Demystifying Nuclear Power: Hanford Nuclear Reservation Belches a Deadly Warning

Demystifying Nuclear Power: Hanford Nuclear Reservation Belches a Deadly Warning

Located in Washington State, near the majestic Columbia River, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is a site of grimly historic significance, linked to the bombing of Nagasaki and the Cold War nuclear arms race. The site was chosen in 1943 because its ample supply of water could be used to cool the nine atomic reactors designed to make Plutonium for A bombs. That water was drawn from the majestic Columbia River that further downstream creates the border between Washington and Oregon. 

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Demystifying Nuclear Power: Public Service Announcement: Nukespeak Watch

Demystifying Nuclear Power: Public Service Announcement: Nukespeak Watch

We at Fairewinds think it’s time to further reframe the conversation around nuclear energy and the myths and misconceptions it perpetuates. 

For far too long, spin doctors within the nuclear energy industry have successfully obscured bad news about their product by carefully controlling the language chosen for public consumption. It is called “Nukespeak”. 

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Problem: In a post-Fukushima-triple-meltdown world, do the numbers work for atomic power?

Problem: In a post-Fukushima-triple-meltdown world, do the numbers work for atomic power?

With a giant blot still spreading over the page of its public safety record, the multi-national, multi-billion dollar atomic power industry faces the stark economic reality that it can’t successfully compete financially with sustainable methods of generating electricity...

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Demystifying Nuclear Power: I'm an Energy Voter

Demystifying Nuclear Power: I'm an Energy Voter

November 2015 is an election month at many locations in the United States. Most Americans have seen the slick ads, paid for by the fossil fuel industry, urging voters to demand more and more dirty energy. 

Personally, I’d like to see this message stripped of its cynical agenda and appropriated by clean energy advocates.

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Demystifying Nuclear Power: Nuclear IS Atomic

Demystifying Nuclear Power: Nuclear IS Atomic

Fairewinds Energy Education Board Member Chiho Kaneko is this week’s special guest blogger. Chiho worked as a volunteer interpreter at the United Nations in April 2015 on behalf of the Nihon Hidankyo (The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations). Stunned by the personal stories of A-bomb survivors' acting as delegates to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference, Chiho shares their accounts of "The Day" and what followed during the ensuing days, weeks, months, and years.

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Demystifying Nuclear Power: Coast-to-Coast Reflections and Summer FAQs

Demystifying Nuclear Power: Coast-to-Coast Reflections and Summer FAQs

We at Fairewinds decided to use this opportunity to address some of the key areas people are asking about post C2C.  Some of these questions were answered in full on other portions of the show, and some we only briefly mentioned.  Other questions raised have been discussed and/or answered on Fairewinds site via video, podcast, or FAQs (frequently asked questions).

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Downstream

Downstream

The once pristine watershed of the Great Lakes is now home to 30 nuclear power reactors. Several temporary nuclear waste storage sites on Lake Huron near the Bruce site are in imminent danger of becoming permanent nuclear waste dumps that will be abandoned underground within one mile of the Lake. 

 

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The Economics of Nuclear

The Economics of Nuclear

Here at Fairewinds Energy Education, we believe that this year, 2015, marks the tipping point for our energy future. For years, we have heard visionaries like Amory Lovins, Mycle Schneider, and Dr. Mark Cooper present real data and economic analyses that show a renewable energy-future is more feasible than the current paradigm of coal, oil, nuclear, and gas.  Now we see their projections come to fruition...

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Anticipating the Unthinkable

Anticipating the Unthinkable

NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reports that in March of this year, Planet Earth broke the all-time high record on carbon dioxide concentrations at 400 parts-per-million, leaving the most optimistic limit of 350 in the distant dust.  It is an ominous landmark, to say the least, and there are constant reminders that something big and unpleasant is transforming the world around us.

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Generational Transfer Of Risk

Generational Transfer Of Risk

As most of you, our followers and viewers, know, Fairewinds Energy Education has real concerns about nuclear waste abandonment as nuclear corporations begin the process of decommissioning and dismantling nuclear power plants. Sponsored by the Lintilhac Foundation, Fairewinds issued a major report about decommissioning Vermont Yankee in March 2015.  Beyond Nuclear, Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance, and Vermont Citizens Action Network invited Fairewinds Energy Education to speak at the United States premiere of Decommissioning Our Nuclear Power Stations: Mission Impossible? in Montpelier, VT, Wednesday, June 3rd.

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