{"id":52315,"date":"2012-01-24T14:18:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T19:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=52315"},"modified":"2012-01-24T17:22:26","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T22:22:26","slug":"nuclear-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/nuclear-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear News"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the midst of Republican in-fighting in the presidential primaries and the Tea (Party)-infused stance of ‘obstruct Obama at all costs’, there is one curious issue on which Dems and Pubs seem to be united: nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

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It’s apparently the big reason there isn’t more media attention to this issue. Predominantly, neither side of the aisle has a need to stir this one up — maybe it has something to do with the strong ties so many of them have to big oil? But it’s one thing not to champion an issue; what’s going on when the Federal government actively restricts a state’s decision not to mess around with nuclear power anymore?<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, a federal judge blocked Vermont<\/a> from forcing the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant when its license expires in March. According to Democracy Now!:<\/p>\n

The Vermont Senate voted to deny the company a new operating license in 2010, but the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the plant\u2019s license, in the days following last year\u2019s Fukushima nuclear crisis. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha overruled Vermont\u2019s effort, saying only federal authorities can regulate nuclear safety. The Vermont Yankee plant is one of the oldest in the country and has had a series of radioactive tritium leaks. Vermont officials are expected to appeal the ruling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The plant has a documented series of leaks, and yet — in the wake of a nuclear disaster the effects of which we have barely begun to understand — the federal NRC and a federal judge have ruled that the very citizens who live near, benefit from, and are most at risk should there be a significant leak or accident at this plant, have no authority over this decision. <\/p>\n

Just to underscore how disturbing this is, here is a segment from today’s broadcast of Democracy Now!<\/a> in which Amy Goodman interviews the makers of the documentary The Atomic States of America<\/em>, directed by Sheena Joyce and Don Argott. The film, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week in Park City, Utah, tells the story of Shirley, Long Island, New York. It is based on the book Welcome to Shirley<\/em> by a Shirley resident, Kelly McMasters. <\/p>\n

Here’s McMasters talking to Amy Goodman:<\/p>\n

KELLY McMASTERS: That\u2019s true. It\u2019s a service town to the Hamptons, and it\u2019s on the South Shore of Long Island, a kind of little, blue-collar, hardscrabble town that is actually blessed with some beautiful landscape. We\u2019re right along the ocean, and we have a gorgeous wildlife refuge, which I grew up right next to. I moved there when I was four, and I had a pretty bucolic childhood. The community was small and tightly knit, and we had just a really wonderful experience. What we didn\u2019t realize, what most of us didn\u2019t realize, is just north of us, hidden by the Pine Barrens, was the Brookhaven National Laboratory. And we\u2014it happened to be located on top of the sole source drinking water aquifer for three million people, including the people of Shirley, and there were three nuclear reactors there, and all three leaked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here is McMasters describing growing up in Shirley, taken from the movie:<\/p>\n

KELLY McMASTERS: Part of me wishes that I could go back and unwrite this story. Of course, I could unwrite my story, but I can\u2019t unwrite the story of what happened in my home town. My family moved to Shirley, Long Island, in 1981. I had a pretty amazing childhood in a small community with a strong sense of neighborhood and solidarity. In about fourth grade, that was the first time that a neighbor got sick and wound up dying. Over the years after that, more and more people got sick, and suddenly that became more the norm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not a scientist, and I have not seen the movie, so I have no specific knowledge of the illnesses McMasters cites. What I mainly want to bring to attention is the striking agreement between Democratic and Republican ‘leaders’ that nuclear power is ‘okay’ — and the even more striking voices coming from the communities actually living near nuclear power plants. <\/p>\n

Here’s Amy Goodman today:<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN: So, for one minute, I mean, we\u2019re not talking about a Republican president like President Bush. If he had tried to restart nuclear power after decades, a new nuclear power plant\u2014one hasn\u2019t been built in more than 30 years\u2014I don\u2019t think he could have. People would have risen up. But when President Obama announced that he would begin nuclear power plants, the rebuilding of them and the federal loan guarantees, well, he got a bipartisan\u2014he got bipartisan applause. And that\u2019s not something that happens very much in Washington today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, that’s not something that happens very much. And now it has. What will it take for the rest of us to unify in favor of energy that doesn’t threaten the health of our communities — and the entire planet — to the degree nuclear does?<\/p>\n

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In the midst of Republican in-fighting in the presidential primaries and the Tea (Party)-infused stance of ‘obstruct Obama at all costs’, there is one curious issue on which Dems and Pubs seem to be united: nuclear energy. It’s apparently the big reason there isn’t more media attention to this issue. Predominantly, neither side of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}