As 2012 draws to a close, evaluating the ongoing effects of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on the people of Japan is a difficult and depressing task. After having fled their homes due to the tsunami and resulting triple nuclear meltdown, 21 months later an estimated 160,000 citizens still have not returned home. [...]
From the Florida Supreme Court to Bonnie Raitt concerts, Florida’s controversial “nuclear tax” is getting a lot of attention. On October 4th I, along with my SACE colleagues and attorneys, attended the oral arguments for our high-profile challenge of the cost recovery statute before the Florida Supreme Court. The “nuclear tax” refers to bad, anti-consumer [...]
This guest post was originally published in the Gainesville Sun on October 29, 2012. Francine Robinson chairs the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility for the Florida League of Conservation Voters. SACE’s high risk energy organizer, Mandy Hancock, attended the Oct. 31 hearing referenced below. This piece has been amended to include links to pertinent information, including media [...]
This post originally appeared in the Palm Beach Post on October 3, 2012. Read the post and view the comments here. A misguided state law that allows large utilities to charge consumers for new nuclear reactors before delivering any power is making things more difficult for Floridians trying to recover from the worst recession in [...]
For the third consecutive year I participated in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s (ANA) annual DC Days event. I joined scores of concerned citizens from across the country, along with several people from the former Soviet Union (representing Russia, the Ukraine, and Kazakhstan). We spent three days traversing Capitol Hill, educating the Congress on ways [...]
SACE’s High Risk Energy Choices program director, Sara Barczak, co-authored this blog. After the Japanese government prematurely declared the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors stable at the end of 2011, much of the media retreated from covering the still volatile situation. But given the commemoration of the one year anniversary of this nuclear accident, the international media [...]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) voted 4 to 1 today to issue the Combined Operating License for Vogtle units 3 and 4 near Augusta, Georgia. This is the first license to be approved in the United States in over 30 years. During the brief affirmation session today Chairman Gregory Jaczko firmly dissented and said: “There are significant [...]
Bob Inglis’ call to “simultaneously eliminat[e] all subsidies” for energy is another way that he believes we can use the “power of free markets” to make better choices about energy use. Although “subsidies” are often discussed, it is a concept that is hard to pin down. The World Trade Organization definition of a subsidy amounts [...]
–SACE’s High Risk Energy Organizer, Mandy Hancock, co-authored this blog Earlier this week a rare, unexpected 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Mineral, Virginia and its tremors were felt for hundreds of miles as far away as New York, Ohio, and the Carolinas (see a few maps here). Fortunately, only minor damage was recorded in most areas. [...]
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently asked for stakeholder input on the potential to begin rulemaking proceedings regarding the reprocessing of used (spent) nuclear reactor fuel. Reprocessing is the separation of ‘fissionable’ uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel. A plutonium-based fuel could then be produced, often referred to as mixed-oxide fuel or “MOX,” [...]
