Spring: The Season of Nuclear Disaster
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Science saves lives – think antibiotics, insulin for diabetes, and surgical interventions after car crashes just to name a few. This year scientists throughout the United States (U.S.) are celebrating science, scientific funding, and scientific accomplishments on April 22, 2017 Earth Day. Join scientists and concerned citizens in Washington D.C., or in a city near you, to celebrate the human health and economic progress made by scientists in the U.S. and around the world. Stand-up for scientific research, the creative search for real solutions to human problems, and the proven facts behind those advances that save lives – like the polio vaccine, sterilization of equipment, or pasteurization of milk --- all scientific accomplishments. Show your support for science and save lives – standup to stop federal cuts to research and advancement in science.
To find a march near you or to join the march in DC, go the March for Science webpage
Spring: The Season of Nuclear Disaster – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi was the title of the April 4, 2017 tele-briefing hosted by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and guest speaker Fairewinds’ Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen. Hosted by Tim Judson, NIRS executive director, Arnie discusses the myths of atomic energy, the ins and outs of each disaster, and his own personal experiences with assessing the industry failures and magnitude of each disaster. At the end of his presentation, Arnie and Tim also answered questions from listeners in this enlightening segment. You can listen to the tele-briefing in its entirety here on Fairewinds website.
Demystifying Nuclear Blog: Magical Thinking
By Sue Prent and Maggie Gundersen
The oxymoronic term “alternative facts” has recently taken root in American political conversation, but the alleged magical thinking by the nuclear power industry is nothing new to informed energy sector critics.
The nuclear power meltdowns at Three Mile Island (TMI) in the US, Chernobyl, now the contaminated legacy of the Ukraine, originally part of the USSR – now Russia, and the triple meltdowns in Japan at its Fukushima Daiichi atomic reactor site show that the various atomic power disaster scenarios created by the nuclear industry are far from what actually occurred during the last 38-years.
Read More on our Demystify Blog
Arnie Gundersen And Ben Shulman-Reed Appear on CCTV:
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the recent developments at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors as well as the possible restart of more atomic reactors in Japan were the topics of discussion when Nuclear Free Future host Margaret Harrington invited Fairewinds Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen and Program Researcher Ben Shulman-Reed to join her on the CCTV program. Margaret Harrington, Ben, and Arnie also discussed the significant discrepancies between government sources for data and independent scientific research regarding all three nuclear meltdowns. Watch the interview here.
Energy News
Cape Cod Times reports: Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station exempted from safety upgrades
The NRC has granted the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station an extension to the alleged post-Fukushima meltdown industry-wide deadline to upgrade key safety features including the installation of a hardened vent system and a reservoir at the base of the reactor. Because the Pilgrim atomic reactor is slated to shut down in 2019, the NRC waived its regulations so that Pilgrim will be able to operate for the next two years without implementing these critical safety features that were designed in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster to prevent vital system failures. The public is already aware that Pilgrim is in dire shape as it is, an issue reconfirmed by a NRC email sent to reporters.
“Pilgrim may be shutting down in 2019, but that date should have no bearing on Entergy’s — and the NRC’s — responsibility to ensure safe plant operations, each and every day. The risks are too high to allow Entergy to stumble forward for the next two years and disregard investment in critical safety upgrades,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a public statement.
Read the Article Here
Fairewinds in The News:
Enviro News: NIMBY: Nevada Says Not In My Back Yard on Trump Revival of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump
The 2018 budget proposal was released in March and it features a proposed $120 million to revive the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. There's a reason the idea was tabled under the previous administration, to quote Arnie, "To revive Yucca is to ignore science... It was never a scientific selection, it was a political one.”
Read the Article Here
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