Stop Nuclear Power Expansion---Call Your Senator
Urge support for an expansion of energy efficiency and renewable sources of electricity, such as wind, solar, and geothermal.
Call the central Congressional office office at (202) 224-3121.
This "Sense of the Senate" vote on nuclear power is scheduled for Tuesday, June 16th in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, so make your calls right away on Monday. See below for ideas on additional "talking points" as well as further background on the issues.
Thanks for taking action at this critical juncture - your phone call could make a significant difference in diverting future U.S. energy policy away from dirty, dangerous and expensive atomic power, towards clean, safe, and affordable energy efficiency and renewable sources.
If you have any questions, contact Kevin Kamps at Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216 or [email protected]. For more information on the outrageous subsidies that the nuclear power industry already enjoys at taxpayer and ratepayer expense, see http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-subsidies.html.
Sincerely,
Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear
Additional Talking Points and Background Information:
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, whose father, former Sen. Frank Murkowski, unsuccessfully led the pro-Yucca dump push for many years, is herself now proposing a "Sense of the Senate" resolution in favor of expanding nuclear power in the United States. The news article breaking the story, and Sen. Murkowski's "Sense of the Senate" resolution proposal, are pasted in at the very bottom of this email.
This pro-nuclear power amendment will likely be voted on at next Tuesday's mark up session of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. This pro-nuclear amendment would be attached to the Senate energy bill, and would build momentum to further taxpayer subsidies for a nuclear power relapse, such as the building of a new atomic reactor at Nine Mile Point in Upstate New York.
Regarding water impacts of nuclear power plants, almost every single operating atomic reactor has leaked radioactive tritium into groundwater, sometimes in massive amounts. When not leaking into groundwater, nuclear power plants have permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to "routinely release" tritium and other toxic and radioactive pollutants into the nearby river, lake, or ocean.
The Northeast hosts some of the oldest reactors in the U.S. - Vermont Yankee in Brattleboro and Pilgrim in Plymouth, MA as just two examples - which are at risk of age-related accidents. The security risks at Indian Point, NY impact not only the New York City metro region, but the entire Northeast, depending on the direction the wind is blowing. And high-level radioactive wastes remain at permanently shut down and decommissioned reactors like Connecticut Yankee, Yankee Rowe, and Maine Yankee, while wastes continue to mount at still operating reactors like Seabrook, with no safe, sound permanent solution in site. In fact, Northeast sites such as Hillsboro NH and Sebago Lake ME are back on the target list for a national high-level radioactive waste dump, now that President Obama has indicated he will cancel the geologically unsuitable Yucca Mountain, Nevada proposal.
Your Senator should be pushing for hearings on the potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy real solutions to the climate crisis, as well as the energy crisis and the unemployment crisis. Why doesn't your Senator lead an effort to pass a "Sense of the Senate" resolution in favor of efficiency and renewables such as wind, solar and geothermal instead of voting for one supporting an expansion of nuclear power?
Regarding jobs, dollar-for-dollar invested, the choice of renewables and efficiency over nuclear power is clear. If the United States chooses taxpayer investment in nuclear power, it will be denying workers safe, good-paying jobs in favor of a dirty, dangerous, expensive and failed technology. A $150 billion investment in renewable energy would yield 1.3 million direct impact jobs while the same investment in nuclear power would yield, at best, only 59,000 jobs, 50,000 of which are temporary construction jobs, disappearing after several years. For every $1 million invested in energy efficiency, 21.5 jobs are created while the same investment in nuclear power leads to less than one job. In fact, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's own trade association and lobbying firm, admits that a single permanent job at a nuclear power plant will cost at least $1.5 million to create. Fewer people would qualify for jobs at nuclear reactors because of the specific technical and educational requirements whereas jobs in renewable energy and efficiency can adapt many backgrounds and specialties with little extra education, making them available to more people. Your Senator should be leading the call for efficiency and renewable jobs in your state, not wasteful taxpayer subsidies for new reactors as at Nine Mile Point, NY.
Please urge your Senator to lead the opposition against any resolutions in favor of nuclear power, as well as any further taxpayer subsidies for a nuclear power relapse. Urge Senate support for energy efficiency and renewable sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal, real solutions for the climate, energy, and economic crises. And please get your friends, family, and neighbors to call your Senator.
Thank you for all you can do.
Prepared on June 13, 2009 by
Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Watchdog
Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Office: (301) 270-2209 ext. 1
Cell: (240) 462-3216
Fax: (301) 270-4000
[email protected]
www.beyondnuclear.org