Obama Steps Toward More Nukes to Win Senate Votes on Climate Bill

[Liberation Angel]

Beyond Nuclear Bulletin
July 9, 2009

Top Stories

White House Steps Toward More Nukes to Win Senate Votes on Climate Bill

Background: The Guardian reports that President Obama is considering a compromise on US energy policy and climate change legislation with the endorsement of a massive build up of new nuclear power plants. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently led the President's energy negotiations on Capitol Hill for global warming legislation that also included secretaries of Interior, Agriculture and the head of Environmental Protection Agency. "Quite frankly, we want to recapture the lead on industrial nuclear power. We have lost that lead as we have lost the lead in many energy technologies and we want to get it back," Secretary Chu said in a statement before the Senate. At the same time, Senate Appropriators are yet again seeking up to $50 billion in taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees for new reactor and uranium enrichment facility construction.

Our View: This would be a deeply disappointing and dangerous misstep, however calculated, on the part of the Obama White House. It significantly risks a rerun of the failed and dangerously polluting energy policy of the 20th Century. It would not come as a complete surprise, however. The Obama Administration features prominent nuclear power trailblazers like Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a principle in the founding of the Chicago-based atomic giant Exelon Nuclear; and White House senior advisor, David Axelrod, a powerful lobbyist for the same nuclear company. John Rowe is another close Obama associate, Exelon CEO and the Nuclear Energy Institute's former Board chair. Rowe recently announced he would have to cancel construction of two new reactors for the lack of more taxpayer-backed subsidies.

By making such a compromise President Obama would have to ignore the many clearly marked warning signs around the nuclear industry and divert massive amounts of resources and precious little time from a truly clean and sustainable energy policy at a critical moment in the fate of the Earth.

What You Can Do: Please contact the White House and your Senators now to express your vehement disapproval of including more nuclear power in climate change legislation.

Safety Regulators Questioning French Reactor Design

Background: The U.K. Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) has joined its Finnish counterpart in questioning the safety of Areva's European Pressurized Reactor (EPR). Specifically, NII has "serious concerns" about the EPR's "cerebral cortex," the computerized control and instrumentation systems (C&I) which monitor and govern plant operations, such as temperature, pressure, and power levels. NII's letter to Areva and ectricit/span> de France - now owner of British Energy, and proponent of building four EPRs at two sites in the UK - also questioned the design's lack of safety displays and manual controls for safe shutdowns, and concluded "We have serious concerns about your proposal which allows lower safety class systems to have write access to higher safety class systems..."

Our View: While AmerenUE's decision two months ago to cancel its plans to build an EPR at Callaway nuclear power plant in Missouri was a tremendous grassroots victory, there are still several EPR proposals targeted at the U.S. UniStar's EPR proposed at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland is on the Energy Dept. shortlist for nuclear loan guarantee funding and groundbreaking yet this year, while EPRs at Nine Mile Point New York, Bell Bend Pennsylvania, Amarillo, Texas, and Hammett Idaho are in various stages of development. And on June 18th, Duke, Areva, and USEC announced plans to build an EPR in Portsmouth, Ohio.

The emerging controversy is focusing safety concerns here and abroad over how a "standardized design" can be viewed so differently by one country's safety regulator to the next. As it now stands, regulators in France and the US are in disagreement with safety inspectors in the UK and Finland over exactly how to demonstrate the design safety of the EPR I&C systems. To make matters more even complicated and uncertain, the European EPR designs incorporate mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel use and raise more reactor safety and radioactive waste complications.

What You Can Do: Phone your U.S. Senators and Representative via the Capitol Switchboard at [phone], and President Obama via the White House Comment Line at [phone], to debunk the myth that France has solved all of nuclear power's problems. Urge them to block American taxpayer subsidies to French corporations for new reactors, new uranium enrichment facilities, and for a risky relapse into radioactive waste reprocessing. Go to the Beyond Nuclear for more information on the French Nuclear Myth.


The French Nuclear Medusa

A Third of French Reactors out of Action as Heat Wave Persists

One third of France's 58 reactors are out of action because of a prolonged heat wave that has forced the country to import electricity from Britain. A similar problem occurred during prior heat waves, exposing the vulnerability of such a heavy reliance on one technology to deliver electricity. Water is used to cool reactors but when water temperatures rise too high, reactors must shut down in the interest of safety. In addition, reactor discharge water temperatures must remain below 24C (75.2F) to avoid harm to aquatic wildlife and habitats.

PLEASE DONATE TO BEYOND NUCLEAR TODAY! DONATE HERE

Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. Beyond Nuclear staff can be reached at: 301.270.2209. Or view our Web site at: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

[boppers]

1. Nooooo, don't use natural earth technologies!

The horror!

Big atoms are bad!


edit: typo

[Liberation Angel]

2. This was one of my biggest fears with Obama:

his support for nukes while a Senator.

During the campaign he was very guarded in his statements and actually has surprised me up to this point.

But I did not know about Axelrod's nuke industry ties or Emanuel's and this news about Chu really worries me.

So anybody who cares PLEASE make it known here and on the Hill and at the White House.

The Nuke corporations are basically just Cheney and Bush behind the green door.

[phleshdef]

3. This post should be locked. The title is misleading and has nothing to do with "nukes".

[Liberation Angel]

4. Nuclear power plants are "nukes"

From the OP:


"At the same time, Senate Appropriators are yet again seeking up to $50 billion in taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees for new reactor and uranium enrichment facility construction."

And the plants produce weapons grade nuclear materials.


So I don't get the attack here.

This is a news release about money for new nukes. Obama might be leaning towards that. $50 BILLION of our money on a deadly and wasteful technology.

You want that?

[tkmorris]

6. Colloquially, "nukes" are nuclear weapons

Nuclear power plants are a different animal, as are facilities to enrich uranium. I also believe your thread title is inaccurate and should be corrected.

[boppers]

15. "weapons grade nuclear materials"...huh.

50 billion on clean energy, using dirt to supply power, sounds pretty good to me. One of the side effects is different dirt, for which we need better methods of general storage, or broad range dispersal.

As far as dirt being deadly and wasteful, I suggest you avoid radioactive materials such as dirt, animals and people, and plants, and well, pretty much everything that's made of atoms.

[Liberation Angel]

18. Calling nuke power "clean energy" is like calling Hitler Obama

I think that is an apt comparison

[boppers]

21. Godwin to start. Nice.

Are you afraid of dirt?

[Liberation Angel]

22. Radioactive dirt is deadly. Nukes are mass killers

and as Hitler was a mass killer and so is man made radiation, yes, I am afraid of radioactive dirt

[boppers]

23. Tell me where to find non-radioactive dirt.

Go ahead, take your time, and tell me where, in the universe, atoms do not decay.

I'll wait. :evilgrin:

[Liberation Angel]

25. Man made radiation in nukes vs. naturally occurring radiation in clean dirt

there is no comparison and you know it

[boppers]

27. "Man made"? Not "Human made"?

For starters, the leading pioneer in the field was a woman, Curie. (It's a minor quibble, but one I use to remind men that science doesn't belong to them).

As far as *concentration* of a naturally occurring process, yes, humans figured out how to make it happen much faster, and harness the output... but long before humans applied their knowledge, different tribes and groups knew to avoid certain places, certain areas of land, because the natural dirt there would kill them or cause deformed children.

Calling such dirt "clean" is a bit odd, if one fears radiation.

[Liberation Angel]

40. I don't see many women running nuke plants like Cheney and Bush

whose companies and backers WANT th population rates to go down so they don't mind a little cancer here and there.

But I accept the correction to a common expression which is sexist except insofar as I believe MEN really produce this deadly sh*t because women generally are way too smart to support shi* that gives women's ovaries cancer and mutates their children in utero and ills them in the womb.

For those joining this debate late please see

www.radiation.org

for the research on this

[Liberation Angel]

24. Godwin's law and the proper use of Nazi analogies

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/

[billyoc]

47. I build nuclear power plants. They're nukes.

[Liberation Angel]

49. thanks - see what I have to put up with?

relentless

and uninformed

hope you wear your dosi,\meter and got a base reading when you started there (if one is operating where you work or about to)

[billyoc]

53. Oh, HELL no, I wouldn't go within a mile of one of those filthy things once they're running!

I just BUILD them, then I run. :hi:

[Liberation Angel]

54. Funny WHY? Tell the people why, bro

you know why


don't worry

the company isn't listening

[billyoc]

55. First of all, I'm a Union Ironworker, any company that might be listening can kiss my ass.

Secondly, what's "Funny WHY?" mean?

[Liberation Angel]

57. what you said was funny but tell the people WHY you wouldn't go near a nuke plant after u build it

I've worked with nuclear worker union whistlblowers so I know why and its alwys well advised to be smart

BUT tell folks why you wouldn't hang around once they power up

[billyoc]

59. Ohhhh, okay. They just give me the creeps!

:hi:

[BlooInBloo]

5. Ah. Nuclear power, not nuclear weapons (as the "nukes" is typically used). Fascinating.

[Liberation Angel]

9. Where ya been? Nukes have referred to nuke reactors forever

in addition to nuke bombs.

See my post below

[Liberation Angel]

7. "No Nukes" on Wikipedia from M.U.S.E. (This is how I know this)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicians_United_for_Safe_Energy



"Musicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, was an activist group founded in 1979 by Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall of Orleans. The group advocated against the use of nuclear energy, forming shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979. MUSE organized a series of five No Nukes concerts held at Madison Square Garden in New York in September 1979. On September 23, 1979, almost 200,000 people attended a large rally staged by MUSE on the then-empty north end of the Battery Park City landfill in New York.


"Other musicians performing at the concerts included Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, The Doobie Brothers, Jesse Colin Young, Gil Scott-Heron, Tom Petty, Poco and others. The album No Nukes, and a film, also titled No Nukes, were both released in 1980 to document the performances. A full No Nukes concert featuring Browne and Crosby, Stills & Nash was also filmed near the beach in Ventura, California, at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, but none of that footage made it into the final cut."


Maybe I am "dating" myself but i always think of the term "nukes" to refer to this seminal event opposing nuclear energy and nuclear power plants.

Nukes is just short for nuclear and can refer to either power plants or bombs.

[dionysus]

33. wikipedia. how droll.

[Liberation Angel]

56. Wiki is about as "common" a usage as I can find.

But in another thread a nuclear worker backed me up

so there

[Liberation Angel]

8. THIS thread will be a perfect example of how pronukers

can control what makes it to the greatest page because of the new unrec function

too bad

[BlooInBloo]

10. It's certainly a perfect example of something.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Their opinion is just as valid as yours.

And often more educated.

[Liberation Angel]

14. And more procorporate

you have bo idea about my education or experience

so the ad hominem attacks are uncalled for

I worked in the nuke industry with environmental experts

I also worked with nuke industry whistleblowers and was involved in NRC hearings and Congressional heaings on nuke safety.

I also worked with nuclear physicists on epidemiological studies of radiation on local populations

so give that line of baloney a rest

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Actually, I do.

You've made a number of claims about a number of things, much of which was wrong.

Yes, I know you claim you used to work for the nuke industry. Given your statements, I doubt your claim.

[Liberation Angel]

20. You really can't avoid an ad hominem attack

but if you want to back that up with facts then we can argue facts

And if you KNOW something about me, spit it out.

[boppers]

17. Bo knows. eom

[high density]

26. Generating electricity is a "procorporate" idea now?

My problem with anti-nuke people in general is that they offer no viable alternatives.

[boppers]

30. Oh, you haven't heard about natural living?

Hardcore anti-nuke, anti-corporate, anti-government folks go off the grid, live in hunter-gatherer mode, and don't have internet (for obvious reasons).

Far from being mocking, I think it's an absolutely wonderful way to *choose* to live, provided that their choice isn't forced on others.

[scheming daemons]

32. You're position is procorporate too... pro Big Oil and pro Big Coal

[Liberation Angel]

39. Anti petroleum and antiCoal. prosolar and renewables

anti corporate fascism

[dionysus]

34. yes, the nuclear lobby influences DU. and, I ride a unicorn to work.

[scheming daemons]

11. Good for Obama.... America can begin to get off fossil fuels by focusing on nuclear power

No emissions either. No greenhouse gases.

[depakid]

13. Well, not quite

but in the scheme of things, on balance- better than "clean" coal.

[Liberation Angel]

19. Are you crazy? No emissions? Radioactive emissions some from nuke plants

or haven't you been paying attention?

[boppers]

28. Biggest emission source of the plants: Concrete cooling towers.

Do you hate concrete, too? Since it's also radioactive?

[scheming daemons]

29. I've worked in the nuclear field for 20 years, honey. You are clueless and have no idea what you

are talking about.

You get more radioactive emmissions going through your body standing in your garage than you would get if you spent your life living on top of a nuclear reactor cooling tower.



You. have. no. clue. about. what. you. are. talking. about.

[vaberella]

31. +1. You deserve your own thread of recs. n/t

[boppers]

35. If you've worked in the field for 20 years...

I'm just curious, how can we make atoms without a nucleus, so we can avoid decay?

:evilgrin:
:sarcasm:

[Liberation Angel]

36. I'm not a physicist, I worked in environmental medicine and research

nt

[boppers]

37. The world is radioactive.

One of the sadder things about american science education is a fear of "science that people don't understand".

Some light reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive

[Liberation Angel]

41. But nuke plants produce deadly isotopes which are man made (or human made)

they are not found in nature and are produced by the plants. They are emitted into the air and water and food chain and get into our bones and teeth and reproductive organs and children in utero.

I understand this science more than most which is why I am so vocal.

[Liberation Angel]

42. delete error

[Liberation Angel]

43. delete error

[boppers]

44. Congrats on the triple post.

Isotopes which are rare in nature are the enemy, then?

[Liberation Angel]

48. somebody musta been messin' wit me

my screen froze

[Liberation Angel]

38. Baloney : Nuke plant emissions are DEADLY and DIFFERENT from background radiation

I guess 20 years has made it hard to remember how to spell "emissions" but I'm a terrible speler too ;)

And don't call me honey - it is demeaning and disrespectful and sexist.

Actually if you were standing near an emissions stack you would get all the background radiation PLUS the radition from the nukes which last time I checked the cfr and nrc standards and rules would give you a dose equal to 50% MORE than background radiationso you statement makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER! Plus the sht comong out of the stack is way more hazardous than background radiation when you are outside (escept possibly for skin cancer from the sun)

You must be getting sleepy cause that should be counterintuitive even for a pronuker.

Its kinda funny how dumb that sounds.

[boppers]

45. Sleep. eom

[Liberation Angel]

51. g'night boppers sleep tight

don't let the radioactive bedbugs bite

it could be worse than lyme disease

[billyoc]

46. Finally, some good news. About time he created some jobs.

:woohoo:

[Liberation Angel]

50. Since you work for the industry

I guess you are not exacttly unbiased

but it seems that in many communities the stimulus is starting to work.

I don't see this as doing much except lining some lobbyists and executive pockets for doing nothing.

[billyoc]

52. That's quite alright, I don't need you to see it at all.

I know *I'll* never see it once it's built.

[Liberation Angel]

58. and that is because...?

?

[billyoc]

60. One word:

Overtime.

[Liberation Angel]

61. You get your overtime and then you run from the plant?

I get that. I really do.

[billyoc]

62. I doubt it, but I'll consider the possibility.