06.10.19 - Desktop / Mobile Phone update:
updates and stories we're following....


JUST IN... JULY 3, Get Together Foundation - Los Angeles, Theater at Ace Hotel - a charity concert for homelessness performed by The Tribe with special appearances by David Crosby, Al Jardine, Jesse Colin Young, Albert Lee, Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, and Steve Postell, plus other special guests including Freebo, Rosemary Butler, actor/singer Rob Morrow, and more. https://gettogetherfoundation.com


Pilgrim nuclear power station permanently shuts down
On May 31, 2019, the nation's operating nuclear power fleet will drop with the permanent closure of the Pilgrim nuclear power station in Plymouth, MA. The Pilgrim closure further reduces the number of General Electric Mark I boiling water reactors operating in the US to 20 units. The four reactor units at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power station that were destroyed by multiple hydrogen explosions and reactor core meltdowns following the March 11, 2011 severe earthquake and tsunami were all the same GE design and construction. ---  Congratulations to Pilgrim Watch, Cape Downwinders and the many others who have struggled over decades to end the threat of a Pilgrim nuclear accident and stop the generation of more nuclear waste that is still without a scientifically accepted long-term management plan.
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/the-nuclear-retreat/2019/5/29/pilgrim-nuclear-power-station-permanently-shuts-down.html


USDOE renames High Level Nuclear Waste as precursor to leaving waste in place
call for WA and Congressional action
Trump Administration Renames Hanford's High-Level Nuclear Waste as precursor to Abandoning Waste Forever in Leaky Tanks and Soil --
The Region's Leading Hanford Cleanup Watchdog Group Calls for Washington State along with Tribes and Citizen Groups to Sue Trump Administration to Protect Columbia River and Public Health for 10,000 Years. http://www.hanfordcleanup.org


SRS Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tri-Valley CAREs news release
Noted Environmental Lawyers Warn Government Not to Expand Production of Plutonium Bomb Cores in Violation of National Environmental Policy Act and Public Review. 

On behalf of three public interest organizations - Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment and Savannah River Site Watch - attorneys for the law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks and the Natural Resources Defense Council recently sent a 16-page letter to Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The detailed letter warns the nuclear agency to not proceed with aggressive plans to expand plutonium pit production without first meeting its legal requirements for timely public review and comment under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The three nuclear watchdog groups met with members of Congress and key committees to discuss the pit production issue at the national Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days in mid-May. Nearly 70 activists from a dozen states hosting nuclear weapons sites held more than 90 meetings with members of Congress and executive branch offices during the 3-day event. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that federal agencies undertake a thoroughgoing environmental analysis of major projects. http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/peis_news_letter_to_nnsa_june_4_2019.pdf


Uranium mining in South Africa's Karoo got stopped. For now
Sometimes it's the small things that make the difference. For South Africa's spectacular Karoo semi-desert, and those who oppose uranium mining there, it was one tiny plant that changed everything. As Stefan Cramer (pictured right) explains, there was widespread opposition to a proposed uranium mining project. But when one farmer's wife found a rare succulent growing on land targeted for the mines, plans got derailed.
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2019/05/26/the-tiny-plant-that-helped-save-a-desert-from-uranium-mining/


Nuke bailout bill passes in OH after Trump operative interferes;
Ohio House passes bill to bail out nuclear plants, guts green-energy mandates,
battle moves to state senate

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that bankrupt FirstEnergy Nuclear's proposed bailout of its dangerously age-degraded Davis-Besse (see photo, right) and Perry atomic reactors, just passed the OH state House of Representatives, by a vote of 53 to 43. The bailout also greases the skids for subsidizing some dirty old coal plants. The reactors are located on the Lake Erie shoreline in northern Ohio. Politico has reported that a Trump presidential campaign official intervened, urging OH Republican legislators to support the bailout, to boost Trump's 2020 re-election prospects in OH.
https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/05/ohio-house-passes-bill-to-bail-out-nuclear-plants-gut-green-energy-mandates.html


Dispelling the nuclear baseload myth: nothing renewables can't do better
The main claim used to justify nuclear is that it's the only low carbon power source that can supply 'reliable, base load electricity. But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand, writes Mark Diesendorf, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at UNSW Australia. That, says Diesendorf, makes nuclear power really redundant. (This article was first published in Ecologist).
https://energypost.eu/dispelling-nuclear-baseload-myth-nothing-renewables-cant-better/


A shocking if predictable look inside a captured nuclear agency
"Nuclear power is a failed technology." --  If that unequivocal statement by former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Greg Jaczko were the only "confession" he made, it would be powerful enough. But in his recently published book, Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator , Jaczko rips away the secrecy from the inner workings of the NRC as he experienced it first-hand.

This ultimate nuclear insider provides a clear picture of the failings of the captured nuclear agency, the corrosive day-to-day political battles with other commissioners, and the unfolding terror when Fukushima's nuclear reactors were first shaken, then swamped - and no one could predict what was going to happen next.  https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2019/06/09/a-rogue-regulator-worth-reading/


Suing to stop sea turtle kills
Nuclear power plant continues to take too high a toll on endangered species
By Linda Pentz Gunter and Paul Gunter, with the Turtle Island Restoration Network
On Thursday, May 30, 2019, the Turtle Island Restoration Network and Beyond Nuclear filed a formal notice of their intent to sue the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Florida Power & Light (FPL) for failing to protect endangered species from illegal intake and harm at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant in Jensen Beach, Florida. ---  For decades, the reactor site's cooling water intake system, which draws in nearly three billion gallons of sea water daily, has routinely captured, harmed and killed thousands of marine animals, most notably endangered and threatened species of sea turtle as well as the endangered smalltooth sawfish . But it's not just countless species of marine wildlife-two scuba divers were sucked through the unprotected cooling intake pipe on separate occasions, one of whom is suing the power plant for being entrained at the plant in 2016. https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2019/06/09/suing-to-stop-sea-turtle-kills/


Wolves, Grizzlies on Front Lines of Extinction Crisis
The clock is ticking on wildlife and wild places. Our planet's future is truly at stake.

The U.N. has just warned: Without immediate action, more than a million species could face extinction. Keystone species like wolves, grizzly bears and polar bears are on the front lines of this crisis. Without our top predators, whole ecosystems and the endangered animals that depend on them will collapse. This is the fight the Center for Biological Diversity was founded for. And we've no choice but to ramp up our efforts. Please consider sharing this message and hyperlink with others and ask them to join you as a member of the Center's Leadership Circle. There's only three days left to have gifts matched, so this is a critical window to grow our ranks.

You and I know what is at stake. When predators like wolves and grizzlies thrive, the web of life around them is stronger and more resilient. Their presence restores balance and integrity. https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/onlineactions/21ECO-V1NUSJYmOGVwX77w2



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