Phone Bank to De-fund Nuclear Weapons

The Congressional super committee has been charged with cutting $1.5 trillion from the federal budget by November 23. Congress will vote on their proposal one month later, December 23. Now’s the time to let them know that nuclear weapons spending has got to go!

Help us reach out to the one Southeasterner on the super committee, South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn. We’ll call Clyburn’s constituents to enlist their help to de-fund nuclear weapons and ask them to convince Clyburn to do the same!

Join us at the Georgia WAND office November 10 or November 15 6pm-8pm pm at the Georgia WAND office, 250 Georgia Avenue, Suite 202, Atlanta, GA 30316. We'll provide pizza and a script. We'll also have some phones available, but please bring your cell phone and charger is you are able. If you’d prefer to call from home, let us know! We’ll send you your own list and a script just email Carolyn@wand.org for more details.

Sign the “Co-petition to prevent Fukushima in the US.”

Beyond Nuclear has petitioned the NRC to suspend the operations of 23 Fukushima-style reactors in the US. Co-petition with us by sending a letter to the NRC. Click here to sign.

Petition the Obama Administration to end taxpayer subsidies for new nuclear reactors

With federally implemented taxpayer subsidies for new nuclear reactors, and Georgia Power's nuclear construction cost recovery fee already on our power bills, Georgians are forced to pay twice for dirty, dangerous nuclear reactors that we do not want in our state.

Georgia is scheduled to build the first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in 30 years. Please sign the petition below to let the White House know that we won't pay for new nuclear reactors!

Click here to sign. If you don't already have an account with whitehouse.gov, you will first need to set one up by entering your name, email address and zip code.

Oppose Radioactive Spent Fuel Storage and Reprocessing at the Savannah River Site—sign the letter to Governor Nathan Deal!

Tell Governor Deal that we don’t want the Southeast to become a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Download the letter to Gov Deal here, print and send in or email it using this form.

Fight Against Nuclear Loans

Call:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (202) 224-3521 (Washington D.C.)

Sen. Johnny Isakson (202) 224-3643 (Washington D.C.)

Your REP. via the Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Ask them to OPPOSE any increase to the TITLE 17 NUCLEAR LOAN PROGRAM, and instead to push for the PROGRAM TO BE ENDED AND ALL UNSPENT MONEY RESCINDED. (Previously approved: %18.5 billion for new reactors and $4 billion for uranium enrichment plants)

Media Contact:
Courtney Hanson
courtney@wand.org
404.524.5999

Representatives from Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions (Georgia WAND) will attend and speak at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s presentation during the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) third committee meeting of the NRC-sponsored study, “Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations Near Nuclear Facilities: Phase 1.”

Georgia WAND will facilitate the participation of members from Shell Bluff, a community located near Georgia Power’s nuclear Plant Vogtle. A primary concern of Shell Bluff residents is the compromised quality of health and lack of safety to which they are subject due to the presence of Plant Vogtle in their community further impacted by their close proximity to the Savannah River Site in neighboring South Carolina. Members of the Shell Bluff community will be in attendance to speak about their experiences, concerns, and goals for a future of environmental responsibility.

“We’re pleased the National Academy and the NRC are coming to Atlanta for this cancer analysis with limited public participation. We need additional scrutiny on the Savannah River Site area that includes the nuclear reactors at Vogtle in Burke County, Georgia.  I hope the National Academy will seriously consider how these high risk nuclear dumps by the riverside have impacted the health of those living downwind and downstream for decades.”  Bobbie Paul, Executive Director, Georgia WAND said.

The meeting’s public session will take place May 23 at the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta Airport Hotel, located at One Hartsfield Centre Parkway in Atlanta.

In the morning session, the NRC will explain the agency’s oversight of the nuclear fuel cycle and civilian nuclear fuel facilities, and be available to answer committee member questions. Georgia WAND and its community affiliates will be particularly interested in raising the issues of environmental monitoring, accountability for the poor health of affected communities, and the added health stressors that will result from the addition of two new reactors at Plant Vogtle during this session.

In the afternoon session, the committee will hear presentations from speakers from other organizations on U.S. cancer registries and issues that could affect the designs and methods of the NRC-requested work.

In alignment with the requests of the NRC, Georgia WAND is particularly concerned with the deteriorating health of communities located near nuclear facilities. Georgia WAND is committed to working closely with and aiding in the political organization of communities that have experienced increasing rates of cancer and other health complications due to the high levels of radiation in these areas.

Phase 1 of the NAS study will determine whether a technically defensible approach to meet the goals of the study request is feasible—and if so, the approach will be developed using scientifically sound processes for evaluating cancer risk that could be associated with nuclear facilities.

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*Your voices matter! The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have begun work on their FY 2012 energy appropriations bills. This is the time they are most focused on these issues. Now is the time to act.*

Congressional Switchboard for every member of Congress: 202-224-3121.

Calling your members of Congress

*When you call, introduce yourself with your name and where you live--so they know you are in their district.

*Ask that your Member oppose any increase to the Title 17 nuclear loan program, and that instead the program be ended and all unspent money (which is all of it--currently $18.5 billion for reactors and $4 billion for uranium enrichment plants) be rescinded.

*Ask if your Member has a position on your request

*Politics makes strange bedfellows: Please don't assume in advance your Member has a position one way or another. Some normally pro-nuclear members may well oppose nuclear loans on budgetary grounds; some nuclear skeptics may not yet fully understand this program. No matter what position your Member may have taken in the past, concerns over the federal budget and the impact of Fukushima may have changed things. Again: your voice and outreach matter.

Talking Points

Here are some additional talking points you may want to bring up if you can involve your Members' staff in a conversation:

*The Fukushima accident has demolished the entire public policy premise of the nuclear loan program. That premise was that, because private investors-Wall Street--have been leery of investing billions of dollars in expensive and financially risky new reactors, taxpayer support could jumpstart a new nuclear construction program. Congress and the Bush and Obama administrations believed that if utilities could show that they can build a few new reactors onbudget and on-time (neither of which occurred during the first generation of reactors), private money would follow.

*The reality in the post-Fukushima world is that private money will not follow. Not only are investors concerned about construction cost overruns,delays, and ability of utilities in deregulated states to find customer for high-priced nuclear electricity, now Wall Street has received another reminder that multi-billion dollar investments can turn into mega-billion dollar liabilities within hours. Even if a reactor is built on-time and on-budget, an accident that destroys it also destroys the ability of a utility to generate profit to repay loans.

In the wake of a recent settlement with ten intervening parties, Georgia Power defended their request of an 11.15% return on equity (down from 11.95%) to the  Public Service Commission at a hearing Wednesday, December 1. The hearing was the last in the case before the PSC comes to a final decision December 21.

Chuck Eaton: 404-657-2020; ceaton@psc.state.ga.us

Stan Wise: 404-657-4574; stanwise@psc.state.ga.us

Lauren “Bubba” McDonald: 404-463-4260; lmcdonald@psc.state.ga.us

Bobby Baker: 404-656-4515; bbaker@psc.state.ga.us

Doug Everett: 404-463-6746; deverett@psc.state.ga.us

The main PSC switchboard number is 404-656-4501.

Join Students from across the Southeast as we discuss how to fight dirty energy, and promote a clean, just energy future.

Learn about our region’s most critical environmental challenges from creating a Sustainable South to  Nuclear Power 101 !  The Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference will educate and train young people through workshops, panel discussions, educational speakers and group activities. For information about workshops, speakers and to register visit: www.climateaction.net/ssrec

Get on the Bus from Atlanta to Athens!
Contact GA WAND at (404) 983-0177
visit www.gawand.org

This movie highlights the global nuclear threat and spells out, in chilling terms, the danger facing everyone if nuclear weapons end up in the hands of terrorists or explode by accident. The film conveys a powerful yet simple message that nuclear weapons are no longer acceptable and should become a part of our past.

The film premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, was a hit at the TED Conference and made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival. Produced by Lawrence Bender (producer of Academy Award-winning films An Inconvenient Truth and Inglorious Bastards), and co-financed by Participant Media and, Ploughshares Fund grantee, World Security Institute.

Watch the trailer here!

See the movie, bring friends and spread the word!

What: Film viewing of Countdown to Zero

When: August 1 at 2pm OR August 5 at 7pm

Where: Landmark Midtown Arts Cinema, 931 Monroe Circle NE, Atlanta GA 30308

RESERVE your tickets by emailing nichole@wand.org with your full name, telephone number, preferred date (AUGUST 1 at 2pm or AUGUST 5 at 7pm) and the number of tickets requested (one or two). Please note the "h" in the spelling of Nichole...would hate to have your email bounce! As always, you're welcome to call the Georgia WAND office with any questions: 404-524-5999.

by Bruce Dixon

BLACK AGENDA REPORT (5/4/10) In the weeks since President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors next to an existing pair of nukes in mostly black Burke County, GA, the inconvenient questions, unanswered and mostly unasked, continue to pile up.

The first and most obvious questions are why nukes, and why Burke County?
The answer to "why nukes" is that discussion of the catastrophic risk inherent to nuclear power is pretty much off the table in mainstream media these days. The Obama administration likes to call it "safe nuclear energy," often in the same breath as "clean coal." Both are colossal and equally transparent lies. The 24th anniversary of the horrific nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine on April 24 passed almost unnoticed in the mainstream US media, although video of a brawl over something else in that nation's parliament made most of the networks here. GREENPEACE marked the event with the release of a study by more than 50 scientists across the planet who peg the human toll of Chernobyl at a quarter million cancers, 100,000 of them fatal. Like the anniversary of the disaster itself, the Greenpeace story dropped soundlessly down the memory hole. Our amnesia is nearly perfect. I spoke to a class of journalism students at a local university at the beginning of April. Not a one of them ever heard of Chernobyl, or even of Three Mile Island. So why not nukes?

A second set of questions are why put nukes on a river that's already the 4th most toxic waterway in the nation, on a site just across from the contaminated Savannah River nuclear weapons installation? And if leaky civilian and military nukes really are the job-creating answers to poverty, shouldn't Burke County, GA be one of the wealthiest, instead of the poorest places east of the Mississippi 25 years after its first civilian nukes, and six decades after neighboring towns, some of them all black on the South Carolina side of the river, were bulldozed to create the Savannah River nuclear weapons facility?

A third set of questions are whether anybody is listening to the urgent warnings from nuclear experts that the site's planned next-generation reactors are even less safe than their leaky older cousins? Like most information unfavorable to utility companies and the nuclear industry, these warnings cannot seem to find their way into the mainstream media.

A fourth set of questions are why there are no laws requiring, and no funds to pay for, testing the air, soil, water, fish, wildlife, or the people of mostly black Burke County, who are experiencing an unexplained epidemic of cancer? The people living closest to the new and existing reactors in Waynesboro, GA depend on ground water wells for drinking and bathing water. Ground water is easily contaminated by tritium, a radioactive substance produced in abundance by civilian reactors and used on the other side of the Savannah River to produce nuclear weapons.

CNN aired a brief but excellent report from Shell Bluff, GA April 16 and 19 in which they pointed out that the cancer rate was far higher than that of surrounding communities, and that local residents have held multiple public meetings opposing the new nukes, demanding testing and answers to the widespread local cancer epidemic, to little avail. The residents of Shell Bluff don't understand, the CNN reporter said, why their water and soil is not being tested, why nobody is interested in determining why so many of their friends, family members and neighbors are sickening and dying of cancer.

Perhaps because of the vast amounts of campaign cash the nuclear industry makes available to both Republicans and Democrats, current federal and state laws allow nuclear utilities to do their own testing, and keep the methods, extent and results of that testing confidential. And since 2004 there have been no federal funds provided to the consultants that once did limited testing on the Georgia side of the river. Persistent back channel efforts by local residents and WAND, a local, grassroots and woman-led local organization, may result in some funds being released for testing, but that outcome is by no means certain. It was the tireless work of WAND activists, who are helping locals sue in opposition to the plant's construction and operating permits, which alerted CNN to the story in the first place.

The fifth bunch of unasked and unanswered questions are whether the people in Shell Bluff, GA want more nukes in their backward, and whether the US is democracy-proof enough to put them there anyway. The first part is easy to answer, as CNN discovered. They don't.

"We had protests, and we voiced our opinion," said one local resident, "and we didn't want them, but it's just, you know -- we're just the little peons." When the CNN reporter asked asked two local women whether they thought President Obama had "... done enough to make sure that people like you are safe before new reactors are built?" they opined that the president "... doesn't know we're down here." That kind of answers the second part too, doesn't it?

The last question is whether putting inherently dangerous nukes into mostly black Burke County, GA amounts to environmental racism. I asked Clark Atlanta University's Dr. Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center and the man who first coined the term "environmental racism" to characterize the frequent placement of toxic and dangerous industrial facilities into minority communities. This is what he told us:

"The siting of risky nuclear power plants in Shell Bluff community in Burke County is consistent with the environmental racism pattern I documented in Dumping in Dixie some two decades ago. In Georgia, there are currently three coal fired power plants proposed for mostly black and poor communities with the promise of jobs. In reality, fenceline black community residents don't get the jobs.  They get pollution and more poverty. And they get sick."

So the question hangs --- if a black president does it, is it still environmental racism?

Reprinted from Huffington Post

Groups Urge Feds to Suspend Nuclear Licensing; Westinghouse Reactor Defect Was Missed By Regulators

Nuclear engineer says corrosion turns “passive” emergency feature into greater accident risk

Today, twelve national and regional environmental organizations called upon U.S. nuclear regulators to launch an investigation into newly identified flaws in Westinghouse’s new reactor design. The coalition asked three federal agencies to suspend the AP1000 reactor from licensing and taxpayer loan consideration.

The newly discovered design flaw is tied to documentation of dozens of corrosion holes being found in existing U.S. reactor containments, which recently has raised concern at the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), an independent arm of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Containment buildings are vital barriers against radiation releases during nuclear accidents.

“The proposed AP1000 containment design is inherently less safe than current reactors,” said Arnold Gundersen, former senior vice-president at Nuclear Energy Services PCC. Westinghouse did not analyze the scenario for failure containment warned of by Gundersen. He continued, “Westinghouse has ignored the long history of previous containment failures that indicate there is a high likelihood that the AP1000 containment might be in a failed condition [one or more undetected holes] before an accident begins. The containment leakage problem is exacerbated because the AP1000 is specifically intended to function as a chimney – to pull air up and release it through the top of the building.”

Gundersen, a 38-year engineering veteran of the nuclear power industry, produced a 32-page technical report* detailing a history of holes and cracks found at operating nuclear plants. Such corrosion problems, if coupled with the experimental “passive” emergency cooling feature in the AP1000, could accelerate and greatly increase the early release of radiation during an accident. Gunderson’s report is backed by engineer and corrosion specialist Rudolf Hauser.

Based on the report, the coalition today urged NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko** to suspend license reviews of 14 proposed AP1000 reactors pending the ACRS investigation. They also urged Secretary of Energy Chu and the White House Office of Management and Budget to drop plans for taxpayer funding for the reactor due to increasing risks of projects failing in midstream. In February, the Obama Administration awarded $8.33 billion in controversial taxpayer-financed loans (with a public guarantee to cover default) to an AP1000 project at Southern Company’s Vogtle plant in Waynesboro, Georgia.

Gundersen’s analysis shows that even a three-quarter inch hole in the AP1000 reactor building could,
under pressure from a pipe break or other accidents, result in a large and unfiltered radiation release because the building is deliberately intended to move air and heat into the atmosphere during an emergency. That heat removal – via a gap between an inner metal containment and the outer shield building – is the very feature Westinghouse touts as its principal safety upgrade.

Gundersen explained why the probability of a radiation accident is higher with the AP1000: “Existing data shows that containment system failure occurs with moisture and oxygen.” He explained today that for the AP1000 design, leakage from the emergency water tank located above the reactor, testing the tank and/or atmospheric humidity will create, within the gap between liners, “a constant environment of moisture and oxygen that may, in fact, provoke a through-wall containment failure in locations that are difficult or impossible to inspect.”

“The Obama Administration should put the brakes on. The consequences of containment failure at Plant Vogtle would be devastating,” said Lou Zeller, Science Director for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. “We call upon Energy Secretary Chu and NRC Chairman Jaczko to recall the dangerously flawed AP1000 design before accidents occur and more tax dollars are wasted.”

A number of organizations are contesting design and licensing efforts of 14 AP1000s at seven
sites across the Southeast. Also, four AP1000s are under construction in China, with more planned there and in India.

At least 77 instances of containment system degradation have occurred at operating US reactors since 1970. That includes eight through-wall holes or cracks in steel containments – two discovered in 2009 – and 60 instances of corrosion that thinned the liner walls below the allowable thickness. In addition to the ACRS, nuclear experts in Europe have recently expressed concern about the likelihood of containment failures at aging plants.

Although Westinghouse and nuclear utilities such as Duke Energy, Progress Energy and others contend that the AP1000 design was “pre-certified” by the NRC in 2006, in the past two years the NRC has identified a daunting list of design problems involving major components and operating systems, resulting in eighteen revisions to the design. Thus, cost estimates for some of the projects have doubled or tripled. Last October the NRC stunned observers by rejecting the reactor building for its potential inability to withstand high winds and the weight of the emergency water tank.

“The consequences of containment failure at Plant Vogtle could be catastrophic, especially for the residents of the Shell Bluff community,” said Bobbie Paul, Executive Director of Georgia WAND, a member of the AP1000 Oversight Group*. “The AP1000 design appears to be dangerously flawed. In the interest of human health and safety, Georgia WAND urges the NRC to suspend licensing of Plant Vogtle reactors #3 and #4 immediately.”

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* See: http://fairewinds.com/AP1000-Containment-Leakage-Report-Fairewinds-Associates-Inc
for the engineer’s report and graphic illustrations of the chimney-effect during an accident.

** See: http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/background/backgroundhome.htm for letters to US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair, and Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards

Coalition groups:

AP1000 Oversight Group
Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
Citizens Allied for Safe Energy (Miami)
Friends of the Earth
Georgia Women's Action for New Directions
Green Party of Florida
NC WARN: Waste Awareness and Reduction Network
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Nuclear Watch South
Sierra Club South Carolina Chapter
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

DOE to restore funding to Georgia Environmental Protection Division for Radiation Surveillance along Savannah River, ending 6 year hiatus

(Atlanta, GA) Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) is thrilled to report that its six-year pursuit to restore federal funds to monitor levels of radiation released into Georgia from the Savannah River Site has proven successful. Today the Department of Energy (DOE) definitively stated its intention to restore environmental monitoring funds to Georgia in a news release issued by the Savannah River Site. (see media release below) Georgia WAND applauds DOE Environmental Management’s decision to support an independent monitoring program to better protect, inform, and engage downwind and downstream Georgia communities impacted by Savannah River Site.

“I am relieved that those living in counties directly across from the Savannah River Site will benefit from what Georgia EPD promises will be a model program for sampling and testing of soil, leafy greens, fish, deer, milk, corn, peanuts, pecans, pear, sediments, surface and groundwater, rain, air, and the Savannah River itself,” stated Dianne Valentin, a Georgia WAND member who has been working with residents of the Shell Bluff community for over three years

In November of 2003, DOE terminated funding for such monitoring, essentially dissolving a ten-year partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Division. Georgia WAND immediately mounted a citizen’s campaign to pressure Governor Sonny Perdue, South Carolina and Georgia Congressional delegations, and the then DOE Secretary, Spencer Abraham, to reconsider. Problematically for the state of Georgia, DOE’s response continued to be, “We fund South Carolina and to fund Georgia would be redundant.”

The issue finally gained momentum in June of 2009 when Dr Inés Triay, the newly appointed DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, met with citizens and SRS officials in North Augusta, SC. Dr. Triay encouraged Georgia WAND and its members to coordinate with her staff to see that Georgia received its fair share of support for environmental monitoring.

In July of 2009, Georgia WAND met with DOE officials in Washington to move the process forward.  Unfortunately, the issue continued to stall for another eight months. In March of 2010, Annie Laura Stephens, a Georgia WAND member from the greatly affected Shell Bluff Community, and Georgia WAND Executive Director, Bobbie Paul met with Dr. Triay at DOE headquarters as part of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s DC Days. At that time, Dr. Triay recommitted to her promise to re-institute the lapsed Georgia monitoring program – independent of SRS directives - and instructed her staff to facilitate implementation.

“We thank Dr. Triay for recognizing that radiation does not acknowledge state boundaries and that Georgians living in close proximity to the Savannah River Site have a right to know how radionuclide emissions may be impacting their health and the environment,” stated Bobbie Paul, Executive Director of Georgia WAND.

SAVANNAH RIVER OPERATIONS OFFICE
AIKEN, SC 29802

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:        FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jim Giusti, DOE, (803) 952-7697         Tuesday, April 13, 2010
james-r.giusti@srs.gov
DOE Announces Intention to Offer State of Georgia Additional Environmental Monitoring Funds
AIKEN, SC – The Department of Energy (DOE) today announced its intention to fund additional independent environmental monitoring of the Savannah River Site (SRS) by the State of Georgia.

Through its grant program, DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office will provide the Georgia Department of Natural Resources financial assistance to conduct independent environmental monitoring in Georgia communities bordering SRS to validate that site operations are having no negative effects on human health or the environment.

"We are offering the State of Georgia environmental monitoring funding to provide its residents additional information on the impacts of our operations at the Savannah River Site," said Dr. Ines Triay, DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management.  "We are striving to be a good neighbor to all residents around our sites."

DOE plans to request a grant proposal from GA DNR this month to negotiate a funding amount and a timeline for the assistance.

The independent environmental monitoring by the host and neighboring states is in addition to an extensive monitoring program currently conducted by SRS.  The SRS environmental monitoring program is operated by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the DOE's management and operating contractor at SRS.  Sampling includes surface water, sediments, crops, milk, fish, soil, vegetation, thermoluminescent dosimeters, and groundwater in both states.  DOE also provides financial assistance to the City of Savannah, GA, for monitoring drinking water from the Savannah River and the state of South Carolina to conduct independent environmental monitoring program.

Additional information on the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the Savannah River Site can be found at http://www.em.doe.gov or http://www.srs.gov.
-DOE-
SR-10-13