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The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is undergoing a refueling outage. For most plants, the situation would be business as usual.  The state of Vermont, however, believes it has the power to shut down Vermont Yankee in March 2012, even though the plant has a 20-year license extension from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In order to continue operations at Vermont Yankee, Entergy (the plant’s owner and operator) has sued the state. In these uncertain circumstances, it was unclear whether or not Vermont Yankee would buy and load fuel in October. A decision to load fuel would mean that Entergy might lose tens of millions of dollars if the plant is actually shut down in March. Entergy’s other choice was closing the plant in October, which would mean job losses, rising electricity prices, and increased air pollution in Vermont.

The company made a choice to keep the plant running, even amidst uncertainty. Entergy is loading fuel right now at Vermont Yankee, which is a true vote of confidence in nuclear power! Motivation for the Rally We decided to show our support for Entergy’s decision and for all the workers at the refueling. Howard Shaffer and I planned a pro-nuclear rally that would take place right at the gates of the plant during shift change. We wanted the workers to see that people support them! Here’s a quote from the press release about the rally:

“The people working the outage will appreciate our support,” said co-organizer Howard Shaffer, coordinator of the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society. “We are grateful to Entergy for giving us permission to be at the Governor Hunt House for the rally.”

The government "is aiming to change Japan's reliance on nuclear power in the mid- to long term . . . but we came to the decision to reactivate reactors 3 and 4 at the Oi plant after comprehensively considering various angles, including safety and the impact on people's lives," Noda said during the meeting, which was open to journalists. "This is the decision that we came to, but there is no limit to securing safety. . . . We will continue to make ceaseless efforts to improve safety measures." The rally organizers were not satisfied

Resignation to and responsibility for Fukushima disaster

In an interview in the September issue of the magazine Sekai, Hida says: “If you have already been exposed, you must be prepared. Resign yourself. Tell yourself that you might be unlucky and see horrendous effects several decades down the line. Then, try to build up your immune system as much as you can to fight the hazards of radiation. “But will making the effort to avoid buying vegetables that may be tainted be sufficient in protecting you? It’s better to take precautions than to not take them. But radioactive materials continue to leak from Fukushima, even now. Tainted food has infiltrated the market, so unfortunately, there’s no guaranteed method of protecting yourself from internal exposure. Abolishing nuclear power and cutting off radioactivity at its source is a much faster way of dealing with it.”

After March 11, I stayed up until late every night watching television (a newly formed habit following the disaster). There was a television reporter who went to check in on a house with the lights on in an area that was otherwise dark due to evacuation orders. As it turned out, a horse was in labor and the owner was unable to leave its side. Several days later, the reporter visited the farm once again, and saw the mare and its foal indoors in the dark. Their owner’s expression was gloomy. The foal had not been allowed outside to run around freely because radioactive material-contaminated rain had fallen on the grass. The crisis has taken away lives that many people are still trying to get back. What messages can we deliver to those people and how? I need to hear those words, too, and the person I have turned to for guidance is the physician Shuntaro Hida, who has been speaking about the dangers of internal exposure to radiation since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Three months after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, several hundred demonstrators and activists gathered in central Paris to voice their opposition to France’s nuclear policy

Can Japan’s Anti-Nuclear Protesters Keep the Reactors Shut Down?, Time by Lucy Birmingham, September 28, 2011:

For months after a devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima power plant, sparking fears of a possible nuclear meltdown, the country’s anti-nuclear groups struggled to be heard. A few small rallies were held, but they failed to generate much media coverage. As debates raged from Germany to China about the safety of nuclear reactors, commentary in Japan, of all places, was strangely absent. Protests are just that unusual in this conservative country. But this is starting to change. As Fukushima continues to spew more radioactivity into the air and trust in the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. plunges, the mood in Japan is slowly shifting away from nuclear power. On Sept. 19, the mounting anger and fear culminated in a rally of some 60,000 anti-nuclear protesters in Tokyo [...]

Vt. nuke reduces power after pump fails -BusinessWeek Entergy faces another special investigation over malfunction at Palisades -Michigan Messenger Officials investigate reactor shutdown at Robinson plant -SCNOW False alarm sounds as Robinson Nuclear Plant goes back on line in Hartsville -The Republic NRC Tells Dominion It Plans More Inspections at North Anna – Businessweek Will recent earthquake affect plans for third nuclear reactor at North Anna? -Times-Dispatch Kucinich joins protesters at Toledo anti-nuke rally -Toledo Blade N.M. Senators Push For Increased Funding For Nuclear Waste Cleanup -Talk Radio News Servicea 1,389 CPM Peak Geiger Counter Reading, rain sample, Taos County, NM, Sept 07, 2011 -YouTube 800+ CPM Geiger Counter Reading, Sun Sept 4, 2011 -YouTube MORE: Advocates shocked at names used in federal claim manual -The News Tribune PNNL technology detects radioactive materials from the sky -KNDO

In recent weeks I have been excited to witness several genuine grassroots efforts in support of nuclear energy emerging on the scene. Several have already been covered on this forum, like the Rally for Vermont Yankee and the Webinar collaboration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the American Nuclear Society. Both of these efforts proved to be very successful in bringing together nuclear supporters and gaining attention from the mainstream media.

I’d like to share some information about another opportunity to actively show your support for nuclear. The White House recently launched a petition program called “We the People.” Here is the description of how it works: This tool provides you with a new way to petition the Obama administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response. One of the first and most popular petitions on the website is a call to end subsidies and loan guarantees for nuclear energy by 2013. As I write this, it is only about a thousand signatures away from reaching the White House. In response to this petition, Ray Wallman, a young nuclear supporter and filmmaker, wrote a counter petition called “Educate the Public Regarding Nuclear Power.” It needs 4,500 more signatures before October 23 in order to get a formal response, and reads as follows:

Due to the manufactured controversy that is the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, perpetuated by a scientifically illiterate news media, the public is unnecessarily hostile to nuclear power as an energy source. To date nobody has died from the accident and Fukushima, and nuclear power has the lowest per Terra-watt hour death toll of any energy source known to man: http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html The Obama administration should take better strides to educate the public regarding this important energy source.

Does the continued promotion of nuclear power by the Obama administration – even after Fukushima – make you want to scream? If so, you are not alone. Join like-minded activists at the Beyond Nuclear I Have A Scream rally on Hallowe’en at 12 noon, Monday, October 31 outside DOE headquarters (see flyer for details).On October 31, an aptly chosen date, the US Energy Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will finally close its supposedly open doors to any further public comment on its mandate to “solve” this country’s radioactive waste problem. Using millions of our taxpayer dollars, and after junkets to France and Finland, the commission has come up with nothing new at all! To wit: it recommends that a new search should be made for a geologic repository; reactor waste should be transported to centralized interim storage sites; and that research, development, and demonstration dollars from taxpayers should continue to be wasted on reprocessing. Wear a costume, bring a sign and let your voices - and screams - be heard!

Deregulate The AtomHistory of the Antinuclear Movement, Part 2b var addthis_product = 'wpp-258'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":false}; The different and more diffuse class composition of the European antinuclear movement found visible expression in the tactics of the activists and the police, which were much more belligerent than in America. In Europe, antinuclear protesters carried out acts of sabotage against power-lines, railroad lines, construction sites, factories supplying nuclear plants, and installations of utility companies including bombs placed near nuclear construction sites or plants. Marches and rallies attracting upward of 50,000 were commonplace. Police responded physically against demonstrators, using tear gas, clubs, dogs, even grenades, causing hundreds of injured and even death (as in the case of Malville). Civil war-like street blockades, dozens of miles away from the demonstration-sites and at national borders were set up to block demonstrators. Compared to the small showings and relatively peaceful actions in North America, the European state of affairs was much more dynamic. The movement against the nuclear plants was one of the biggest mass movements of the 1970s and 80s in Germany. After a slowdown since, it has reappeared now like a phoenix from the ashes, The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was a pivotal event for Germany’s anti-nuclear movement, following the event, the Green Party strived for the immediate shut-down of all nuclear facilities. The SPD pushed for a nuclear phase-out within ten years. Länder governments, municipalities, parties and trade unions explored the question of whether the use of nuclear power technology was reasonable and sensible for the future.

May 1986 clashes between anti-nuclear protesters and West German police became common. More than 400 people were injured in mid-May at the site of a nuclear-waste reprocessing plant being built near Wackersdorf. Police used water cannons and dropped tear-gas grenades from helicopters to subdue protesters armed with slingshots, crowbars and Molotov cocktails. Starting from 1995, when the first transports of nuclear waste to Gorleben took place, there was a slow, but continuous new growth of resistance, with demonstrations and blockades of the railway. In 2002, the “Act on the structured phase-out of the utilization of nuclear energy for the commercial generation of electricity” took effect, following a drawn-out political debate and lengthy negotiations with nuclear power plant operators. The act legislated for the shut-down of all German nuclear plants by 2021

Until the Fukushima disaster Japan had no significant anti-nuclear lobby. That has changed, and on Saturday hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the headquarters of the Tokyo Electric Company and Chubu Electric to voice their concerns.

Organisers said they had telephoned ahead and made an appointment with Tepco officials to present their petition, but no one turned up at the arranged time.

Eventually A Tepco staff member did come out of the building to listen to the protesters concerns, and accept the petition.