Anti-nuke rally downtown today
November 27, 2007 at 10:37 am by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsSeveral local civic groups and activists including members of Atlanta WAND, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, and singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls will rally outside the Atlanta office of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at 2 this afternoon.
Those rallying are opposed to Southern Company’s plan to build two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, plans that must be approved by the NRC. They point out that nuclear power is not only unsafe, but it also consumes huge quantities of water. In his Aug. 22 cover story about Southern Company’s nuclear strategy, CL’s Scott Henry noted that an expanded Plant Vogtle would consume more water each day than the entire city of Atlanta.
Here’s the press release:
Atlanta WAND (Women’s Action for New Directions)
ADVISORY FOR NOVEMBER 27 PRESS CONFERENCE/RALLY
November 27, 2007
NO MORE NUKES!
Indigo Girl leads Atlanta activists towards a nuclear-free world
Atlanta’s popular singer/songwriter, Emily Saliers, will challenge Southern
Company’s Plant Vogtle expansion and the nuclear industry’s current $50
billion request for federal loan guarantees at a press conference to be held
at 61 Forsyth St SW in downtown Atlanta today, at 2pm.
Saliers, and representatives from the environmental and social justice
communities, will deliver signatures and contact information from hundreds
of Georgians petitioning the NRC to reject the permitting of two new nuclear
reactors for the Vogtle facility in Burke County, GA; and urge Georgians who
have not yet weighed in on Southern Company’s nuclear expansion to do so by
November 28, 2007.*
Issues that will be briefly (one to two minutes) addressed include:
* Water usage by nuclear power plants
* High levels of radiation in the Plant Vogtle/Savannah River Site area
* Conservation and renewable energy possibilities
* US reluctance to sign the Kyoto protocol
* Nuclear power’s impacts on global warming
* Nuclear power as RISKY business
Speakers, in addition to Saliers, will include:
Sara Barczak, Safe Energy Director for the Savannah office of Southern
Alliance for Clean Energy
The Rev. Dr. Richard Cobble, Vice President for Missions with Atlanta’s
Concerned Black Clergy
John Zientowski, former US Army Medic in Vietnam and current CNN employee
Dianne Valentin, business owner and community volunteer
Sherrill Marcus, Atlanta/Fayette Precautionary Principle Working Group
Kim Karris, artist and Atlanta WAND Program Director
Dr. Yomi Noibi, Executive Director of Environmental Community Action
(ECO-Action, Inc.)
Ed Arnold, Director, Atlanta chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Betsy Rivard, United Nations Association/Atlanta
Jeannine Honicker and Seandra Rawls , Sierra Clubs of Georgia
****************************************
Atlanta Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) hosts this event at the
Region II offices of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in Atlanta
today, November 27, 2007, at 2pm.
Location will be outside the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center just south of
the Five Points MARTA station at 61 Forsyth St. SW. Atlanta 30303.
Transportation: take MARTA to Five Points station and exit west onto Forsyth
St. Go one block south, crossing Alabama St., and the Sam Nunn Center will
be on your immediate right.
Note: Emily Saliers recently returned from a two-week tour in Australia with
performance partner, Amy Ray. Dr. Helen Caldicott, Aussie WAND founder and
one of the world’s most passionate anti-nuclear activists, joined the Indigo
Girls’ onstage in Australia, challenging audiences to defeat the current
worldwide nuclear resurgence. On November 24, 2007, the Australian Labor
party’s Kevin Rudd soundly defeated Prime Minister, John Howard, a
pro-nuclear advocate. “I am determined to make Australia part of the global
climate change solution — not just part of the global climate change
problem,†Rudd said during his campaign. Mr. Rudd, a staunch anti-nuclear
advocate, plans to attend a U.N. climate change conference in Bali in
December and has begun exploring the mechanics of signing Australia onto the
Kyoto pact on global warming. The US has not signed the Kyoto agreement.
* Please submit written comments on the Plant Vogtle expansion no later than
November 28, 2007
In your letter or email please reference the following in the subject line:
“Comments on the draft EIS for the Vogtle Early Site permit”
Mail: Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative
Services, Office of Administration, Mailstop T-6D59, US Regulatory
Commission, Washington DC 20555-0001
Or Email: Vogtle_EIS@nrc.gov
Go to this website for more info;
http://www.cleanenergy.org/programs/programs.cfm?ID=4
Atlanta WAND
250 Georgia Ave SE Suite #202
Atlanta, GA 30312
404 524-5999 www.atlantawand.org
Send to a friend:
November 27th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Oil - NO
Coal - NO
Hydro dams - NO
Nuclear - NO
What then?
I wish I could be there to hear the alternatives suggested to supply a rapidly growing region with power. Wind, solar and conservation combined simply won’t get it done for over 5 million people.
I love the blurb on the linked website that there is “no safe level of radiation”. Apparently they are blissfully unaware of the massive amounts of radiation emitted by nature.
Nuke plants take in HUGE amounts of water and they return the vast majority of it to the source. The loss is the steam rising fromthe cooling towers.
Massive loss of life? These plants aren’t Chernobyl so stop the scare tactics. The US NAvy operates huge numbers of reactors (land based and ships) with no major incidents in over 40 years.
One day we may be able to run on something else, but for the reasonably foreseeable future, the choices are hydro, petro and nuke.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
>>>Nuke plants take in HUGE amounts of water and they return the vast majority of it to the source. The loss is the steam rising fromthe cooling towers.
Scott Henry’s story linked above indicates roughly half of the water used at Vogtle ends up as steam.
I go back-and-forth about nuclear power. Perhaps the radiation has ruined my ability to make decisions.
November 27th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Wow, I should have read the entire linked article. I have no reason to doubt the numbers, but it seems incredible to me that the steam I routinely see is 40+ million gallons a day. I wonder if modern designs are more efficient. I know that some use recirculated and reclaimed water, rather than the once-through model. It would be interesting to see how the French and Japanese have addressed these problems.
In reading realted to the subject, I learned that many environmentalists and “social justice” advocates oppose the nukes becasue of the expense, after working as hard as possible to make them expensive.
I believe in conservation. I put that in practice with the appliances that I buy and my energy use. I am genuinely interested in viable alternatives, but have not seen any from the other side.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Like Andisheh, I too am highly radioactive, Dale. I glow. And sometimes befuddle those around me.
But I wanted to commend you on doing your part to conserve.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I thought that was the glow of a man in love