The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly proposed to raise the allowable levels of radioactivity in drinking water a nuclear incident to hundreds of times their current limits. If this guidance goes through, EPA’s action will allow people to drink water with concentrations of radioactivity at vastly higher levels. — Read more —
Category: Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Energy
Gaffney Hearing on Nuclear Permit this THURS April 4th
DHEC Wastewater Permit Hearing
for WS Lee Nuclear Station
THURS April 4th
Restoration Church International
1905 N. Limestone Street, Gaffney, SC 29340
6PM DHEC Presentation/Q&A.7PM Hearing & Comments
NPDES Permit hearing for nuclear wastewater discharge into the Broad River for Duke Energy’s two proposed reactors at WS Lee Nuclear Station in Gaffney, SC.
More info: http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/water/docs/PN_npdes_13-031.pdf
Carpooling from Columbia to Gaffney, SC to attend hearing:
Contact David, info @ carolinapeace.org or 803-215-3263
Submit Written Comments by FRI April 19th:
HOW TO COMMENT? Provide comments at the hearing or give DHEC written comments no later than close of business Friday, April 19, 2013. Forward comments to Randy Thompson (note notice # 13-031-H): SCDHEC/Bureau of Water, 2600 Bull Street, Columbia, SC 29201 or Randy.Thompson@ dhec.sc.gov.
Two Years After Fukushima: Panel at USC TUES Mar 26th
Two Years After Fukushima: the Environmental and Political Impacts
TUES Mar 26th, 7PM
USC, Green Quad Learning Center
(Wheat & Sumter St. Entrance off of Sumter St between building. Look for sign that reads West Quad-Sustainable Learning Center)
Panel featuring:
Dr. Jeff Patterson, President, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) www.psr.org
Dr. Timothy Mousseau, biologist at USC and expert on environmental effects of Chernobyl & Fukushima.
Mary Olson, Nuclear Information Research Service (NIRS) www.nirs.org
Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Carolina Peace Resource Center
RSVP/Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/605116326168994/
MOX Plant at SRS Multi-Billion Dollar Boondoggle
Recent article from The State “Critics fear $7 billion SRS boondoggle” by Sammy Fretwell, January 27, 2013
The State‘s Sammy Fretwell interviews Columbia nuclear watchdog Tom Clements about cost overruns at the Savannah River Site’s MOX program.
“An energy department report published last month shows that the mixed oxide fuel factory is in danger of falling behind schedule and costing more than anticipated. The DOE’s Project Dashboard report gave the mixed-oxide factory complex a red rating, the most serious of three categories on the progress of agency construction projects…But the price tag could rise to nearly $7 billion when the federal government provides new cost estimates, according to a recent letter to the U.S. Department of Energy and those who track issues concerning the SRS complex near Aiken. The new cost estimates are expected this year.”
Clements has this to say
Tom Clements, a longtime anti-nuclear activist with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, was more blunt in his assessment. He said today’s rising costs reflect only current conditions. But the site has a history of cost questions, Clements said. Records that Clements said he has reviewed show the MOX plant, at one point in the past, was estimated to cost about $1.8 billion. Now, the project could cost as much as $7 billion, he said, referring to Markey’s letter.
“If you look at spending on the MOX plant, you’d think we are rolling in dough and have no budget problems whatsoever,” Clements said. “Nobody is minding the store on this.”
Article Link:
www.thestate.com/2013/01/27/2606562/critics-fear-7-billion-srs-boondoggle.html
SCE&G Rate Increases for Nuclear Reactors & Hearings
SCE&G Rate Increases for New Nuclear Reactors
Public Service Commission Hearings on Rate Increases
MON Nov 26th, 2PM & TUES Nov 27th, 6PM
Public Service Commission of SC, 101 Executive Center Drive
Facebook Event for Evening TUES Nov 27th Hearing: https://www.facebook.com/events/120497311442800/
SCE&G rates increase have taken effect to pay for construction of two new (and unnecessary) nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear unit in Jenkinsville, SC.
Under the Baseload Review Act passed by the SC Statehouse, SCE&G can pass along the cost of building these new nuclear reactors on to customers, and SCE&G is planning to continue ratcheting up rates over a long-term to pay for the multi-billion dollar project. Meanwhile, renewable energy sources like solar and off-shore wind and energy efficiency, the best ways to meet our energy needs in SC are being ignored!
TAKE ACTION: Attend a Hearing, Contact a SC Legislator
1. Attend a Hearing and speak out! Register your 2 cents. You have to sign up to give testimony, so arrive early if you want to speak early.
2. Contact your State Legislator and tell them to repeal the Base Load Review Act and cancel the new unnecessary nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer in favor of energy efficiency and renewable energy like solar and wind. http://www.scstatehouse.gov/ (Use “Find Your Legislator” box)
3. Educate yourself using these resources compiled by Carolina Peace! Click “Read More”
Resources on SCE&G Rate Increases, New Nuclear Reactors & Renewable Energy:
Sierra Club Fact Sheet and Talking Points on PSC Hearings http://myscsierra.org/chapter/images/stories/VC_Summer_Talking_Points_-_121002_1019.pdf
Sierra Club Press Release “S.C. Sierra Club Calls for Cancellation of V.C.Summer Nuclear Units in Favor of Less Costly Alternatives”http://www.carolinapeace.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=19&Itemid=61
“Say No to Rate Increase,” Article in the Post & Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20121028/PC1002/121029273/1021/say-no-to-sceg-rate-hike
Solar Tax Credit in NC Create Job Boom, SC Fails to Pass Such Legislation: Article in the State, 10.28.12
http://www.thestate.com/2012/10/28/2497891/sun-farms-boom-across-south-carolina.html
Off-shore Wind Potential in SC, Blog Post from SACE (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)
http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2011/06/23/the-growing-wind-industry-in-south-carolina/
Official Public Service Commission Hearings Docket
Confusing & jargon filled… not very inviting of public comment! Their homepage is even worse.
http://dms.psc.sc.gov/dockets/dockets.cfc?Method=DocketDetail&DocketID=114137
Compiled by Carolina Peace Resource Center, www.carolinapeace.org
“Nuclear Weapons, Energy & Waste” Panel, WED Oct 10th
“Nuclear Weapons, Energy and Waste:
What South Carolina Needs to Know”
Panel Discussion
WED Oct 10th, 7PM
USC, Green Quad Learning Center
1216 Wheat Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208.
Featuring
Tom Clements, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
Susan Corbett, Sierra Club of South Carolina
Glenn Carroll, Nuclear Watch South
RSVP/Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/465437746810891/
Sponsored by the Carolina Peace Resource Center
Comment on MOX/Surplus Plutonium at SRS
DOE Hearing
“Draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)”
Several South Carolina and Georgia environmentalists attended an important Department of Energy (DOE) hearing on disposal of weapons-grade plutonium on September 4 in N. Augusta, SC. This hearing on DOE’s “Draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental EIS” looked at production of plutonium fuel (MOX) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and MOX use in nuclear reactors operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). SRS already has 13 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium stored at the site and more will come if the MOX program goes forward. Carolina Peace is against the MOX option and supports immobilization of plutonium as nuclear waste.
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS TO THE DOE! YOUR VOICE MATTERS!
Here is a link to a fact sheet on the issue from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. Commenting information is at the end of the PDF file.
http://www.ananuclear.org/Portals/0/MOX%20hearing%20fact%20sheet%208.31.2012%20pdf%20FINAL.pdf
DEADLINE TO COMMENT, OCT 10th
Aug 14th SRS C.A.B. Meeting Considers Resolution Against More Nuclear Waste
SRS Community Advisory Board Meeting (C.A.B.)
TUES August 14th, 6PM-8PM
DOE Meeting Center (At Rear of Aiken Design Center),
230 Village Green Blvd., Suite 220, Aiken, SC 29801.
If you’re concerned about the issue of “consolidated storage” of some of the nation’s commercial spent fuel at the Savannah River Site, you will want to attend this C.A.B. meeting in Aiken, SC. A draft recommendation against bringing highly radioactive spent fuel to SRS will be discussed and we need to show support for it. The draft recommendation was presented at an earlier waste committee meeting and to the full CAB on July 23. Industry boosters however will be speaking out against the resolution.
Interested in carpooling from Columbia? Contact David, 803-215-3263.
Save the Broad River from Nuclear Drought
New Nuclear Reactors: the Death of the Broad River?
SCE&G’s two new planned nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer in Jenkinsville would intake, according to SCE&G’s own numbers, 54.9 million gallons daily (MGD) from the Broad river and discharge 14.6 MGD. That amounts to 40.3 MGD up in steam to cool the nuclear reactor, not to mention the fact that water discharged back to the Broad will be a super-heated 95 degrees. This increase in the Broad’s already rising temperature will likely be the tipping point to extinction for animal and plant life both in the Broad and downstream. In a time of water scarcity we cannot allow 40 MGD of our Broad river to be sacrificed for nuclear power.
Know Nukes Y’all Summit, June 28-30 in Chattanooga
Carolina Peace sent two activists to attend the Know Nukes Y’all Summit Thurs Jun 28-Sat Jun 30th in Chattanooga, TN, joining our stalwart SC activists Tom Clements (Alliance for Nuclear Accountability) and Susan Corbett (SC Sierra Club). David Matos, president of Carolina Peace, wrote this Report Back blog for NuclearFreePlanet.org while Action South’s blog also gives a good overview (and more pictures) of the conference. Lansing, MI’s Peace Education Center took some wonderful photos including the thumbnail photo collage here on the Carolina Peace webpage. The conference was a watershed moment in opposing nuclear weapons and energy in the Southeast.
Carolina Peace Resource Center 