nuclear-news

Protester Gets Jail Time for Non-violent Protest of Nuclear Plant in Virginia”

It’s getting hot in here 29 Sept 08 Three of the six protesters arrested at the Dominion Resources North Anna Nuclear Power Plant were found guilty of trespassing today in the Louisa County Courthouse. The charges stem from conducting an alternative tour and sit-in at the Dominion Power Nuclear Information Center on August 7th.The judge rejected their defense of necessity and sentenced Paxus Calta to 30 day in jail with 15 suspended……………………..Sue Frankel-Streit and Spot Etal were fined $1,000 with $700 suspended. All three are banned form entering Dominion property for a period of two years. About 20 supporters gathered in front of the courthouse with signs displaying their anti-nuclear message.
“What is a greater harm here? That Dominions nuclear information center was inconvenienced and had to close 30 minutes late or that an untested new nuclear reactor will overheat Lake Anna when it is already getting to over 100 degrees most summers?” asks Paxus Calta, one of those arrested and a member of the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy (PACE) a group of concerned Louisa and Albemarle County residents who want real renewables and efficiency solutions instead of the proposed new reactor.
“Dominion wants to build a dangerous new reactor when it has no place to put the waste for the current two. These plants are already a toxic nightmare and we don’t need anymore in this area,” Says defendant Sue Frankel-Streit. “Dominion and the State are failing to address the problems of climate change and of nuclear toxins. We need a different way to make decisions about energy, because the solutions being proposed are failing to serve the people.”Three other protestors from this action pled guilty last month and were fined $1,250,

Uranium forum: a black hole
Tellirude Daily Planet by Ben Williams  08 For anyone unfamiliar with the regulation of uranium in the State of Colorado, the Uranium Regulation Forum in Montrose Sept. 24 was a real eye-opener. Indeed, it was like staring into a black hole……..The meeting was called to update county government on the application of radioactive materials licenses………the tone and tenor of this introduction seemed to anticipate some grave civil uproar. Sitting in the audience, one felt like a naughty child waiting for some punishment the grownups were busy deliberating. The watchful eye of a Law Enforcement Officer from the rear of the room surveyed those in attendance, just in case, one supposes……………..“All of the mills we’ve looked at,” Steve Tarlton, the unit leader, reassured us, nodding like a salesman, “all of the problems we’ve looked at, we’ve learned from.”

That’s good news, one expects: Except “all the mills we’ve looked at” actually means one. There have only been two mills operative in the entire United States in the last 25 years. Both are now in decay, experiencing massive environmental problems. One is in Blanding, Utah. And the other one is the Cotter Mill near Canon City. This obsolete structure, with outdated technology, has apparently taught them a lot. A sort of negative definition. ……Nowhere in this head-nodding, effusive reassurance of our newfound mastery over the “historical problems” that have plagued this industry for years was anything concrete presented, scientific, or specific. The slides used in the presentation were hilarious. You couldn’t find more circular reasoning in a toothpaste commercial. It amounted to a dizzying array of… nothing.