This summer members of the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition are meeting up with ..Maryland.. residents to talk about ....Maryland....'s energy future. We are currently at a crossroads on deciding what our energy future is going to look like in a carbon constrained world. For a state that has been plagued by rising energy costs due to deregulation and threats of rolling brownouts by 2011, it is time for citizens to educate themselves on energy options and weigh in on the type of energy future they want. ....
Unistar Energy (composed of Baltimore's Constellation Energy and Electricite de France), has proposed development of a third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Power Plant in southern ....Maryland..... An accident or a terrorist attack on the plant could harm millions of people and we still don't know what to do with the highly toxic waste that nuclear power plants produce. On top of all those problems, the expansion would need billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. According to a recent report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the resources to build this reactor could be directed toward sustainable solutions that we can implement now. This reactor, if licensed, will not come on line for another ten years or more. We need economical and sustainable solutions today.....
In order to gain approval to build the new reactor, Constellation must be granted a license at the federal level and several permits at the state level. This summer the most significant state permit, which would allow Constellation to start construction activities as soon as early 2009, will be debated in a week-long hearing before the Maryland Public Service Commission. In addition, residents will have an opportunity to voice their questions and concerns about expanding nuclear power in ....Maryland.... at public meetings held throughout August. It is time to add the voice of ....Maryland.... residents to the chorus calling for a sustainable, safe and affordable energy future.....
The Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition (CSEC), a group featuring representation from several area public interest and environmental organizations—including NIRS—with the goal of putting a stop to the proposed new reactor at Calvert Cliffs, is setting up a series of house parties to talk about the permitting process for a new nuclear reactor, public participation in the process, and the coalition's position on the proposed new reactor. We are committed to keeping ....Maryland.... residents in the loop on decisions that are being made about your energy future. ....
Our friends at Public Citizen have made it easy for you: If you would like to host a party, invite some of your friends and colleagues and have a representative of the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition join you, click here to sign up and get a full how-to information kit.....
And, on August 12, 2008, CSEC will sponsor a public meeting to enable people to comment to the Maryland Public Service Commission on Calvert Cliffs 3. The PSC is holding three public meetings of its own in August, but all are at Solomon's ..Island... We decided to bring a meeting to ....Baltimore...., where most of the people live who would endure the soaring electricity rates this reactor would cause. It will be on Tuesday, August 12th at 6:30 pm at Enoch Pratt Library in downtown ....Baltimore..... Join us there!....
Help Protect Public Rights for NRC Licensing Hearings- BREDL
Category: News and Politics
HELP PROTECT PUBLIC RIGHTS FOR NRC LICENSING HEARINGS....
.. ..
Below is a message from our friends at Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, which has intervened against a new reactor at North Anna, Virginia (and at other sites as well!). The North Anna case is the first new reactor proceeding that has reached the point of an oral argument. In a very disturbing move, apparently calculated to undercut the importance of licensing proceedings, the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), has scheduled a telephone oral argument—with one day's notice!—rather than a more traditional in-person hearing. Please read this alert and take appropriate action.
.. ..
Thanks!
..Michael Mariotte..
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
.. ..
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled oral arguments (in accordance with 10 CFR 2.331) to be held via telephone on the lead hearing process in the nation for a nuclear power plant construction and operating license. ....
.. ..
We believe that a telephone format is inappropriate; it is a sign that the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board judges are shutting out the public and are not interested in working in good faith with the public, the intervenors or the media. A face-to-face hearing in a courtroom near the proposed plant site should be held.
.. ..
To our knowledge, this is the first scheduled oral argument for new nuclear power plant license since the rules were re-written in 1989. If you think this will set a bad precedent, it would be good for the judges to hear from you directly. (Please do not simply forward this e-mail to the judges.) High-handed actions by this regulatory agency require hand-in-hand action by the rest of us.
.. ..
The judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in this case include:....
The teleconference is tentatively scheduled for this Wednesday, July 2nd at 10:00 am.....
.. ..
LAWSUIT AGAINST THIRD REACTOR AT NORTH ANNA
.. ..
The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's petition filed in May raises eight major issues: Dominion lacks a realistic radioactive waste plan, Unit 3 would be located on top of a geological fault, the plant's cooling system will violate water quality standards, the plant will not adequately limit radioactive emissions to the atmosphere, uranium is an unreliable fuel source, the license would violate the Constitutional protections of due process and equal protection, irradiated fuel would remain on site, and the plant would be a target for terrorist attacks.
.. ..
The legal challenge reflects Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's belief that the Dominion-Virginia Power early site permit was granted without an adequate assessment of environmental impacts. The permit record contains a strong, even fierce minority opinion from the chairman of the three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel which granted the early site permit. Judge Alex Karlin opposed the permit because the NRC staff and Dominion had not complied with important provisions of national environmental law.
Karlin wrote, "[T]he NRC staff failed to consider and search for (or demand that Dominion search for) the 'best alternative sites that could reasonably be found,' and instead short-circuited the alternatives analysis by fixating on a very small 'slate of sites' proffered by Dominion." The result, he said, was therefore "predetermined" and the selection of the North Anna site was, "inconsistent with both the letter and spirit of the National Environmental Policy Act."
Contributing substantively to the legal analysis and case framework were two national organizations: Beyond Nuclear and Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
To read our May 9, 2008 petition filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, go to:
NIRS is pround to be co-sponsoring the SE Convergence for Climate Action! 8/5-8/11, Central VA-
Category: News and Politics
NIRS is pleased and proud to again be a co-sponsoring group of the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action (action camp)
August 5—August 11, Central VA -- Sophia House in LouisaCountyVirginia (see website)
This summer, join people of all ages and backgrounds from throughout the Southeast and beyond for the second annual Southeast Convergence for Climate Action. After the resounding success of last year's convergence we are excited to continue the struggle for climate justice in the southeast with an engaging week of workshops, strategizing, and direct action! This year's convergence will be hosted in Virginia where communities are fighting uranium mining, nuclear power, mountaintop removal coal mining, and new (as well as old) coal plants. Once again we will unite to fight the coal industry's stranglehold on our region while rejecting the deadly nuke industry's attempt to position itself as the solution to the climate crisis.
The convergence is a place to strengthen our movement, network with new allies, and take action against dirty energy while working to build a sustainable world. Workshops will include: community organizing, direct action 101, debunking false solutions to climate change, blockades, sustainable living systems, media, disaster response, fighting nukes and coal, and much more. The convergence will culminate in an empowering action to show that the southeast is serious about tackling climate change.
THERE ARE ALSO CONVERGENCE EVENTS IN OREGON AND NEW YORKSTATE: check out the website. The Southeast has the greatest focus on nuclear issues -- but show up and bring them along if you are in the other regions! Nuclear is a false solution to the climate crisis!
Mary Olson NIRS Southeast Regional Coordinator Nuclear Information & Resource Service PO Box 7586, Asheville, NC 28802 nirs@main.nc.uswww.nirs.org 828-675-1792 new cell -- 828-242-5621 (no signal at my office)
Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!)—in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year—on our secure website here. Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.
And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign! You can send the petition to your friends by going to: http://www.nirs.org/petition2/thanks.php?id=829fcdea1bbbd9dd6b66683d5f10eb88
We've passed 775078307930 8,130 signatures, let's get to 10,000 this month! And just let us know at nirsnet@nirs.org if you want more paper copies of the statement to gather signers at events, concerts, conferences, etc. We're adding paper signers as fast as we can (but seem to be always a few hundred behind….).
Send Letter In Today- Oppose McCain’s Plan for 45 New Reactors!
Category: News and Politics
Dear Friends,
Today, newspapers and websites are full of articles about Sen. McCain's proposal to build 45 new reactors in the U.S. by 2030, and 100 by mid-century. Take this opportunity to respond and send in your letters to the editor! Let's make clear that this plan is folly and will meet with overwhelming public opposition.
Below is a sample letter you can use for your local publications. It's about 200 words, so should fit into most publications' guidelines. Feel free to use it as is, or make any changes you want. But don't feel free not to take this opportunity to respond! We hope each one of you—and your colleagues as well—will send in a letter today!
John McCain's plan to build 45 new reactors by 2030 demonstrates more about his connections to nuclear industry lobbyists than to any real concern about addressing climate change.
As the experts at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have pointed out*, nuclear power provides far less climate protection per dollar than any of its competitors. Indeed, RMI notes that "spending a dollar on new nuclear energy instead of energy efficiency has a worse net effect on the climate than spending a dollar on coal-fired electricity instead of on nuclear electricity!"
Moreover, because nuclear power is so expensive, only massive taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies would enable the construction of new atomic reactors. Such investment would divert the resources from those solutions that really work: renewable energy, energy efficiency, cogeneration, smart grids and distributed generation are the clean, affordable means to reduce carbon emissions and meet our energy needs, not nuclear power.
Clean energy sources don't produce lethal radioactive waste, don't require massive security, don't make residents live in fear of a meltdown, and don't enable the spread of nuclear weapons. The choice is easy. But Senator McCain has made the wrong one.
Victory!-of a sort...climate bill fails, "Ostrich Society" lives, but no nukes either.
Category: News and Politics
CLIMATE BILL FAILS; NUKE AMENDMENTS NOT VOTED ON
THE REAL CLIMATE TEST WILL COME NEXT YEAR
June 6, 2008
The Senate this morning effectively killed the Lieberman/Warner climate change bill after a vote to continue debate on the bill failed by 12 votes to obtain the 60 votes needed to continue. The final vote was 48-36 in favor of moving forward on the bill.
The nuclear amendments planned to be added to the bill by Sens. Lieberman and Isakson were not considered or voted on. However, we do know many Senate offices received a lot of phone calls against the proposed amendments—thank you for all your calls and outreach!
While NIRS opposed the Lieberman/Warner bill for several reasons, most notably because it was simply inadequate to address the climate crisis, it is nonetheless disquieting that nearly ½ the Senate—and the vast majority of Republicans—did not want to even consider the climate bill and still refuse to address the most important issue of our time. Instead, the Republicans fell back on procedural maneuvers like requiring the entire bill to be read aloud in the Senate (a process that took 10 hours) rather than even debating the merits of the legislation and ways to improve the bill. Perhaps we should call the 36 who voted against even continuing debate the "Ostrich Society," since they clearly have their heads in the sand.
Still, in many ways this was a victory for the environmental and safe energy movement. There is virtually no doubt that a climate bill will be approved and signed next year, and the potential is there for a far better bill to be produced and enacted. Senators were served notice that the idea of adding nuclear subsidies to a climate bill will engender a lot of public opposition and, with some of the Senate's most stalwart nuclear supporters leaving this year (e.g., Sens. Domenici, R-NM, Craig, R-ID, Warner, R-VA), many of the industry's most important backers will be gone from next year's debate.
It clearly won't be easy, but with the groundwork we have laid, and many more months to build upon that groundwork, we're optimistic a good and very necessary climate bill can pass the next Congress and be signed by the new president.
A couple notes and updates:
*Our apologies to everyone who tried to contact us by e-mail over the past 48 hours. A severe storm that came through the Washington area Wednesday afternoon knocked out NIRS' internet access and, for at least a couple hours, even our phones. And yes, the symbolism of a storm unleashing five reported tornados in the Washington area (40 years ago, the area might experience one tornado per decade) just as Senate Republicans were working to prevent consideration of climate legislation is not lost on us…..
*We will be posting the latest information on the accident at the Krsko reactor in Slovenia on our website (www.nirs.org) this weekend. At this point, the situation seems stable, but numerous questions remain about how severe this accident was. A team from Global 2000 in Vienna, Austria was prevented from taking radiation measurements at the cooling water discharge pipe at the reactor site, but reported no increased radiation levels at other spots around the reactor.
Again, thank you all for all of your calls and e-mails to the Senate, and for all your great outreach efforts. Together, we will build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future!
Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!)—in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year—on our secure website here. Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.
And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign! You can send the petition to your friends by going to: http://www.nirs.org/petition2/thanks.php?id=829fcdea1bbbd9dd6b66683d5f10eb88
We've passed 77507830 7930 signatures, let's get to 10,000 this month!
Nuke Amendments to Climate Bill to be Voted On Soon- Call Your Senators!
Category: News and Politics
NUCLEAR AMENDMENTS TO CLIMATE BILL TO BE VOTED ON SOON
CALL YOUR SENATORS!
YOUR ACTIONS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Debate on the Senate climate change bill (now numbered S. 3036) began on Monday and has continued through Tuesday. Voting on amendments—including amendments to give billions more taxpayer dollars to the nuclear power industry—will begin as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, June 4.
Your calls to your Senators are needed now more than ever!
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
If you already have called your Senators, call again to remind them that no nuclear amendments are acceptable, and that nuclear power has no place in the necessary effort to address the climate crisis. Renewable energy and energy efficiency are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner ways to reduce carbon emissions and meet our electricity needs.
And ask your parents, kids, grandchildren, the guy at the gas station, the woman at the bank, the person in the next cubicle, and everyone else you know, meet and run into, to call as well. We don't have huge budgets and hundreds of lobbyists running all over Capitol Hill—we rely on people power.
Your calls ARE effective and CAN make a real difference. Call even if you think your Senators are hopeless—part of what we need to do is create a real buzz on Capitol Hill that millions of Americans believe this is an important issue.
The message to your Senators is simple: Vote against any and all nuclear amendments to the climate bill. The wealthy nuclear industry does not deserve any more taxpayer dollars. Our resources need to be spent on energy efficiency, solar and wind power, distributed energy and smart grids.
Please call now, and please send us a quick e-mail letting us know you called. As always, let us know if we can help in any way.
Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!)—in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year—on our secure website here. Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.
And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign! We've passed 7750 signatures, let's get to 10,000 this month!
Sign On Letter to Senate: Stop Nuclear Subsidies in Climate Legislation
Category: News and Politics
SIGN-ON LETTER TO SENATE:
STOP NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES IN CLIMATE LEGISLATION
CLIMATE FOCUS SHOULD BE ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLES
May 19, 2008
Dear Friends:
Below is a letter written by our friends at the Sustainable Energy Network, addressing the principles the Senate should be considering as it takes up the Lieberman-Warner climate crisis legislation (S. 2191) the week of June 2.
Both organizations and individuals may sign this letter. See instructions below. But please sign by 5 pm Eastern time, Tuesday May 27.
And please, do not sign this in lieu of calling your Senators and demanding no nuclear subsidies in climate legislation! Your calls—and those of your friends and colleagues—are absolutely vital to winning this effort. But we do encourage you to sign in addition to making your calls to your Senators (Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121).
If you wish to sign on as an ORGANIZATION, please provide:
Your Name + Title
Organization/Business Name
City, State
If you wish to sign on as an INDIVIDUAL: Please clearly state that you are signing on ONLY as an individual and provide:
Your name
City, State
If you wish to also provide your organizational affiliation "for identification purposes only", it will be listed with this clarification.
AS YOU CONSIDER CLIMATE LEGISLATION, FOCUS ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY STRATEGIES, OPPOSE NUCLEAR POWER AND FOSSIL FUEL INCENTIVES; APPROACH CAP-AND-TRADE CAREFULLY
We, the xx undersigned business, environmental, consumer, energy-policy, faith-based, and other organizations and xx individuals are writing to urge you to give great care and thought to pending climate change legislation which may come to the Senate floor next week.
We believe that the grave threats posed by global climate change must be addressed now and action taken to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Moreover, the pending vote on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191), and any amendments that are offered, has the potential for setting the principles and parameters for any federal legislation that is ultimately enacted into law. Consequently, we believe it essential that any bill that emerges from the Senate meet several criteria.
First, federal legislation must – at the very least – set the United States on course to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by no less than 80 percent by 2050 – a target higher than the 70 percent goal proposed by S.2191. However, even a reduction of 80 percent may fall short of what is actually necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. A growing number of analyses now suggest that far greater reductions, accomplished within a much tighter time frame, may actually be needed. Therefore, we urge you to reject legislative proposals that would set merely symbolic or insufficiently aggressive goals.
Second, if a cap-and-trade system is to be part of the nation's climate change policy, it should be designed thoughtfully and should be viewed as only one in an arsenal of strategies to shift the nation's economy on to a path of sustainable energy development.
Carefully structured, a cap-and-trade system can play an important role in reducing GHG emissions. However, a poorly designed system could prove to be economically costly and administratively difficult-to-administer, do little to promote renewable energy technologies, and result in the transfer of pollution to low-income communities without actually achieving any significant reductions in GHGs.
If cap-and-trade is to be a part of the United States' climate change strategy, it should provide for enforceable and rapidly declining ceilings on GHGs, a simple and transparent administrative structure, protections for low-income and other vulnerable communities, and full auction of all carbon credits with the funds targeted at sustainable energy investments.
Third, national climate change legislation must give emphasis to making a rapid transition from fossil fuel energy sources to renewable energy sources coupled with deep cuts in energy waste through energy efficiency improvements and other measures. A number of recent analyses have suggested that U.S. energy use can be reduced by 30 percent or more while renewable energy technologies – some of which have been experiencing 30-45% annual growth rates in recent years – could be brought on line far more quickly than other options to meet most of the country's supply needs.
Tapping this potential, however, would necessitate substantially more aggressive energy efficiency standards for homes and other buildings, lighting and appliances, electrical generation and transmission, industrial machinery and processes, and agriculture. It would also require much more stringent fuel-efficiency and emission-reduction targets for cars, trucks, and other vehicles coupled with fundamental changes in national transportation policies.
To realize the full potential of the cross-section of renewable energy technologies, long-term (e.g., ten years) tax incentives, significantly increased federal RD&D funding, expanded procurement policies, national interconnection and net metering legislation, a national (banded) portfolio standard, and other steps must be acted upon.
In addition, changes in the federal tax code to encourage investments in energy efficient and renewable energy and to discourage continued use of carbon-based technologies, including phasing-out subsidies to fossil fuels and coal-fired electrical plants (unless they incorporate 100% carbon capture), need to be part of the mix.
Similarly, national climate change legislation should not divert federal resources into long-term, unproven, expensive, and potentially environmentally risky fossil fuel technologies such as so-called "clean coal" and carbon capture and sequestration. The financial burden for demonstrating the viability of these technologies should fall primarily on the shoulders of the fossil fuel industry and not federal taxpayers.
Finally, climate legislation should not include direct or indirect subsidies or mandates for nuclear power; in fact, such subsidies should be phased out. An expansion of nuclear power would merely exacerbate the still-unsolved problem of radioactive waste disposal while adding to concerns about plant safety, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation. In just three years, cost estimates for new nuclear power plants have already tripled or quadrupled and continue to rise. And when a full accounting of the full nuclear fuel cycle is considered, nuclear power is not the carbon-free technology its proponents suggest.
Consequently, investments in nuclear power would prove to be a costly mistake that would divert very limited public and private funds from sustainable energy solutions that can be brought on line far more quickly, at much lower cost, and with fewer safety and environmental risks.
In conclusion, we stress that we believe that early and aggressive action to address the threat of climate change is absolutely necessary. But we also believe that great care and attention be given to designing legislative strategies that emphasize rapid deployment of sustainable energy strategies and not divert resources to nuclear power or speculative fossil fuel technologies.
Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!), in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year, on our secure website here. Just like political campaigns, issue campaigns like this one cost money. Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.
And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign! We've passed 7,600 signatures, let's get to 10,000 this Spring!
Stop the Import of Radioactive Waste - Call Your Rep. and Urge Support for HR 5632
Category: News and Politics
STOP THE IMPORT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE!
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND URGE SUPPORT FOR HR 5632
Should the United States be a dumping ground for other countries' nuclear waste?
While the answer would seem obvious to most, EnergySolutions--the largest commercial nuclear waste dump in the U.S.--thinks otherwise.
The company has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for permission to import 20,000 tons of low-level nuclear waste from defunct nuclear reactors in Italy. The waste would be shipped through ports in South Carolina and Louisiana, incinerated in Tennessee, and then some of the waste would be sent to EnergySolutions' low-level nuclear waste dump in Utah for disposal.
Besides being the largest proposal of its kind, and the first time a company has specifically asked to dispose large quantities of foreign generated nuclear materials in the U.S., the plan would also set a precedent for the U.S. to become the world's nuclear waste dump.
That is why Congressmen Bart Gordon (D-TN), Jim Matheson (D-UT), and Ed Whitfield (R-KY) have introduced bipartisan legislation--HR 5632 --to ban the importation of low-level radioactive waste into the United States.
HR 5632 is important not only to prevent EnergySolutions from opening the door to foreign nuclear waste disposal in the U.S., but also to preserve our country's ability to handle our own low-level nuclear waste disposal needs.
A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee will hold a hearing on this bill next Tuesday, May 20th.
Please call your House member at 202-224-3121 and ask him/her to support this bill. Doesn't it feel good to be able to urge support for a nuclear bill? Let's get this legislation moving through the House and then on to the Senate!
Already, the Governors of Utah and Wyoming, a regional oversight committee called the Northwest Interstate Compact, and thousands of citizens have spoken out against EnergySolutions' proposal.
It is clear that it was never the intent of state or federal law to allow for the disposal of foreign nuclear waste in the U.S., but EnergySolutions is exposing a loophole that could allow for this to happen and open the door for much more to come.
HR 5632 closes this loophole, protects us from the unnecessary risks of importing nuclear waste from around the world, and preserves our ability to handle the uncertainties of our own nuclear waste disposal needs.
Please call your Representative today and ask for his/her support of HR 5632. 202-224-3121.
Thanks to HEAL Utah for this Alert. A HEAL Utah factsheet on this issue will be posted on NIRS website, www.nirs.org, over the weekend. Other material on this issue is already available on NIRS website.
Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!), in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year, on our secure website here. Just like political campaigns, issue campaigns like this one cost money. Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.
And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign! We've passed 7,500 signatures, let's get to 10,000 this Spring!
This is a REAL SUMMIT -- not "virtual" -- intended both for seasoned activists and also those becoming active on nuclear waste issues now. Registration is still open -- but pre-registration is required -- if you are planning to come, please do register now
We will have time to share together: the information workshops will be two-hour blocks so there will be time to develop specific ACTION STEPS. We will weave together a map of where we are and where we plan to go. We are holding this SUMMIT in the Southeast, a ground zero for the RELAPSE into commercial nuclear power reactor siting and licensing--and a significant share of the proposed expansion of the BOMBPLEX...both of which would generate MORE radioactive waste at every link in the "fuel chain."
We are meeting in South Carolina, one of the likely hubs for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and proposed reprocessing of high-level waste...and in the face of all this--we plan to have FUN! This is not a "virtual event" -- we are asking people to travel -- to physically come together, so we can reestablish a sense of community, nationwide. People are coming from California, Nevada, New Mexico, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, DC and across the Southeast. We hope that YOU will come too, and add to the areas participating. It is important since we do not want to fall prey to the boosters of the nuclear cartel who seek to play us one-against-another. We want to renew and establish new friendships. We want to work together, knowing that the SUMMIT is the beginning of a new phase as we tackle the task. To paraphrase Harvey Wasserman, it's the task of "driving a stake into an industry that should be dead, and that has no heart!"
* If you prefer not to use a credit card on-line to register, please call Mary Olson, NIRS Southeast Office (no, please do NOT email) at 828-675-1792 to make other arrangements. Also, if you just "show up" we may not have food for you, and we definitely will not have a bed for you. We'll likely give you a hug, but we would rather know you are coming!
In addition to community, peer-to-peer time, we have stellar presenters who have agreed to come:
Dr. Frank von Hippel, Princeton University Dr. Arjun Makhijani, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research John Sticpewich, Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads Steve Frishman, Consultant to the State of Nevada Judy Triechel, Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force Michael Mariotte, Nuclear Information and Resource Service Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear Diane D'Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service Louis Zeller, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Tom Clements, Friends of the Earth Don Hancock, Southwest Research and Information Center
Glenn Carroll, Nuclear Watch South Susan Corbett, Sierra Club, South Carolina Chapter Debbie Grinnell, C-10 Dave Kraft, Nuclear Energy Information Service George Crocker, North American Water Office Mary Olson, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Southeast
AND there are several more who have been invited, who we hope will join in. This is going to be a power-packed information session on Saturday afternoon! See the event schedule on-line at: http://www.nirs.org/nwsummit/program.htm
We will be staying together in informal dorm "digs" -- rooms with one bed each; two rooms share 1 bathroom. We will have great simple meals, and help wash the non-disposable dishes! Costs are very low (2 nights, 5 meals for $95 plus $15 materials fee for a total of $110), and if you want to stay off-site and provide your own food, then only a $15 materials fee applies to help cover incidental event costs.
Want more information? Please drop a line to Mary Olson, NIRS Southeast Regional Coordinator, 828-675-1792 or nirs@main.nc.us. Please do register on-line or by phone SOON! We need to know how many rooms to reserve at our venue.
on behalf of a planning group that includes:
Bobbie Paul -- Atlanta WAND David Kraft -- Nuclear Energy Information Service Debbie Grinnell -- C-10 Diane D'Arrigo -- Nuclear Information and Resource Service Gerald Rudolf -- Carolina Peace Resource Center Glenn Carroll -- Nuclear Watch South Janet Marsh -- Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Judy Treichel -- Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force Kevin Kamps -- Beyond Nuclear Leslie Minerd Liz Veazy -- Southern Energy Network Louise Gorenflo -- Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team Mary Olson -- NIRS Southeast Rochelle Becker – Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility Sara Barczak -- Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Sara Tansey -- South Carolina Alliance for Sustainable Campuses and Communities Steve Comley -- We The People Susan Corbett -- Sierra Club, South Carolina Chapter Tom Clements -- Friends of the Earth
Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!)—in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year—on our secure website here. Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.
And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign!
grateful
