Published: March 8th, 2013 at 1:21 am ET
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Title: Follow the Money
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Date: March 6, 2013
At ~20:00 in
Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Engineer: There’s 23 nuclear plants in the [U.S.] like Fukushima Daiichi […] the NRC staff is demanding filtered vents. The industry doesn’t want to spend 20 million dollars on the filters. So what the industry’s done is gone to Congress, and Congress is inundating the NRC commissioners, the 5 commissioners, saying ‘You’re spending public money needlessly.’ So there’s 4,000 engineers on the staff who think there should be filtered vents, but the 5 commissioners who are going to vote on this are under extraordinary pressure not to have utilities spend the 20 million dollars to fix the problem.
Maggie Gundersen, Fairewinds founder: So once again it’s follow the money and this is industry money trying to get what the industry wants.
Arnie Gundersen: […] Dozens of congressman have written to the commission saying, ‘You’re wasting my ratepayers money.’ Of course when one of these plants blows up like Fukushima Daiichi, they might have a different opinion. But right now they’re pressuring the commission not to allow these filtered vents to be installed. So there’s an ask here. At the end of broadcast we’re hoping our listeners will do is contact the NRC. The commissioners’ emails are on the website and write to the 5 commissioners and say:
“Don’t cave in to nuclear pressure. Our lives are more important than the 20 million dollars the industry doesn’t want to spend.”
So I hope this week as people listen to this podcast they’ll do just that. Write to the 5 commissioners and get them to demand safety over profits.
NRC COMMISSIONER EMAILS: Chairman@nrc.gov, CMRSVINICKI@nrc.gov, CMRAPOSTOLAKIS@nrc.gov, CMRMAGWOOD@nrc.gov, CMROSTENDORFF@nrc.gov
Full program here
Published: March 8th, 2013 at 1:21 am ET
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sending...
Here's another way to do it:
> http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12339
–thanks to the NIRS –per: "It's time to raise more of our voices, and raise them louder. Tell the NRC–and your members of Congress–to a) permanently close these dangerous reactors and b) send a message that public safety matters by approving these filtered vents.*
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TY, Craig-123. I signed the petition you posted. I think it is also important to send separate personal e-mails to the members of Congress and to the NRC, and to make phone calls.
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Ty, signed.
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The way some media reported this was that Republicans opposed using more money for nuclear energy. And we thought, wow — did they really do one good thing? No one said they opposed using money for nuclear SAFETY….
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sent an email. tweeted. Good luck to us all. Anyone seen a spreadsheet of profits for nuc companies for past few years? Profits v. Filters
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Does a vent prevent the meltdown? No. Does a vent prevent an explosion in cases of the loss of coolant? I doubt it. A vent does nothing to prevent the "unthinkable". Your putting holes in the containment that we have seen doesn't contain in the worst case scenario. Vents do not prevent unwanted criticalities. The "core catcher" is supposed to do that. Do vents improve the function of the "core catcher"? No. In the case of a partial meltdown they may make things worse. Just venting my opinion.
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your venting is correct. filters are not the total answer. The only way to ensure full compliance with any reasonable health regimen to protect against the ravages of radiation poisoning is:
Shut Them All Down. Otherwise, humanity & all life are doomed. We are anyway due to historic lack of security and no place to store waste that corrodes all known receptacles used to date. Ask Finland about their deep storage decision, if not already aware. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Eternity_(film)
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Vents or filters do little to correct the shabby cheap design of GE BWRs anyhow…
These reactors routinely release in the 100,000 Curies range and that's when they were NEW…corrosion in these single coolant loop designs was a known problem from the beginning…imagine these same piping joints 45+ yrs later! INSANE that they are allowed to run at all…20 mil in filters won't fix that.
While you're writing the NRC, Arnie, ask them to supply you with release tables for these NPPs…the accurate ones that only they see…permissible releases are in the millions of Curies so if someone is not more than 60 miles from one…look out! Shields Up
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isn't nuclear power wonderful?? Way to go GE!!! And it was never necessary … ergo GE Executives past and present are mass murdering white trash … don't it make you go, "Huh??"
peace …
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Vents and what about submersible pumps, etc. Some of these plants are over 50 years old and should have been decommissioned decades ago. IMHO Lack of profit the almighty dollar is our only hope to get these plants shut down for good. Once they see it's going to cost more than it's worth then and only then will they take appropriate action. It's all about MONEY.
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Memo to moonshellblue::: they (mass murdering white trash nuclear executives) will never "Do the right thing …"
… just sayin' …. They are not Jamaicans!!
peace …
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4000 engineers think that venting is the answer to control a nuclear meltdown?
Arnie is pushing for this..this so called improvement?
Another inter-industry squabble?
Arnie is saying that these reactors can be retrofitted..and new reactors built with vents is going to prevent and control a nuclear meltdown..due to earthquake or tsunami…etc.?
PS..It ain't me ,babe, it ain't me your looking for….
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Arnie has stated that he thinks nuclear power can be used safely. I was appalled when I heard those words but he has been put through a lot. Still I wish he would take a no nuke stance but I'm sure he has his reasons?
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I like his stance due to the fact that if everything possible was done to make nuclear safe, then there would be nothing nuclear on planet earth. After the new vents are installed, all the mark I's will need to be moved to another planet….
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There is not enough money in the world to make even 1 nuclear plant safe…and who is it that gets to decide the acceptable risk of cancer within a population…should it be you?…my grandchild?.. your father?
Filters & more filters…if filters of any kind worked when it comes to radiation, how is it possible that nuclear plant workers can only be exposed to so much before having to quit the industry??…just like those paper filters those little children wear while playing outside..no protection…but they end up being more radioactive waste we have no way of safely storing.
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Amen. MaidenHeaven … by the way … … isn't nuclear power just wonderful??? Ducky??? Peachy????
… per Gofman … premeditated, mass murdering (white trash) business elite ….
what is not to love about the US of A …
Shit yeh!?
peace …
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Yeah it's a fairly sucky PR push to try and win an anti-nuke concession for a nearly useless blowout feature .
About like putting a vented dome over a volcano, but maybe the extra money for vents gives pause for reflection for bankers, politicians, and the unwashed masses of Walking Dead.
Still…a little email never cost me a dime and I might have more to "vent" about than just vents.
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"under extraordinary pressure not to have utilities spend the 20 million dollars to fix the problem."
"to fix the problem?!"
"to fix the problem?!"
Filters may make the the enormous problem that is a BWR a bit cleaner, but it does NOT fix any problem. The least they could do is put in filters, but I wonder if spending 20 million dollars on this will get them closer to shutting them down, or not?
Shut them down.
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Why can't they just change the recipe of the fuel to something that doesn't explode or heat up so fast? Please, no more holes in containment. We're dieing out here with nose bleeds, cancer, respiratory disease, and holes in our hearts. C'mon, we got blood running out our behinds. Someone stop this madness.
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Dear NRC and members,
Do NOT allow profits to come before safety.
Do NOT make the mistakes like they did at Fukushima.
The possible future of planet rests with your decisions.
My personal opinion is that ALL Nuclear Power should be stopped in the name of humanity.
People were never told or understood the 'real' RISKS involving this insane costly technology.
Fukushima is STILL contaminating the entire planet!!!
–> 60 years worth of electricity for thousands of years of radioactive toxic waste.
Question: WHO's going to pay for that?
Answer: We are, with suffering and damage to our DNA.
Sincerely,
ChasAha
Citizen USA, Planet Earth
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TY, ChasAha.
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tisk, tisk ChasAha … we all know, as Judge J. Garvan Murtha of Second US District Court has ruled re: Vermont Yankee and continued operation (of a Mark One BWR, no less …)
"Nuclear power is 'SO SAFE' you are not allowed to talk about it!!!" Kind of like how sixty million Germans were not allowed to 'talk about' what went on at the 'work' camps … Bergen-Belsen, Sobibor, Dachau, Ausschwitz … und so weiter …
Don't you just "get" this nuclear thing???
It's the new Endloesung. The new, improved 'final solution.' Anyone here have any testicles left … without all the resident plutonium?? Thanks be to GE for the plutonium.
Just because some called it the "Jewish Bomb" doesn't mean we can't get upset about nuclear the same way we got upset about the last 'Holocaust.'
Oh right … many, here, were rooting for the Nazis …
So old FDR got the Japs to invade Hawaii … c'mon Admiral Yamamoto … you can't be serious … … Hawaii??? Now we don't have any more coconuts !!! ….
but lots of other nuts … like our Fortune fifty CEO squad …
Isn't nuclear power wonderful??? Huh?? Jeff Immelt??? isn't it???
peace ….
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Dear All,
Please spend the 20 million to fix the BWR Mark 1 reactors in the USA. That shit is chump change to nuclear power anyway. They probably make a cool couple million a day – and where does that go? To some asshole like you fuckin up the planet.
I hope you will realize as I have that our lifes have been impacted from Fukushima- if you try to tell me otherwise fuck off – imagine if something like this happens in America? ( With the amount of reactors in the US it is inevitable any way)
Not only will you suffer in your life, but your children will suffer, and we'll all suffer.
The Earth will suffer, and she will make us pay for what we have done to her.
Abolish Nuclear Power! It is disgusting and we don't need it!!
Truley Pissed-Off at you fucks,
TWIF
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^ was I too vulgar?
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No.
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I should have been harsher huh? Thinkn of a lot more F'd up things to say…
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Damn Cat, why you gotta go off and exposin the truth so hard LOL
sh** is deep, makes me all depressed sittin here at my desk job knowin these hours i put in are being taxed to fund a process that is slowly killing me…
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Sorry TheWorldIsFüküd, I went from scared to depressed to pissed off.. Now my "common Knowledge" includes little details on nuke, and I share and soap box to anybody who will listen. More people seem willing to listen these days. Not sure if you have read Karl Grossman's book, but it will help to understand the sheer enormity of the problems.. In 1970 our elected had a report that stated that nuclear power was not the best use of tax dollars, that if we had spent even a small fraction of the tax dollars invested already in nuclear energy on solar energy we would have commercially available, viable, cheap solar power that would provide many more jobs than nuke.. our elected decided on nuke anyway.. can you fathom why? Personal GREED, is my guess. Book is available for free and worth the read, Karl is excellent investigative journalist, both him and the Permanent Press believe this information to be so critically important that they provide it for free, so please share!
http://www.thepermanentpress.com/p-354-cover-up.aspx
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DOE has 16,000 employees and a $12 BILLION dollar a year budget, from my understanding.
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So that would mean 10,200,000,000 of those tax dollars the Nuclear industry gets.. no telling how much in "guarantees" or direct Treasury loans for example here is another $8.3 billion of loose tax dollars unearthed via FOIA "..new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia and the $8.33 billion conditional loan guarantee by the US Department of Energy that would finance a big chunk of the deal. While the funding on offer is commonly referred to as a loan guarantee, it is actually a direct government loan: the Federal Financing Bank, part of the US Treasury, is the source of the funds." and "..that DOE did not “deal” with Shaw [the firm slated to do much of the reactor construction]; rather, “the [W]hite [H]ouse did.” Efforts for DOE to close out consultation, most likely on loan terms, was handled “at the political level” of the Department of the Treasury, according to another email. Emails from DOE staff indicate that Secretary Chu was involved in discussions with key Vogtle Project players over loans details as well." Notice SHAW!!! aka shaw areva the same shaw at the sinkhole.. chums
http://www.earthtrack.net/blog/833-billion-loan-guarantee-vogtle-nuclear-units-3-4-insights-documents-forced-out-litigation
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Me thinks it pure greed on behalf of uranium mining interests using the Cold War nuclear infrastructure to continue the raping of our Earth Mother and the molecular ravaging of her children…but hey Who Cares when
We're Rich! Rich Rich Rich!
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The US nuke industry makes a net profit of around $75M per day.
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figured it was a lot more than what i said. basiy i just wanted to bash those do€hebags…
I wonder if Ill get a response..LOL
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inn't nuclear power wonderful???
peace, 'newsers …
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