIZEN ACTION TO STOP MORE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES OF NUKE INDUSTRY. (USA)
(3) A QUICK LOOK AT THE BATTLE TO STOP THE PRODUCTION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE, INTERNATIONAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE ACTION DAY (SEPT 29TH)
(4) IMPORTANT SHORT VIDEO: BALTIMORE CITIZENS STOPPING RADIOACTIVE SHIPMENTS
– Canadians on the route between Bruce Power’s reactors in Ontario and the targeted disposal sites (Saskatchewan) should take time to watch this short video. We are talking about high-level radioactive waste.
(5) BEYOND NUCLEAR, RECENT NEWS ITEMS
(6) PLAN TO SHIP RADIOACTIVE WASTE ACROSS GREAT LAKES STIRS CONCERN, EPOCH TIMES, OCT 12 (still no date set for the decision)
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(1) COMMENTARY
Manitoba and Quebec both share borders with Ontario where Bruce Power’s nuclear reactors produce high-level radioactive waste. Manitoba and Quebec have both passed legislation to prohibit the shipping of radioactive waste from Ontario to them. Bruce Power’s high-level radioactive waste is somewhat boxed in.
The NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) is working on plans to ship across Manitoba to Saskatchewan. Many people are unaware of the plans, and they are not well informed about high-level radioactive waste. The waste should be stored on-site where it is produced and not shipped to create risks for other people. The seven U.S. Senators who are intervening in the attempts by Bruce Power to ship radioactive waste through the Great Lakes to Sweden are telling the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) the same thing.
Radioactive waste is a quagmire. Through google you will find that companies in coastal areas slip out and dump it at sea. Or it gets shipped to less-fortunate countries, because of ignorance and bribery. There is no conscience. Only propaganda and corruption.
MEDIUM TO LOW-LEVEL WASTE VERSUS THE HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE:
Bruce Power’s efforts to ship old generators from its nuclear reactors to Sweden falls into the category of medium to low-level radioactive waste.
The efforts to ship radioactive waste cross Canada to Saskatchewan are about HIGH-LEVEL radioactive waste. There is no need to put this stuff onto our transportation corridors and through our communities. Remember: the industry itself projected that it will take 30 years of trucking to move the waste here. You have got to be delusional if you think that can be accomplished without accidents. Why would we let it happen?
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(2) LETTER FROM THE PEOPLE WHO STOPPED CALVERT CLIFFS REACTOR. CITIZEN ACTION TO STOP MORE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES OF NUKE INDUSTRY. (USA)
6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912; 301-270-6477; nirsnet AT nirs.org; www.nirs.org
NEW REACTOR AT CALVERT CLIFFS STOPPED!
AND NUCLEAR “RENAISSANCE” SPUTTERS!
SO INDUSTRY PRESSURES CONGRESS TO MAKE IT
EVEN EASIER TO GET TAXPAYER MONEY….
ACT NOW TO PREVENT
NEW NUKE SUBSIDIES
DURING LAME DUCK SESSION
October 12, 2010
…AND, PLEASE JOIN THE VIRTUAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON!
Dear Friends,
This is a huge victory: Over the weekend, Constellation Energy announced it is pulling out of the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor project in Maryland, which effectively ends this new reactor.
NIRS has spent more than three years fighting this reactor tooth and nail. We’ve intervened twice in Maryland Public Service Commission proceedings. We’re the lead intervenor in NRC licensing proceedings for Calvert Cliffs–and our contention against foreign ownership in this project (it’s dominated by the French government through Electricite de France and Areva) has proven a major stumbling block. And with all our allies in the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition we’ve been in the streets, the media and the public arena demanding an end to this boondoggle.
And, on Saturday, we won!
(Links in following section are no longer valid. Link to facebook group, etc. at bottom ARE valid.)
Here is a link to our statement released Saturday. Here is a link to a New York Times article on some of the reasons behind this decision. And here is a link to an article I wrote in August predicting exactly this outcome.
Please act now to protect this victory at Calvert Cliffs, and to stop any more taxpayer money being wasted on new reactors, by writing your Senators and Representative here. Here’s why:
In its statement announcing it is shelving Calvert Cliffs-3, Constellation claimed it was doing so because the terms of a $7.5 Billion loan the Obama administration was ready to give the company were too “onerous.”
For this $10 Billion+ reactor (the French government was going to chip in another $2.9 Billion), the administration wanted the utility to either put up $880 million of its own money (called a credit subsidy cost, kind of like the down payment you would have to put on a mortgage), or $300 million and guarantee sales of only 75% of the reactor’s electricity.
This was too risky and “onerous” for Constellation Energy. In other words, they admitted they wanted taxpayers to take ALL the risk of this project. In fact, that was just a smokescreen. Constellation would have cancelled Calvert Cliffs even if there had been no credit subsidy cost at all — the economics of the project simply didn’t make sense. And it’s telling that Constellation shares skyrocketed up in the first day of trading after their announcement: investors were delighted Constellation got out of this dumb deal.
But the nuclear industry is already working in Congress to not only get more taxpayer money for nuclear loans, but to force the administration to make taxpayers take all of the risk for those loans. And they’re hoping they can sneak such legislation through in the lame duck session that begins in mid-November.
All year, with your help, we have blocked the industry from receiving any new funds for nuclear loans. Now we have to act again.
Please protect this victory at Calvert Cliffs, act to stop any more taxpayer money being wasted on new reactors and to make sure taxpayers don’t have to take all the risk of new reactor construction, by writing your Senators and Representative here.
Here is a link to this action that you can forward to your friends and colleagues who will want to take action too: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4378. The industry lobbying effort will be strong and well-financed, and it will take as many of us as possible to counter them.
We are, of course, walking on air that our long battle over Calvert Cliffs was successful (as, so far, has been our campaign to stop new taxpayer subsidies for new nukes). But these successes are only possible with your help and support! Please celebrate this victory by making a tax-deductible donation to NIRS today. You can do so online here, or send a check to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912.
Virtual March on Washington
Have you joined the Virtual March on Washington yet? Stand up and be counted! It’s easy and it’s fun. An outgrowth of the actions of International Radioactive Waste Action Day, the virtual march will keep building between now and April 26, 2011 — the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
All you have to do to join is send in a photo of yourself to nirsnet AT nirs.org. If you’d like to hold a sign (and we encourage that!), you can download and print a sign here, or make one of your own. You can also see a slideshow of the growing number of people who have joined in so far.
So send your pictures in today, and let’s get thousands of people to join in this Virtual March on Washington!
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet AT nirs.org
www.nirs.org
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(3) A QUICK LOOK AT THE BATTLE TO STOP THE PRODUCTION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE, INTERNATIONAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE ACTION DAY SEPT 29TH
http://www.nirs.org/
On facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Radioactive-Waste-Action-Day/154714171208057?v=wall
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(4) *** BALTIMORE CITIZENS, YOUTUBE, STOPPING RADIOACTIVE SHIPMENTS *** IMPORTANT
Canadians on the route between Bruce Power’s reactors in Ontario and the targeted disposal sites (Saskatchewan for one) should take time to watch this short video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GweZUQG9XGA
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(5) BEYOND NUCLEAR, RECENT NEWS ITEMS
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/radioactive-waste/
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(6) PLAN TO SHIP RADIOACTIVE WASTE ACROSS GREAT LAKES STIRS CONCERN, EPOCH TIMES, OCT 12 (still no date set for the decision)