Fukushima Safety Fears

Five months after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan - work is still going on to clean up the stricken nuclear power station at Fukushima. 

San Clemente California Fukushima USA

Nuclear Waste is Forever

Spent fuel rods. Sounds pretty harmless. Sounds spent, as in used up, depleted, empty. But what I learned at the SONGS Open House on Tuesday August 15 at the San Clemente Community Center was that "spent" fuel rods are anything but harmless.

Fuel rods prior to the nuclear fission process are filled with uranium pellets. These rods are mildly radioactive and holding a rod for a short period of time will only result in a very low exposure. After the rods have been "spent" they become highly toxic and highly radioactive upon their removal from the reactor.

Let's illustrate how toxic. According to David Brower if you were to ride a motorcycle by a "spent" fuel rod at 90 miles per hour you would receive a lethal dose of radiation and be dead within three days.

And we have lots of spent fuel.

• San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station accumulates this waste at the rate of 500 pounds per day. 
• The waste has never been removed from the site and there are no plans to do so. 
• This waste will be toxic to human beings and all organic life forms for approximately 300,000 years give or take a 1,000 years.

Is that clean?

Is that safe?

Because that means this waste also has to be kept safe for 300,000.

Safe from contaminating the environment.

Safe from human error.

Safe from terrorists.

Safe from natural disasters.

Safe from aging facilities.

Safe through changes in government.

What is the true cost in carbon and cash for keeping this spent fuel safe?

SONGS Open House San Clemente

Watching The Watchers

Last night at the Southern California Edison opened house (for the public) in San Clemente California, I was greeted by SCE employee Neil Johnson Security Specialist Corporate Investigations & Protective Services Corporate Security. A man who I've never met before but recognize me immediately came up to introduce himself as an attempt to intimidate me and then followed me around the whole evening every time I went into the event, and when I was outside passing out flyers he would come out and stand outside and watch. We had maybe 12 people there with there signs passing out information to the public. All 12 of us were over 50 yrs old, but along with California Edison security they saw fit to call six sheriffs to stand about 20 feet away and watch us. It is a sad state of affairs when the people who worked for southern California Edison couldn't answer our questions they tried to shuffle us outside. And when is it that science considers it enough that the CEO of Edison and one of their physicists kept repeating I don't feel there'll be an accident here. Since when is feelings part of science? It would seem logical that the scientist would not only figure out the process of nuclear energy but how to deal with the waste before they inflicted it upon the whole world. I'm sorry California Edison but when you said we have been working on solutions to these problems are 50 years, and we haven't got it yet but hope to get it figured out soon. I for one found no confidence in that kind of statement. That kind of logic causes accidents, 3 mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Simi Valley nuclear accident 1958.

 Gene Stone C.A.N.
Coalition Against Nukes.




SONGS Open House San Clemente

San Onofre Nuke Waste Sitting On An Earthquake Fault

No Nukes On Faultlines!

San Andreas?  It's too far away! The Big One?  Just a myth!  Create a big tsunami?  It's a land-based fault!  You've got a scientist?  We've got a scientist!

They can debate anything for years.  Ten years ago I was scoffed at for suggesting (or rather, for stating unequivocally) that Yucca Mountain would never open but it was why dry casks were introduced -- because they would be TEMPORARY.

Well, they aren't, and the dry casks are growing like weeds... very deadly weeds.  every 6 weeks or two months or so they produce enough crud for a new dry cask... Where's it going to go?  Our front yard!  Our beach!  And when The Big One hits, or half a big one closer by... game over.

It's a game.  A deadly game.  They keep telling us it's safe.  We keep arguing that it isn't.  Arguing gets us nowhere if all we do is argue.  Stopping the plant turns off the heat.  As deadly as dry casks are, an operating reactor is providing the heat the dry cask would need to "get going"... all the time.

And come to think of it, we haven't actually seen, at Fukushima or anywhere else, the worst of the worst... a complete rubblization of the core, for example... well, it occurs to me that the resultant explosion could do a number on the dry casks, which are, conveniently enough, right near by.  What we saw was bad, but by no means as bad as it gets!

And the NEI admitted today that PWRs like ours can do exactly what the BWRs in Fukushima did... of course, they didn't word it that way, but they admitted it.  It was in my paper this morning!

Okay, so the fuel has to be moved.  The plant has to be shut down.  What's to debate?  What expert will anyone present to debate these points?  After all, just because someone works for the NRC doesn't make them an expert in California earthquakes, aging of metals, worker morale, crane operation(!) or any of a million other things that lots of experts have already looked at -- and found nuclear power lacking safety standards even that would apply in any other factory in the state!  THAT's certainly backwards, but true!

Really, there IS no debate!  There IS no argument!  There is only greed, inertia, workers scared to lose their jobs, investors making money, and fools who don't know any better.

Perhaps 40+ years of following and taking part in these debates jades a man, but when the argument is for or against nuclear power, the real debate surely ended in Fukushima on March 11th, 2011.  After that, no reasonable person can/could/should/would back nuclear power.  Not that they could before, but... here we are.  Post-Fukushima and even the Nuclear Energy Institute is, in the most obtuse way possible, admitting it can happen right here at San Onofre, no doubt about it.

Statistically, they say it's very unlikely.  But even something that's very unlikely become inevitable over time (EVERY unstable atom eventually decays, and The Big One is coming, so eventually it will get here).  Year after year, they keep saying it's very unlikely.  One of these days -- and I admit it's unlikely to be tomorrow -- they'll be wrong.  We could make it impossible to be tomorrow, not just unlikely, but shutting the plant down and removing the waste.  We can at least make an accident vastly less likely by first and forever, shutting the plant down.

Yours,

Ace Hoffman

http://decommission.sanonofre.com/2011/08/san-onofre-waste-earthquake-fault.html

Senator Sanders Pathfinder For States Rights on Nuclear Energy

Watch Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont give the most compelling case for states rights to the NRC. Stating clearly NRC has the right to re-license power plants, but the state has the right to decide whether they want nuclear power in their state. Senator Sanders leading the way for the nuclear fight!

Gene Stone ROSE

http://decommission.sanonofre.com/2011/08/states-rights-nuclear-energy-senator.html

Anti- Nuclear Post-Fukushima Summit

For immediate release. August 8, 2011 

The day after the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) anti-nuclear concert, more than 60 California groups met in San Mateo for the first statewide Anti- Nuclear post-Fukushima Summit. Participants committed to continuing work towards the shut-down of the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, both of which are immediately adjacent to major earthquake faults. In addition, summit members focused on energy conservation and clean, safe, renewable solutions to establish a nuclear-free California.

Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Redwood Alliance, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, Green Leap Forward, Women's Energy Matters, Peace and Freedom Party, Los Angeles Greens, Alliance for Survival, Sacred Sites Peacewalk For a Nuclear Free World, No Nukes on Fault's, Coalition For Responsible Ethical Environmental Decisions (CREED), San Clemente Green, Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE) Veterans for Peace Chapter 162 East Bay San Francisco, No Nukes Caucus Veterans for Peace, Ecological Options Network (EON), & Greenpeace are just a few of the groups that attended the California Summit on Nuclear Energy in San Mateo California yesterday.

Join Us!

Gene Stone Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE)
(949) 233-7724http://decommission.sanonofre.com/2011/08/anti-nuclear-post-fukushima-summit.html

Nuclear Power Irradiated Citizens Bill of Rights

San Clemente California Fukushima USA

1. All planned releases of radioactive gases or liquids, no matter what level of radioactivity, will be announced to surrounding communities prior to the release.

2. All radioactive releases will be monitored in detail and the data from those releases including quantity of all radionuclides, wind direction and duration of releases will be published online. The amount of current releases and a running lifetime reactor release total will be published online.

3. The monitoring of all Nuclear Power Plants will be done by an independent qualified group of scientists not associated with any existing Nuclear Power facility or the NRC.

4. Through constant monitoring all accidental releases and leaks will be gauged and published within 12 hours of discovery. Reactors will be shut down until source of leak or accidental release is identified and remedied.

5. The Board of Directors and CEOs of all Nuclear Power Plants shall be required to live onsite. They will remain in residence as long as existing reactors and or radioactive materials remain onsite.

6. The corporations and shareholders who own Nuclear Power Plants will be liable for any damages to the health, property or the economy of communities affected by Nuclear Power Plant accidents.

7. Any accidents, leaks, spills or other potential radiation spreading event, when preceded by the falsification of documents by the Nuclear Power Plant in question, will result in immediate criminal charges. The CEO and involved staff will be charged. Conviction will result in a mandatory minimum 5 year jail sentence.