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Attacked, demonized and forced into hiding

Nuclear Free Future Award at Cooper Union, 3/4/2025

    by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/04/13/attacked-demonized-and-forced-into-hiding/

S.P. Udayakumar and thousands of other Indian activists challenged a Russian nuclear plant

S.P. Udayakumar was awarded the 2025 Nuclear-Free Future Award for resistance. Owing to visa constraints he was not able to be present in New York City, where the Awards ceremony was held, to accept his prize in person. He delivered these remarks via a video recording, which was met with prolonged applause. We reproduce his speech here. (A report and photos of the 2025 Nuclear-Free Future Awards ceremony, was published last week.)

I am extremely happy and immensely grateful that the Nuclear-Free Future Awards family that includes Beyond Nuclear, IPPNW and the international jury have chosen me and our struggle for the 2025 “Nuclear-Free Future” Award in the resistance category.

Tens of thousands of people including children, youth, women and men are struggling against the Russian-supplied Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project near the southernmost tip of India. Several people have sacrificed their lives, scores of people have gone to prison, so many of us have braved police harassment, State surveillance, court cases, property losses, income deprivation, and umpteen number of various difficulties.

Lots and lots of religious leaders, community leaders, political leaders, lawyers, film personalities, intellectuals, writers, publishers, poets, artists, media persons, international human rights activists, even some conscientious government officials, police officers and the general public from all over Tamil Nadu and the larger India have contributed significantly to this 2011-2014 phase of a much longer struggle. 

I know that you cannot honor all the people who have taken part in our struggle and that I have been chosen as a representative of all of them. On behalf of all those thousands and thousands of fellow protesters, I humbly accept this great award. Thank you!

Although I am disappointed that I could not be with you all this evening and accept this award in the hall where the ‘Great Emancipator’ President Abraham Lincoln’s voice had once reverberated, I am glad that my sons, who had to undergo so much suffering, are receiving this award from you and celebrating this timely and important recognition of our people and the struggle.

The struggle against the Koodankulam nuclear power project began back in 1988 right after the Chernobyl accident in April 1986. The government of India has adopted the 4-I strategy of Ignore, Insult, Intimidate and Incinerate. We were totally ignored when we asked for the basic information about the project, such as the detailed project report, environmental impact assessment, site evaluation study, safety analysis report etc. When we persisted with our campaign, we were called all kinds of names, that we were anti-Indian, anti-national, foreign-funded, American stooges, left-wing radicals and so forth.

When we still pressed ahead with our campaign, the State came down upon us heavily with 349 cases with very serious charges, including sedition, waging war on the state, attempt to murder and so on. We are attending court hearings even now. Our passports have been impounded, bank accounts frozen, ‘Look Out Circular’ issued, our properties vandalized, and we are still being treated as dangerous criminals.

We were physically attacked when we went for a dialogue with government officials, several of us were imprisoned for months together, and a few of us were shot to death by police, and killed by low-flying coastguard planes, and prison negligence etc.

Because of all this highhanded behavior of the State, the concerted campaign was ended in 2014 but we have been propagating our anti-nuclear messages to the people of India through peaceful and democratic means.

Our messages are simple and straightforward:

Nuclear power is NOT cheap, or safe, or clean, or climate-friendly.

Nuclear power and nuclear bomb are both sides of the same coin. Nuclear reactors are stationary bombs and nuclear bombs are moving reactors.

Nuclear power is not suitable for a country like India that is highly and densely-populated. As you all know, the world’s worst industrial disaster took place in the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal in December 1984. The debilitating chemical waste of the Bhopal gas disaster has just been removed after 40 long years.

Both nationally and internationally, the nuclear hawks and hawkers promote nuclear power as THE answer for climate destruction. But consider the amount of carbon-emitting power that is used for uranium mining, milling, reactor construction (with thousands of tons of steel and cement over 20-30 years of construction), reactor operation for 40-60 years, decommissioning, waste management and so forth! Can anyone honestly claim that nuclear power is the answer for climate destruction? Even if it was, can poisoned earth be the answer for polluted air? How are we going to deal with the dangerous nuclear wastes for the next 48,000 years?

Nuclearism is part and parcel of profiteering globalism. The India-US nuclear deal is not about India’s energy security, or national security or safeguarding India’s growth and development. This deal is a naked corporate business deal which will bring humongous profits to a few American corporate houses. Similarly, the nuclear deals that India has signed with Russia, France, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Argentina, and others will bring profits and prosperity to these countries’ corporate houses but will result in disaster and destruction for the poor in India. Yes, desire for profit, power, and prominence drives the nuclear industry.

On the other hand, it is hate, fear and recklessness that fuel this very industry. Some countries’ revision of nuclear doctrines, refusal to extend nuclear arms treaties, rising weapons count, continuing Uranium enrichment, constant testing, actual threat to use nuclear bombs, and several wars around the world poised to reach a “nuclear threshold” foretell the precarious situation of our global society today. Yes, Nuclearism and Fascism are inter-related. Fascism is the ideology behind Nuclearism and Nuclearism is the penultimate expression of Fascism.

When all is said and done, this beautiful planet of ours, the Earth, can be likened to a humongous commercial airplane with clear class divisions, limited supply of resources, lopsided opportunity structures, and unbalanced entitlement arrangements, etc. And this plane of ours has been hijacked by the P-5 and the other nuclear States such as Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and who knows who else?

The great poet, Robert Frost had predicted back in 1920:

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

The delegates of the Third Meeting of States Parties (3MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) who are meeting in New York City right now have a tough task ahead. We wish them all the best!

And let us continue to strive for a nuclear-free future that will have No Deals, No Mines, No Reactors, No Dumps, and No Bombs! Nowhere in the world!!

To quote my favorite Robert Frost again:

Woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But we have promises to keep!

And miles to go before we sleep,

And miles to go before we sleep!                            

April 15, 2025 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

The 2025 Nuclear-Free Future Awards

Rainbow serpent magic filled the air at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, writes Linda Pentz Gunter

  by beyondnuclearinternational

The Rainbow Serpent has been the symbol of the Nuclear-Free Future Awards (NFFA) since the event first began in 1998. In Indigenous cultures, the serpent offers an ominous warning to be left undisturbed in the ground rather than unleash its vengeful powers. This has been taken to mean, in particular, uranium. But the NFFA’s friendlier serpent also seems to release a certain magic into the air, enveloping those who breathe it in joy and optimism when they attend an NFFA ceremony as it travels to different cities around the world.

In 2025, the Awards were held in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, in New York City, a historic and atmospheric venue where a certain candidate for US president, Abraham Lincoln, made what would remain not only his longest speech but arguably his most important and one that would send him on his way to winning the White House……………………………………………………………

Courage is the first word that comes to mind when describing the 2025 recipient in the category of Resistance. For standing up to the Indian authorities in opposition to the construction of the massive Russian nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, S.P. Udayakumar and thousands of other villagers, farmers and fisherfolk, the majority of them women, have been hounded, persecuted, arrested and prosecuted.

Udayakumar could not travel to the US to receive his award, but his sons Surya and Satya, both of whom live in Maryland, were able to come to New York to honor their father. The video recorded by Uday, as everyone knows him, moved the audience to prolonged applause and even tears, given all he and his family have endured, including two years in hiding when he could not see his sons at all.

The exuberant promoters of the International Uranium Film Festival, Márcia Gomes and Norbert Suchanek, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, won the Award for Education. Born as a small idea that grew into a remarkable international film festival, the pair realized that dense reports and statistics were not going to galvanize people to oppose all things nuclear in quite in the same way that pictures could, and especially moving pictures, whether documentaries, dramas or animation.

The success of the festival, which began with enormous struggles to find funding and venues, is a testament to perseverance and canny marketing skills that have brought people together to collectively advance the festival around the world.

Solutions to the problems of nuclear power and nuclear weapons are not always obvious. Beyond technical fixes like renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as campaigning for peace and nuclear disarmament, sometimes the answer lies in changing the conversation. To get away from the macho-dynamic of nuclear weapons especially, the voices of women — all too few — were clearly needed. Furthermore, the voices of women from the Global South were even more essential, in the view of Zimbabwean campaigner, Edwick Madzimure.

This “solution” became a key to the success of of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which tackled the issue from the perspective of human rights impacts, where women are invariably disproportionately impacted in a negative way……………………………………………

The evening ended with a tribute to living legend, Joanna Macy, a Buddhist teacher, author and peacemaker and a matriarch of the anti-nuclear cause. Macy, now in her nineties, could not make the trip from California but offered her thanks in a written statement read by her longtime friend, Kathleen Sullivan of the Nuclear Truth Project and Hibakusha Stories.

Macy has been a mentor to many, both within the anti-nuclear movement and well beyond it, and is best known for popularizing the concept, The Great Turning, in which humanity makes an essential shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization, emphasizing a transition to a more sustainable and just world. ………………… https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/04/07/the-2025-nuclear-free-future-awards/

April 13, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

NFLAs ‘shout up’ for National Parks to be spared from nuclear development

Despite our objections and those of many in the antinuclear community, Energy Ministers and departmental civil servants remain intent upon introducing a new National Planning Statement, called the EN-7, which gives considerable latitude to prospective developers to site new nuclear plants more widely, subject to meeting certain criterion (called the ‘criteria-based approach’) and lifts any time limits (called ‘the removal of a deployment deadline’).

10th April 2025, https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/nflas-shout-up-for-national-parks-to-be-spared-from-nuclear-development/

NFLAs ‘shout up’ for National Parks to be spared from nuclear development

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have made an emphatic plea to the government for National Parks to be definitively spared from development and for further ‘specific consideration’ to be given to the challenges attendant to siting so-called Small and Advanced Modular Reactors (SMRs and AMRs).

Despite our objections and those of many in the antinuclear community, Energy Ministers and departmental civil servants remain intent upon introducing a new National Planning Statement, called the EN-7, which gives considerable latitude to prospective developers to site new nuclear plants more widely, subject to meeting certain criterion (called the ‘criteria-based approach’) and lifts any time limits (called ‘the removal of a deployment deadline’).

Interestingly neither of these notions was popular amongst respondents in the initial consultation on the policy with only 47% supporting the first and 50% the second; which begs the NFLAs to ask the question: why change the existing policy which is based on a government led strategic assessment of sites to in effect a ‘free-for-all’?

As we did in response to the first stage consultation, so in the second the NFLAs ‘shout up…against new nuclear in any of our National Parks and on sites adjoining or threatening Sites of Outstanding Natural Beauty or Immense Heritage Value’. The Welsh NFLA affiliates are particularly passionate in seeking to defend Trawsfynydd, which lies at the heart of Eryri, the premier National Park of Wales, from new development. As we point out:

‘The principle that National Parks can be excluded from future nuclear development has already been established by Government diktat. Any part of the Lake District National Park in England has been specifically (and in our view rightly) excluded from any consideration as a prospective site of a future Geological Disposal Facility. Surely then Trawsfynydd being at the heart of the Eryri National Park should enjoy the same protection in law?

In our view, to do otherwise exposes UK Government policy as hypocritical and inconsistent, implying that the premier National Park of Wales is not worthy of the same protection as the premier National Park of England and unfortunately conveys the impression that Wales remains a rank colonial possession, rather than a nation in its own right, whose natural assets are open to exploitation by any major nuclear development of the most egregious kind’.

Only 59% of respondents in phase one backed the inclusion of ‘SMRS and AMRs alongside large-scale GW technologies’ within the policy, with the NGO community calling for a separate policy. Despite this, Ministers intend this policy to be one-size-fits-all. In this second phase consultation, the NFLAs have referenced the lack of ‘specific consideration’ of the ‘additional, and not entirely defined, challenges’ that accompany the inclusion of SMRs and AMRs.

There have been many recent reports of concerns amongst the nuclear industry and the academic community about the radioactive waste produced by smaller reactors and the security implications of a wider rollout of smaller reactors. The NFLAs have therefore requested that final version of EN-7 should require ‘SMR, AMR, Micro reactor developers to submit robust statements about their proposals to address radioactive waste management, safety, security and proliferation concerns’.

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April 12, 2025 Posted by | environment, opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Raising Funds to Stop Lake District Coast Sub-Sea Nuclear Dump

 Radiation Free Lakeland has launched a crowdfund appeal to raise enough
funds to send out a leaflet direct to all 250,000 households explaining the
importance of lobbying Cumberland Council to carry out a full debate and
vote before going any further down the road to delivery of a “geological
disposal facility” (nuclear dump) for hot nuclear wastes. The bare
minimum we would need is £1,800 and with your help we could just do this.
We could stop the nuclear juggernaut in its tracks and protect the Lake
District coast from becoming the world’s biggest, leakiest nuclear
sacrifice zone.

 Radiation Free Lakeland 6th April 2025
https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/raising-funds-to-stop-lake-district-coast-sub-sea-nuclear-dump/

April 8, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

The great trek for justice

At the heart of the matter for Lee is the devastating and continued destruction of the ecosystems on which all of us — human and animals — depend. The Fukushima radioactive water dump is just one of the most recent examples.

 , by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/03/30/the-great-trek-for-justice/

Won-Young Lee has walked from his homeland in South Korea to Tokyo. Now he’s on the march in the US, writes Linda Pentz Gunter

How far would you walk for a cause? In the case of South Korean anti-nuclear activist, Won-Young Lee, that distance has no limit.

Lee, 67, and the director of the Korea Land Future Research Institute and the Public Reporting Center for the Dangers of Nuclear Power Plants (PRCDN), will arrive in Washington, DC on April 8, having walked there from the United Nations in New York City, a journey he began on March 19. The distance is about 260 miles.

His cause this time is to draw attention to the continued dumping of highly radioactive waste water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan into the Pacific Ocean. This is not Mr. Lee’s first walk, but he chose the dates deliberately to span the time between the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that began on March 11 and the April 26, 1986 Chornobyl reactor explosion in Ukraine.

This latest walk falls under the umbrella of what Lee has titled the “New Silk Road for Life and No-Nukes. Walking Planet Earth With Joy.” Together, the walks constitute a marathon that have taken Lee and other walkers through vast areas of the Asian continent, including Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Nepal and on through Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and through numerous countries in Europe. Lee himself has traversed 6,125 miles on foot.

He has been inspired, he says, by Gandhi’s ‘Salt March’ “that led to India’s independence,” and was also started, Lee says, “by a small number of people,” that grew into ever greater numbers.

That will of the people manifested again in 2023, during a trek of almost 1,000 miles undertaken by South Korean and Japanese citizens from Seoul, South Korea to Tokyo, Japan with stops that included one in Hiroshima.

Currently, as Lee marches resolutely from Manhattan to DC, he has encountered others who are equally inspired, often from Japan. Yoko Akashi, who marched with him in New Jersey, wrote that “even though we’re only two walking highways and shopping streets, people waved, honked cars and wanted to know more because they’re concerned.”

All of this is done with unbounded optimism. The purpose of the current walk is not only to engage with populations along the route but to try, once it reaches its destination in the nation’s capital, to convince members of Congress and even the White House, that the water dumping at Fukushima needs to stop.

“By marching, we can gain the support of citizens, get citizens to join the march, and as the procession gets longer, citizens can pressure politicians,” asserts Lee.

We have published numerous articles on our news site — Beyond Nuclear International — arguing against the dumping of at least 1.3 million tons of radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific, a procedure that will go on for years, even decades.

One of the more recent ones, by Tilman Ruff, sums up many of the arguments. Another earlier one from GENSUIKIN, also lays out the specific risks.

Lee’s organization has turned to the cartoon format to produce a booklet telling the story. It’s entitled STOP! Fukushima Nuclear Wastewater Dumping and can be downloaded from the PRCDN website in English here.

I met with Lee and a group of Korean activists on Capitol Hill in February, during a press conference led by Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-32), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to urge for the passage of his bipartisan legislation, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act. 

The bill calls for swift and substantial diplomatic engagement in order to achieve a formal end to the Korean War – America’s longest war.

During the event, Lee expressed his hopes for a political change of policy over the dumping (I am afraid I did not share his optimism.) In a statement before his New York to Washington march began, Lee expressed the view that stopping the dumping was in the hands of the US president. “He is the only person to whom the Japanese prime minister bows his head,” Lee wrote. “If the US president asks the Japanese prime minister to stop, the dumping can be stopped.”

At the heart of the matter for Lee is the devastating and continued destruction of the ecosystems on which all of us — human and animals — depend. The Fukushima radioactive water dump is just one of the most recent examples.

“Humanity has a responsibility to respect the survival of all living things in the ecosystem as well as its own future generations,” said a declaration put out before the latest walk launched. And yet, “the Japanese government is intentionally dumping potentially fatal nuclear contaminants into the sea.”

Both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations come in for deservedly harsh criticism as well. In the cartoon booklet, the IAEA is referred to as “Japan’s Brazen Enabler”. The UN, says the declaration, is “ignoring the spirit of the World Charter of Nature (1982), drawn up by themselves and the Earth Charter (2000), made by agreement at the Rio Environmental Conference, and are simply watching the destruction of our ecosystem.” Striking an uncharacteristically pessimistic note, it adds: “All of these things show that our international community is completely broken. At this rate, there is no hope for humanity.”

In conclusion, the march declaration offers the following:

  1. The Japanese government, which has intentionally put humanity and the Earth’s ecosystem at great risk, must immediately stop dumping nuclear contaminated water and apologize to all living things on Earth.
  2. The U.S. government and the IAEA, which support Japan’s ocean dumping of nuclear contaminated water, should immediately withdraw their support and seek safe measures for all living things on Earth.
  3. The UN and the International Community must acknowledge and reflect on dereliction of their duty to stop Japan from dumping nuclear contaminated water into the ocean.
  4. Global citizens, keep in mind that if we turn a blind eye to these errors, we are committing a crime to our descendants, and let us actively punish any country or power that intentionally commits such crimes.
  5. Global citizens, let us be aware of our responsibility to protect the dignity of all life in the global village, and set the right guideposts.

Headline photo Won-Young Lee courtesy of the subject.

Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at Beyond Nuclear and writes for and edits Beyond Nuclear International. Her forthcoming book, Hot Stories. Reflections from a Radioactive World, will be published later this year.

April 7, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, South Korea | Leave a comment

Resistance to nuke dump grows in South Copeland


 NFLA 31st March 2025

Kirksanton and Bankhead residents in the South Copeland GDF Search Area will be heartened by the support of Millom Town Councillors who approved a motion at their 26 March meeting to ‘reject the area of focus as being beneficial to Bank Head’.

In January, Nuclear Waste Services announced that a site surrounding the prison West of Haverigg was its ‘Area of Focus’, the preferred inland site for a Geological Disposal Facility, a deep repository for Britain’s legacy and future high-level radioactive waste. This site borders the village of Kirksanton and the Bank Head housing estate.

The Council also agreed to a request that a public meeting be held to examine the ‘positives and negatives’ of bringing the GDF to the area. In September 2023, a Community Forum attended by the public and organised by the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership drew up an initial list.  In response to this NWS promised to commission an ‘impacts report’ from an independent consultant, but this has never materialised.

Councillors also agreed to send a letter of complaint to NWS about the size of the Area of Focus and how the announcement has impacted house sales and affected residents of the area.  At the meeting, the Chair conceded that, after speaking to estate agents, he believed the area to be ‘blighted’. Since the announcement, one house sale in nearby Silecroft has fallen through and a house owner in Bank Head has been forced to significantly reduce their asking price in make a sale.

Jan Bridget, who co-founded Millom and District against the GDF in 2022, was delighted at the level of attendance from the public and at the outcome:

“Well, what can I say, we have won a battle but not the war.  And I am thrilled that around  40 people turned up at the Millom Town Council meeting, demonstrating that Bank Head and Kirksanton are not willing communities”. 

Millom and District Against the Nuclear Dump organised a meeting of Bank Head residents to meet their local councillors from Cumberland and Millom Town Councils in February. Thirty-nine people attended the meeting, most from the Bank Head estate.  Residents asked the councillors for their help after sharing their very moving concerns.

We reported on this meeting:…………………………………..
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/resistance-to-nuke-dump-grows-in-south-copeland/

Bank Head Estate residents attend public meeting over nuke dump blight

April 1, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Leona Morgan – Rally and March to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in front of the UN

27 Mar,25, Leona Morgan

Indigenous activist from Diné (Navajo) in New Mexico, where their lands remain contaminated by uranium activities, radioactive waste, and radioactive fallout from the first atomic bomb test at “Rally and March to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in front of the UN” March 5, 2025

This is a recording of a rally and march to abolish nuclear weapons that was held on March 5, 2025, across the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. 2025 marks the 80th Anniversary of the first atomic bomb test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At a time when the risk of nuclear use is the highest since the Cold War, a coalition of U.S. groups held a rally and march in the morning on March 5, 2025, across the United Nations to coincide with the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). [ Co-organized by ] Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World NYC Metro Raging Grannies NYC War Resisters League Peace Action New York State Pax Christi New York State Brooklyn For Peace

[ List of Speakers ]…………………………………………………https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XB-TQWWIi4

March 30, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Redirect Sizewell C funding to the Warm Homes Plan, say campaigners.

 Alison Downes, https://stopsizewellc.org/sizewellcvswarmhomes/

Campaigners call on Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband to stop Sizewell C, redirect its funding to generate ‘Warm Homes’ jobs in every constituency by the next election.

Building Sizewell C would likely cost around £40bn over the next 15 years. Deducting money already spent, if Sizewell C is cancelled now, the public money saved by 2030 would be £7.1bn.

A paper from Stop Sizewell C and the Green New Deal Group  calls for this saving to be added to the £6.6bn the government is committed to spend in the current Parliament on energy efficiency in the nation’s homes. Turbocharging this ‘Warm Homes Plan’ by more than doubling its budget will generate long term, secure jobs, particularly for young people across the UK. It will be quick to implement, so by the next election new jobs and cheaper, warmer, healthier homes will have appeared in every constituency.

Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C said: “The taxpayers’ money being ploughed into risky, expensive Sizewell C – which will inevitably soar higher due to cost overruns and building delays – would be far better spent improving the lives of households nationwide, bringing down their bills, and helping the UK meet its net zero target”.

Colin Hines of The Green New Deal Group said: “At absolutely no extra cost to the nation’s finances Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband could stop funding the nuclear white elephant that is Sizewell C and not only improve the living conditions for homes in every constituency, but create jobs in every constituency, thereby improving their chances of winning the next election.”

Sizewell and warm homes report

March 27, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Nuclear regulators hear concerns about plan to restart Three Mile Island reactor.

The Constellation energy plant will generate elctricity exclusively for a Microsoft artificial intelligence data center

Pennsyvania Capital Star, By: Peter Hall – March 20, 2025 

Speakers at a virtual meeting Thursday about Three Mile Island raised concerns about restarting the nuclear plant’s Unit 1 reactor, nearly a half-century after its sister became a national symbol of the fraught promise of nuclear energy.

Members of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) heard support from nuclear energy advocates and Dauphin County residents for Constellation Energy’s plan to restart the power plant. The Baltimore-based company announced last year it has a contract to supply Microsoft with 835 megawatts of electricity for an artificial intelligence data center.

But skeptics, including longtime Three Mile Island opponent Eric Epstein of Harrisburg, told the commission they have questions about how the 50-year-old plant was mothballed when Constellation shut it down in 2019, how much traffic it would generate, and the storage of radioactive spent fuel.

They also said they’re concerned about how the facility will interact with the Susquehanna River in an age when climate change both makes water an increasingly scarce resource and flooding more violent and unpredictable.

Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project for Beyond Nuclear, noted the Government Accountability Office has advised the NRC to address climate risks to nuclear power plants by using future climate projections to assess safety risks rather than historical data.

“The NRC environmental review process is not unlike driving your car through the rear view mirror,” Gunter said. “The GAO has called attention to the fact that you’re not doing an adequate environmental review, and in particular, that you need to look at the impacts of climate change on the Susquehanna River levels.”

The meeting was an opportunity for NRC members and the Constellation Energy team to discuss an environmental review required under federal law before the agency can approve the plan to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1.

Constellation said in September that it would invest $1.6 billion to overhaul the plant, which it acquired in 1999 and shut down six years ago, citing economic conditions. 

Located in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, the plant is adjacent to but independent from the Unit 2 Three Mile Island reactor, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979. The incident shook public confidence in nuclear power. Both plants occupy an island in the Susquehanna River about 15 miles south of Harrisburg.

Constellation said it plans to rename the plant the Crane Clean Energy Center after the company’s former CEO Chris Crane. The change must also be approved by the NRC.

Company officials said they plan to submit an environmental report to the NRC in October and hope to obtain final environmental approval and renewed permits by the first quarter of 2027.


In a presentation to the NRC, Constellation said the plant would be restored to its previous operational condition and that no major demolition or construction is planned. The project would include modifications to the base of one of the two cooling towers, reactor building cooling equipment and an underground oil tank that had been used to store fuel for diesel generators……………………………………

Epstein, chairman of the nuclear watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert, said he has questions about the storage of the plant’s used nuclear fuel rods, which according to Constellation’s presentation were removed from the reactor and placed in dry storage casks in a facility adjacent to the plant on the island. Epstein said he has been unable to get answers from Constellation about the plan for storing the spent fuel, noting that the owner of the damaged Unit 2 reactor also operates a fuel storage facility.

He asked a rapid-fire stream of questions about the restart plan. 

“Is there a list of things that need to be rebuilt or replaced? … Where are you going to get the parts? You can’t go to Pep Boys and pull it off the shelf,” Epstein said.

He noted the surrounding farmland in Dauphin and Lancaster counties is home to Amish and Mennonite communities, of which many members don’t drive or use modern communication devices.

“I hope you guys will take a look at that in terms of emergency planning,” Epstein said.

Three Mile Island is one of three nuclear power plants that draw water from the Susquehanna River, Epstein said, claiming the demand of just two is equivalent to half the river’s daily flow. 

Earlier this month, Houston-based Talen Energy announced a $650 million deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for a 1,200-acre property adjacent to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear plant near Berwick. AWS expects to build out the site with data centers that would consume as much energy as 900,000 homes and require millions of gallons of cooling water each day.

While it’s unclear whether the Microsoft data centers would be located near Three Mile Island, Epstein said his organization would sue to prevent additional water withdrawals from the Susquehanna..

“Where are we going to use the water? We’re going to use it for farmers? We’re going to use it for cleansing, or use it for hygiene, or are we going to use it for artificial intelligence?” Epstein said.  https://penncapital-star.com/uncategorized/nuclear-regulators-hear-concerns-about-plan-to-restart-three-mile-island-reactor/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJMYRdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQib_ldS-ISmA1D6gu47O93dieRbXJuNFU_qcOMN6vmRnGDEpQTFzeaJ_w_aem_Ms6VL_eSAqi2vSoLrWfBLg

March 25, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Time to take urgent action to help Stop Sizewell C

NFLA 18th March 2025, https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/time-to-take-urgent-action-to-help-stop-sizewell-c/

With an ongoing Spending Review which will determine whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves continues to squander yet more public money to feed the ravenous Suffolk ‘White Elephant’ known as the Sizewell C nuclear power plant project, whilst seeking private sector backers to help the unholy beast lumber across the line marked Final Investment Decision, now is the time for all those opposed to the plan to step up and take action to oppose it.

The NFLAs have been consistent in supporting and promoting any initiative by our friends in Stop Sizewell C and Together against Sizewell C that will help stop the beast in its tracks, and with estimated acquisition costs recently doubling to £40 billion at a time of tightening public finances ending the project at this early stage and redirecting the money to invest in energy efficiency measures and renewables would be the wisest move by HM Treasury.

Stop Sizewell C has recently identified four actions that you could take and we urge you to do so:

Write to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, urging her to cancel Sizewell C:


Over 1,000 such messages have been sent to the Chancellor during the current Spending Review.

Please add your own via action.stopsizewellc.org/save-billions-cancel-sizewellc

You can either send the standard message (see below for the text) by pressing ‘Send Message Now’ after entering your details or edit/paste in your own text by clicking ‘Personalise this email’.

he standard message:

“As you carry out your multi-year spending review, I am reminded of your statement to Parliament during your mini-budget last year – “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it”. I appreciate that you face many difficult choices, but with the Financial Times reporting that Sizewell C will cost at least £40 billion, I urge you not to throw more taxpayers’ money at this expensive, risky project that will raise energy bills during its lengthy and unpredictable construction. For alternative strategies that will help meet the UK’s 2030 target and create many thousands of jobs, I urge you to focus on renewables and energy efficiency.” 

Sign the Stop Sizewell C petition to David Goldstone, Chair of the new Office of Value for Money:

Stop Sizewell C is seeking at least 5,000 signatories to back a petition to the new Office of Value for Money’s independent Chair David Goldstone to call in the Sizewell C project for urgent scrutiny.  To sign the petition please go to action.stopsizewellc.org/valueformoney

March 20, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Most Scots disagree with Anas Sarwar about building new nuclear plants

 The National 16th March 2025 https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25012201.scots-disagree-anas-sarwar-building-new-nuclear-plants/

DOESN’T the government wanting to build new nuclear plants in Scotland (Sunday National, Mar 16) betray why the UK subjugates Scotland as a vassal state to dump the nuclear garbage it doesn’t want polluting England onto we Scots? Like their dangerous weapons of mass destruction that Westminster doesn’t want located adjacent to the cossetted wealthy south-east; let’s just dump it on the Scots.

NO! NO! NO!

Not only don’t we want nuclear plants here in Scotland, we want England to bear the burden and risk of the obscenity that is nuclear weapons.

Anas Sarwar says it’s not the archaic planning rules that restrict development of nuclear plants, but the “intransigence of the ideologically rigid Scottish Government”. Sarwar fails to understand that this policy of the Scottish Government is widely supported by Scots; it is he who is out of step promoting a polluting, dangerous technology that is so 20th century. Here in the 21st century we’re already well served by hydro, wind and solar power with huge potential for further development. And there are hydrogen and tidal technologies among others to be developed, to build the broad mix of green energy without any need for nuclear power.

Isn’t Scottish Labour MPs changing their minds to accord with Starmer and Milliband’s diktat a clear case of them placing their own personal political careers before the wishes of the people they are supposed to represent and take instruction from? How is this democracy?

Who is surprised about anything emanating from this group of shape-shifting Labour MPs who lied to voters to get elected? Scots voted for them in desperation to rid us of the worst Tory government in history, sick fed up of being continually hammered by draconian policies that created financial hardship for those least well-off. Their reward for placing trust in Labour was to get a government that simply picked up the Tories’ baton of austerity hardship and is intent to press on and finish the race to bottom for ordinary folks, pensioners, those on fixed income and benefits, while ensuring that the wealthy who should and can afford to make a just contribution are left unscathed.

This desire of Starmer and his henchmen to dump nuclear plants on Scotland should prove to Scots that Westminster will never willingly allow us to secede from this iniquitous union that values Scotland only as a cash cow, somewhere to dump the dangerous stuff they don’t want in their back yard. If we want to live in a just land, won’t we have to prise ourselves from this UK union? We will have to take back our independence despite Westminster.

At the General Election, Scots voted in a poor electoral system for Labour. We received more tory; this time red-tory Labour.

If we are to benefit from real change, the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026 have got to be used as a concerted effort, with all pro-indy interests working together to demonstrate we’ve had enough of more than 300 years of failure and use the strength of feeling for indy to justify us taking back our independence.

One issue: independence. We vote SNP 1 with no SNP candidates on the list. Other indy-supporting parties under an umbrella group created for the election on the list, position by agreement, to achieve the supermajority that makes the case for indy irresistible.

March 18, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Rainbow Warrior arrives in Marshall Islands to call for nuclear and climate justice on 40th anniversary of Rongelap evacuation

Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior

Greenpeace International, 11 March 2025 ,
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/73392/rainbow-warrior-arrives-in-marshall-islands-to-call-for-nuclear-and-climate-justice-on-40th-anniversary-of-rongelap-evacuation/

Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands – Greenpeace flagship vessel the Rainbow Warrior was welcomed back to the Marshall Islands today, marking the start of a six-week mission around the Pacific nation to elevate calls for nuclear and climate justice; and support independent scientific research into the impacts of decades-long nuclear weapons testing by the US government.[1] 

Escorted by traditional canoes, and welcomed by Marshallese singing and dancing, the arrival of the Rainbow Warrior marks a significant moment in the shared history of Greenpeace and the Marshall Islands — 40 years since Greenpeace crew evacuated over 300 people from the Rongelap atoll to Mejatto island, after toxic nuclear fallout from the Castle Bravo test rendered their ancestral lands uninhabitable.[2] The ship was given a blessing by the Council of Iroij, the traditional chiefs of the Islands; with speeches from Senator Hilton Kendall (Rongelap atoll); Honorable Boaz Lamdik on behalf of the Mayor of Majuro; Farrend Zackious, Vice Chairman Council of Iroij; and keynote address from Minister Bremity Lakjohn, Minister Assistant to the President.

Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:

“We’re extremely grateful and humbled to be welcomed back by the Marshallese government and community with such kindness and generosity of spirit. Over the coming weeks, we’ll travel around this beautiful country, bearing witness to the impacts of nuclear weapons testing and the climate crisis, and listening to the lived experiences of Marshallese communities fighting for justice.

“For decades, Marshallese communities have been sacrificing their lands, health, and cultures for the greed of those seeking profits and power. But at the same time, the Marshallese people have been some of the loudest voices calling for justice, accountability, and ambitious solutions to some of the greatest issues facing the world. Greenpeace is proud to stand alongside the Marshallese people in their demands for nuclear justice and reparations, and the fight against colonial exploitation which continues to this day. Justice – Jimwe im Maron“

Over the six-week mission, the Rainbow Warrior will travel to Mejatto, Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap, and Wotje, undertaking much-needed independent radiation research, and reaffirming its solidarity with the Marshallese people — now facing further harm and displacement from the climate crisis, and the emerging threat of deep sea mining in the Pacific.

Jobod Silk, a climate activist from Jo-Jikum, a youth organisation responding to climate change, said:

“Marshallese culture has endured many hardships over the generations. Colonial powers have each left their mark on our livelihoods – introducing foreign diseases, influencing our language with unfamiliar syllables, and inducing mass displacement “for the good of mankind”. Yet, our people continue to show resilience. Liok tut bok: as the roots of the Pandanus bury deep into the soil, so must we be firm in our love for our culture.  

“Today’s generation now battles a new threat. Once our provider, the ocean now knocks at our doors, and once again, displacement is imminent. Our crusade for nuclear justice intertwines with our fight against the tides. We were forced to be refugees, and we refuse to be labeled as such again.  As the sea rises, so do the youth. The return of the Rainbow Warrior instills hope for the youth in their quest to secure a safe future.”

Dr Rianne Teule, Senior Radiation Protection Advisor at Greenpeace International, said:

“It is an honour and a privilege to be able to support the Marshallese government and people in conducting independent scientific research to investigate, measure, and document the long term effects of US nuclear testing across the country.

“As a result of the US government’s actions, the Marshallese people have suffered the direct and ongoing effects of nuclear fallout, including on their health, cultures, and lands. We hope that our research will support legal proceedings currently underway and the Marshall Islands government’s ongoing calls for reparations.” 

The Rainbow Warrior’s arrival to the Marshall Islands on March 11 also marks the 14th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Whilst some residents have returned, there are many areas that remain too contaminated for people to safely live.[3]

March 13, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Councillors oppose nuclear dump site near Louth

‘Six more communities are now facing this devastation

By Peter Craig, Reporter, 10 Mar 25

 Councillors have voted to oppose a nuclear dump site near Louth. East
Lindsey District Council want to persuade Lincolnshire County Council to do
the same and say NO to the proposed 1,000 acre site at Great Carlton.

 Grimsby Telegraph 11th March 2025, https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/councillors-oppose-nuclear-dump-site-10001353

March 13, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Campaigners attend East Lindsey District Council meeting to call on Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw from Geological Disposal Facility process

By James Turner, Local Democracy Reporter,  Lincs Online 6th March 2025, https://www.lincsonline.co.uk/louth/weve-had-enough-now-the-threat-of-this-nuclear-waste-dump-9407343/

Dozens of protesters have called on Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw from the process that could lead to the construction of a nuclear waste site in the county.

Campaigners from across the district gathered outside East Lindsey District Council’s offices in Horncastle ahead of a full council meeting on Wednesday to support a motion from Coun Travis Hesketh (Independent) urging the leader to actively oppose the establishment of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) – and calling on the county council to withdraw from the community partnership in the hopes of stopping the plans altogether.

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) identified three ‘areas of focus’ for its facility in January. These include sites in Mid Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria, as well as land between Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton, near Louth.

East Lindsey District Council has pledged to leave the working group it joined with the organisation formerly known as Radioactive Waste Management in 2021, due to the new location being prime agricultural land and completely different from the former gas terminal site in Theddlethorpe, which it had been considering previously.

“I am the district councillor for Withern and Theddlethorpe, I represent the area where the nuclear dump was originally going to be placed, but now it’s moved,” Coun Hesketh told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“We’re here today because East Lindsey has said they are going to pull out, which is a terrific thing, but they need to go further. They need to say we oppose this and we want Lincolnshire County Council to do the same.

“We’ve had five years since Lincolnshire County Council met with Radioactive Waste Management – this thing has been going on for so long they’ve changed the name of the company. We’ve had enough now. They have ruined two communities, house values have been decimated – nobody can sell their house in the Carlton or Gayton area, they’re stuck. It’s time to make a decision.”

As councillors began arriving for the meeting, campaigners sang chants such as “We say, we say, no GDF, no GDF,” to the beat of Queen’s We Will Rock You and other lines such as “We are gentle, angry people and we’re singing for our lives.”

Nigel, 64, from Theddlethorpe, was just one of many campaigners and said he had been fighting the plans since ‘day one’.

“Now the area of focus has shifted, I feel I need to support the people affected in that area as well. We’re just trying to force the council’s hand now.”

March 8, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Opposition to new small nuclear power plants in south Wales

There are plans for four “micro” nuclear reactors in the Llynfi Valley, Bridgend.

WalesLOnline, By Lewis Smith, Local Democracy Reporter, 21 FEB 2025Green Party members in Bridgend have said they are opposed to plans for a nuclear power plant project in the Llynfi Valley describing it as “unnecessary, unwanted and unsafe”.

The multi-million proposals could eventually see the creation of a facility with four micro modular nuclear power plants on the site of the former coal-powered Llynfi Power Station, if given the go-ahead……………

 the Bridgend branch of the Green Party have now issued a statement opposing the potential power station, raising concerns over safety with what they say is an “untested” design planned for the site.

……………… Part of the statement added: “This is a new design which if built will be the first of its kind. So the design is untested in the real world. Locals, including local Green Party members have several credible reasons for concern.

“The Green Party questions the need for a nuclear power plant, when Wales has the natural resources required to produce all its energy from a mixture of solar power, onshore and off-shore wind generation.”

“The risk of nuclear leaks, from the on-site nuclear waste storage is not acceptable. Who will pay for future nuclear waste storage? There is a risk that no other region of the UK will be willing to store the nuclear waste, and that this area will become a long term nuclear waste storage site. The consequences of accidental leakage and terrorist targeting has not been fully considered………………… https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/opposition-new-small-nuclear-power-31047639

February 25, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

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