The Senate's Lesson from Fukushima Is: MORE NUKES?

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This is from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service at nirs.org. Please act or we'll soon be awash in Fuku-style, small-cluster reactors.


THE SENATE'S LESSON FROM FUKUSHIMA IS: MORE NUKES?

TELL YOUR SENATORS TO STOP, TAKE A LOOK AROUND, AND START WORKING FOR AMERICANS, NOT THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY!


May 6, 2011

For some in the U.S. Senate, it's as if Fukushima never happened--isn't still happening....

Certainly, a lot of Senators haven't gotten around to understanding that there just may be some lessons from Fukushima we need to learn--and quickly.

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it is likely that a bill to encourage the development of "small modular reactors" will be voted on this month. So the first post-Fukushima legislation to emerge from the U.S. Senate will be a bill to force taxpayers to pay for development of new nuclear reactors?

Click here to send a message to your Senators and tell them to wake up: not one more taxpayer dime for nuclear power--small, large or in-between!

The text of the bill, S. 512, is here.

The bill would force taxpayers to pay 50% of the design cost for two new reactor designs, one of no more than 300 Megawatts, the other no more than 50 Megawatts. In addition, taxpayers would have to pay 25% of the costs to get these designs licensed by the NRC.

The NRC would be required to approve the designs by January 1, 2018 and approve licenses by January 1, 2021 (so much for the idea that the NRC might have to reject a design or license....).

Small does not mean safe, of course. At 439 MW, Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 wasn't much bigger than one of these reactors. But its explosion, and melting of 50-70% of its fuel, has been heard around the world.

And the idea behind small modular reactors (SMRs) is to put a lot of them--10 or so--in one location. One clear lesson from Fukushima is that crowding reactors together makes multiple reactor accidents more likely, and makes it more difficult to fight the consequences of an accident. This entire concept behind the SMRs must end.

Small also does not necessarily mean cheap. Reactors grew large because of economies of scale--building smaller ones wasn't cost-effective in the past, and it won't be cost-effective now. Thus, taxpayers are once again being asked to spend their money on an uneconomical technology that the utilities themselves won't spend their money on.

Click here to send a message to your Senators and tell them to wake up: not one more taxpayer dime for nuclear power--small, large or in-between!

Sen. Reid also suggested that an even more insidious bill--one to establish a Clean Energy Development Administration--may also soon reach the Senate floor. This bill has not yet even been introduced; but past versions essentially allowed unlimited taxpayer loans for new reactor construction. This bill could run into problems in the Senate Energy Committee--its sponsors have not figured out how to pay for the bill--but if it is introduced and begins to move, as Sen. Reid implied, we will let you know.

Meanwhile, today Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) released a letter he sent to the Office of Management and Budget demanding answers to several questions regarding loan guarantees for new reactors and whether the risk to taxpayers given the Fukushima accident is being adequately considered.

In other news, our colleagues at WISE-Amsterdam and the Laka Foundation have published a beautiful new full-color book, Radiating Posters, that is essentially a history of the anti-nuclear movement through its amazing poster art over the past decades. You can order it through the NIRS store here, or send a check for $35 to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Amount includes handing and priority mail postage.

Don't forget our ongoing campaigns to stop all taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power--especially nuclear loan guarantees and to close the 23 U.S. General Electric Mark I reactors that failed so catastrophically at Fukushima.

And please don't forget that we reply on your support and contributions to do our work. Please make a tax-deductible donation here, or after you have taken action to stop Senate consideration of S. 512.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
[e-mail]
www.nirs.org

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[villager]

1. It's the only lesson their owners will allow them to "learn"

n/t

[wordpix]

2. Markey is always a hero in anything environmental

[me b zola]

3. In a related story

...We are going to be doing more too-deep-to-respond-to-disasters oil wells in the Gulf Of Mexico.

We are killing ourselves for a few families greed and our own ignorance. I'm beyond fed-up.