The meeting, called by the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and Georgia Women's Action for New Directions, began with a luncheon, and featured speakers the Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, Bobbie Paul, Georgia WAND Executive Director, Helen Butler, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Executive Director, Rita Jackson Samuels, lifelong civil rights activist, Annie Laura Stephens, Georgia WAND organizer, Reverend Willie Tomlin, Reverend Peter Parker, Reverend Charles Utley and Bettieanne Hart.

Shell Bluff residents also spoke out, telling their stories and expressing many worries about the condition of their land as well as health and safety of themselves and their neighbors. The safety of drinking water, outdated radios used for safety alerts from Plant Vogtle, the tough choice between a job at the plant or being sick, questions about why so many people are dying of cancer were among concerns raised.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011
American Friends Service Committee
60 Walton Street NW, 2nd Floor
7pm-9pm

Please join us to discuss next steps in organizing against these dirty, dangerous reactors in our state. We’ll  discuss next steps in organizing  against these nukes, which may include direct action and non-violent civil disobedience. Contact courtney@wand.org for more information or call 404.524.5999 www.gawand.org

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)

The Commission is tasked with  conducting a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including all alternatives for storage, processing and disposal of civilian and defense used nuclear fuel, high level waste and other materials derived from nuclear activities and is offering this rare and important opportunity for public discourse on these issues.

Georgia WAND Executive Director has been asked to address the Blue Ribbon Commission at 11:45 on Tuesday. Please support Bobbie and come with your own comments!

Blue Ribbon Commission
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Bobbie Paul speaks, 11:45 am, Public Comments begin at 3pm
Marriott Marquis, 265 Peachtree Center Avenue, Atlanta, GA

The Commission needs to hear from ALL GEORGIANS concerned about nuclear power, what it does to our environment, our health and our bank accounts! Please speak up and speak out during the public comments portion of the meeting, 3pm to 5pm. Click here for an entire schedule for the day.

 Recognizing the environmental, health and safety hazards suffered by  those living in the shadow of nuclear weapons facilities and commercial nuclear power reactors, Georgia WAND advocates for the restoration of environmental monitoring to the state of Georgia (through Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division) This important monitoring would expose radioactive impacts on vegetation, rainfall,  well water, the Savannah River, livestock, peanuts and other crops and the air, specifically in Georgia’s Burke and Screven counties.

Scroll down for more important nuclear issues that the BRC needs to hear. These can be used as supplemental information, or as a guide for your public comments.

Nuclear Power
It is irresponsible to recommend continued American reliance on nuclear power. The first step to solving the nuclear waste crisis is to stop making more waste. The BRC should recommend decommissioning U.S. reactors as they reach the end of their original licenses.

Interim On-Site Storage
Page 49 of the BRC draft report states that “interim storage of substantial quantities of spent fuel at operating reactor sites can be expected to continue for some time”. Therefore cooling pool density needs to be addressed. The BRC should recommend that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) take action to get spent fuel out of cooling pools and into Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS). HOSS needs improved regulation and the BRC should recommend this course of action to the NRC. HOSS is not just about preventing terrorism, as mentioned in the draft BRC report; it would also prevent much of the radioactive release in a catastrophe such as Fukushima. Let’s move to HOSS now, before an accident occurs at a US cooling pool.

Consolidated Storage
Interim storage need not be consolidated. Shipping nuclear waste around the country is extremely expensive and creates unnecessary environmental and human health risks. Nuclear waste should not be moved unless it is bound for a permanent disposal site. HOSS can provide safe and secure interim storage without transportation risks and expenses. Operating reactors already have the level of security that HOSS would require; therefore it is not clear why consolidating storage might be more cost effective.

Permanent Storage and Public Involvement
Public involvement is key to siting and safely operating nuclear waste storage facilities. Nuclear waste storage should be a “science based” enterprise, but public acceptance is critical to a facility’s success. Public involvement should not end with siting – transparency and public oversight should be important aspects of the “new organization” that the BRC recommends take responsibility for long term nuclear waste storage/disposal in the U.S.

Reprocessing
Reprocessing is not a solution to the challenge of nuclear waste and should not be re-started in the U.S. We applaud the Commission for not recommending that the U.S. pursue reprocessing, but push you to reject it more explicitly. Reprocessing is dirty; many of the world’s most contaminated sites are reprocessing plants (Hanford, West Valley, the Savannah River Site, and Chelyabinsk). Reprocessing is not recycling. Reprocessing creates new toxic waste streams and does not eliminate the long-term need for nuclear waste storage. Additionally, reprocessing is not a good economic choice. Reprocessing facilities around the world are closing (Sellafield, UK), relying on huge government subsidies (France), or failing to open at all (Rokkasho, Japan). Private investors are not interested in this technology and US taxpayers cannot afford to subsidize it.

By BRYAN RAHIJA

Bob Alvarez, a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) who with support from POGO authored a recent report on the dangers associated with how the majority of nuclear spent fuel is stored in the U.S., just sent the following in an email regarding this afternoon's earthquake felt across the East Coast:

An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale just occurred less than a hour ago. It's epicenter was in Mineral, VA—approximately 10 miles from two nuclear power reactors at the North Anna site. According to a representative of Dominion Power, the two reactors were designed to withstand a  5.9-6.1 quake. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ranked the North Anna Reactors as being 7th in the nation in terms of earthquake risks.

Control rods are automatically inserted to halt a reactor, if it is impacted by an earthquake. However, the reactor core still has a large amount of decay heat that requires power to remove it if there is a loss of offsite power to prevent a melt down. It is reported that the North Anna reactors were shut down and is operating with back-up diesel generators. The failure to remove reactor decay heat is what led to severe accidents at the Fukusima nuclear site on Japan. It is not clear, at this time, what damage might have been sustained at the nuclear site.

The North Anna reactors are of the Westinghouse Pressurized Water design and went on line in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Since then the reactors have generated approximately 1,200 metric tons of nuclear spent fuel containing about 228,000 curies of highly radioactive materials—among the largest concentrations of radioactivity in the United States.

Nearly 40 percent of the radioactivity in the North Anna spent fuel pools is cesium-137—a long-lived radioisotope that gives off potentially dangerous penetrating radiation and also accumulates in food over a period of centuries. The North Anna Pools hold about 15-30 times more Cs-137 than was released by the Chernobyl accident in 1986. In 2003, IPS helped lead a study warning that drainage of a pool might cause a catastrophic radiation fire, which could render an area uninhabitable greater than that created by the Chernobyl accident.

The spent fuel pools at North Anna contain 4-5 times more than their original designs intended. As in Japan, all U.S. power nuclear power plant spent fuel pools do not have steel lined, concrete barriers that cover reactor vessels to prevent the escape of radioactivity. They are not required to have back-up generators to keep used fuel rods cool, if offsite power is lost. Even though they contain these very large amount of radioactivity, spent reactor fuel pools in the U.S. are mostly contained in ordinary industrial structures designed to protect them against the elements.

Update: Bloomberg reports that the North Anna power plant has lost power.

Dominion Resources Inc. lost all offsite power at its North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia and began using backup diesel generators after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck nearby.

One of the four diesel generators stopped working after startup, David McIntyre, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an e-mail today. There were no reports of damage at the plant, he said.

Bryan Rahija edits POGO's blog.

For further reading about North Anna Nuclear Plant please see this informative blog from The Intel Hub:

Media Silent On Fate Of North Anna Nuclear Plant At Epicenter Of 5.9 Mineral Virginia Earthquake

Solar power wins a convert on Georgia's PSC

AJC 8:36 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Solar power has forever been swimming upstream toward the mainstream — which is exactly where it needs to be situated in order to take off in a big way. This is important because swimming in the “mainstream” are Republicans, Democrats and, yes, shareholders of utility stock. All three are needed to move this energy forward in any significant way.

In the past, solar power has been viewed as a left-leaning venture, and Republicans have avoided any association with it. You might say it has been politically toxic.

But times are changing, and conservatives like me are recognizing that with solar power are skilled jobs in manufacturing and construction, economic development opportunities, savings on power bills, along with helping people or businesses to not even need the utility anymore. This last reason is especially appealing to tea party types who cherish independence and freedom.

I have solar thermal on my Athens home and use it to heat my hot water, which Georgia Power estimates at 17 percent of the average ratepayer’s bill. Power Partners Solar of Athens, the company that manufactured and installed my system, is working through Walton EMC and Georgia Power to install more solar thermal for residential customers.

Suniva, in Norcross, does both research and manufacturing of sophisticated photovoltaic solar cell technology. Mage Solar, in Middle Georgia, has created a solar-powered electric car charging station consisting of 18 panels. All this means jobs for Georgians — both in the manufacturing and service sector.

Fortune 500 companies, enterprising consumers, and energy-conscious farms and businesses are the early adapters of this technology. Their purchase of this technology, albeit at higher prices, is helping to reduce the price for the rest of us — just like in the infancy of mobile phones. (In 1985, I paid $1,500 to have a car phone that I could not even take out of my car.) The bottom line is that panels are coming down in cost, and utility shareholders continue to want diversity in an energy portfolio and are applying pressure to company leadership.

That is in part why I am putting together the “Solar Express” on Friday and inviting Georgians to join me in Cordele and board the SAM Shortline, the state’s excursion train, to learn more about solar power through a rolling seminar and day of education for the whole family. This vintage passenger train will have one entire train car of solar displays and interactive learning opportunities with whistle-stop news conferences along the way as it travels west through Americus, Leslie and eventually Plains in rural southwest Georgia.

Developing a clean energy portfolio with more solar makes sense given the increasingly heavy hand of the federal government. I like the fact that Georgia Power allows customers to use solar technology on a voluntary basis. Customers can buy a block of green energy for about $3.50 per month.

This power, generated through renewable sources such as biomass or solar, helps the utility build the infrastructure to capture this more expensive form of energy. This program is growing our state’s renewable energy without forcing uninterested customers to participate. Look for more and more solar projects to pop up across the state.

As solar comes down in price, I hope more and more Georgians will take advantage of this ever-growing home-grown technology and the supply chain that it spawns. Meanwhile, go to samshortline.com and get tickets for you and your family on the Solar Express, July 29. All aboard!

Tim Echols is a commissioner on the Georgia Public Service Commission.

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.

It was also a good opportunity to remind Georgia Power of the dangers and risks involved with nuclear power. Last week the Unit 1 reactor at Southern Company's Plant Vogtle shut down unexpectedly, causing Georgians to question the safety of the nuclear reactors at the site.

The demonstration received local news coverage, which can be found here.

The events come at a time when Georgian’s are raising questions about the safety of the nuclear reactors at Southern Company's Plant Vogtle, which recently  the Unit 1 reactor shut down unexpectedly last Thursday.

“It is important that we learn from the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima nuclear accidents.  Nuclear reactors, here at home, are just as vulnerable to mechanical failures, human errors, and unanticipated natural disasters.  We must seize this opportunity to move beyond nuclear  - there are solid carbon free and nuclear free options to meet our energy needs,” Amanda Hill-Attkisson, Managing Director, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions said.

Georgia WAND and Nuclear Watch South will lead efforts in Atlanta today to remember Chernobyl and speak out against the dangers of nuclear power. A crowd of concerned citizens with gather at 4PM today in front of Georgia Power Headquarters, 241 Ralph McGill Boulevard NE with signs and clout to demonstrate against the company’s proposal to build two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Waynesboro, Georgia.