EcoWatch Journal April/May 2011 : Page 1

april -may 2011 05 07 10 12 14 Moratorium on Hydrofracking Clean Energy Report Card Kasich’s Balanced Budget Local Food Markets Invest in Energy Efficiency www.ecowatch.org HOW WILL NUKE DISASTER IMPACT OHIO REACTORS? HARVEY WASSERMAN, NUKEFREE.ORG The radioactive clouds forming above six reactors at Island, whose owners sued, claiming they hadn’t been fully it permanently shut down will certainly be escalated. the Fukushima power station in Japan have dumped mas-informed about an accident at Davis-Besse that might have Likewise, the Perry Nuclear Power Plant—the mas-sive political and economic fallout on Ohio and the U.S. helped them avoid their own 1979 meltdown. sive reactor east of Cleveland—is the only U.S. nuke to This disaster raises serious new questions about the atomic Shut down for years for technical and “cultural” prob-have been damaged by an earthquake. On Jan. 31, 1986, reactors at Perry and Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plants now lems, the Davis-Besse plant, east of Toledo, made global a 5-plus Richter-scale tremor broke pipes and wiped out operating along Ohio’s Lake Erie shore-nearby roads and bridges. Though a line. In short, Fukishima’s shock-waves are The Fukushima disaster raises serious new questions about thousand times weaker than the Fuku-already re-defining the energy future of the the atomic reactors at Perry and Davis-Besse Nuclear Power shima quake, the Perry rumble prompted Buckeye State. They will mark a critical then-Gov. Richard Celeste to ask the U.S. Plants now operating along Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline. turning point. But in which direction? Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay In short, Fukishima’s shock-waves are already re-defining As you read this, the full radiological licensing the reactor. impact of the Fukushima calamity remains Perry was built by General Electric the energy future of the Buckeye State. impossible to gauge. We will never know Co., which also designed Fukushima. A exactly how much radiation will escape from those six headlines when a leak of boric acid ate almost entirely hugely critical 1975 Reed Report and negative comments by crippled reactors or its full impact on neighboring commu-through its reactor pressure vessel. A hole in this reactor ves-ranking experts threw the entire caculus around Perry into nities and the environment. sel could have brought enormous radiation releases to the serious chaos. But the Commission licensed Perry anyway, Much easier to gauge will be Fukushima’s impact shores of Lake Erie, devastating much of northern Ohio. and Celeste lost a federal court challenge. The reactor began on the future of the Davis-Besse and Perry nuke plants. But in the wake of Fukushima, Davis-Besse’s problems operations less than a year after the quake. A statewide com Davis-Besse is already infamous. It’s a sibling of Three Mile will be magnified in the public eye. A fierce campaign to get continued on page 4 NUCLEAR WASTE HAS NOWHERE TO GO STEFANIE PENN SPEAR The U.S. has more than 60,000 tons of nuclear waste with Ohio having 1,136 tons of spent fuel in cooling pools and 37 tons in dry cask storage, according to information that the nuclear power plants voluntarily report annually to the Nuclear Energy Institute. There is no long-term storage in the U.S. for this waste which the federal government pledged to take ownership of more than a decade ago. Nuclear waste, which stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years, is stored on site at nuclear power plants in both dry casks and overloaded cooling ponds, with some pools containing up to four times more waste than they were designed to store, experts say. Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned this month that it could be decades before any permanent solution for the waste is developed. Plans to store nuclear waste at Nevada’s NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN THE U.S. Yucca Mountain have been derailed by the Obama administration and current inventory of nuke waste already exceeds Yucca’s proposed capacity with about 2,200 tons of new waste be-ing generated each year. Nevertheless, President Obama wants to expand the nuclear industry. His administration has announced more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to build the first nuclear power plant in three decades. It still remains to be seen if the events unfolding in Japan will alter Obama’s plans for investment in the nuclear power industry. • One-fifth of the Whether you support nuclear power or not, electricity in the U.S. is it is clear that solutions for its waste need to be a generated by nuclear power top priority. The disaster in Japan re-emphasizes • There are 104 nuclear reactors on 65 sites in 31 states—half are more the importance of Congress passing energy legis-than 30 years old lation that will speed up the nation’s transition to • 3 million people live within 10 miles of an operating nuclear power plant generating electricity with renewable energy.

How Will Nuke Disaster Impact Ohio Reactors?

HARVEY WASSERMAN, NUKEFREE.ORG The radioactive clouds forming above six reactors at the Fukushima power station in Japan have dumped massive political and economic fallout on Ohio and the U.S. This disaster raises serious new questions about the atomic reactors at Perry and Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plants now operating along Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline. In short, Fukishima’s shock-waves are already re-defining the energy future of the Buckeye State. They will mark a critical turning point. But in which direction? As you read this, the full radiological impact of the Fukushima calamity remains impossible to gauge. We will never know exactly how much radiation will escape from those six crippled reactors or its full impact on neighboring communities and the environment. Much easier to gauge will be Fukushima’s impact on the future of the Davis-Besse and Perry nuke plants. Davis-Besse is already infamous. It’s a sibling of Three Mile Island, whose owners sued, claiming they hadn’t been fully informed about an accident at Davis-Besse that might have helped them avoid their own 1979 meltdown. Shut down for years for technical and “cultural” problems, the Davis-Besse plant, east of Toledo, made global Headlines when a leak of boric acid ate almost entirely through its reactor pressure vessel. A hole in this reactor vessel could have brought enormous radiation releases to the shores of Lake Erie, devastating much of northern Ohio. But in the wake of Fukushima, Davis-Besse’s problems will be magnified in the public eye. A fierce campaign to get It permanently shut down will certainly be escalated. Likewise, the Perry Nuclear Power Plant—the massive reactor east of Cleveland—is the only U.S. nuke to have been damaged by an earthquake. On Jan. 31, 1986, a 5-plus Richter-scale tremor broke pipes and wiped out nearby roads and bridges. Though a thousand times weaker than the Fukushima quake, the Perry rumble prompted then-Gov. Richard Celeste to ask the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay licensing the reactor. Perry was built by General Electric Co., which also designed Fukushima. A hugely critical 1975 Reed Report and negative comments by ranking experts threw the entire caculus around Perry into serious chaos. But the Commission licensed Perry anyway, and Celeste lost a federal court challenge. The reactor began operations less than a year after the quake. A statewide com Mission then concluded that northern Ohio could never be evacuated in the face of a major nuclear accident. Fukushima magnifies Atomic Ohio’s contentious history. Under widespread attack before the disaster, Akron-based First Energy Corp. must now walk on radioactive eggshells. Any serious missteps and the already fierce grassroots network aimed at shutting these two reactors will be hugely empowered. It has also become highly unlikely a new nuke will be built in southern Ohio. Gov. John Kasich wants commercial reactor construction on or near the Ohio River. But post- Fukushima licensing requirements will certainly be more stringent. Private financing for new nukes has long since disappeared, and public resistance to federal loan guarantees has vastly escalated. ALTERNATIVES TO NUCLEAR POWER So wherein lies Ohio’s energy future? The likeliest sources are the lake and the sun. For years green power pioneers have dreamed of a massive array of wind generators plunked into Lake Erie. The relatively shallow, fresh waters of Lake Erie are swept by one of the strongest concentrated wind streams in the world. With its close proximity to Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Hamilton, Toronto, Buffalo and other population centers, the Great Lakes could become one of the globe’s most prolific sources of clean, renewable electricity. With increasing opposition to coal, gas and other nonrenewable sources of power, the need for such energy is rapidly rising. Northern Ohio industrialists have long hoped the region could be reborn as a manufacturing center for the renewable energy industry. Wind turbines installed throughout Ohio are helping lower the base-load need for coal in our state, reducing electricity costs for companies who make an investment in this technology and creating jobs in the renewable energy field. Likewise, solar power is benefiting businesses and residents who rely on the sun to generate electricity. First Solar, in Toledo, has been an early adopter in the production of thin film solar modules and has long been one of the north coast’s most important “green” employers. Though widely viewed as prohibitively expensive, recent breakthroughs in photovoltaic technology have led to drastically dropped prices. In the wake of Fukushima, the Demand for onsite-generated electricity is certain to multiply, throughout the Buckeye State. Bio-fuels also hold some Ohio promise. Ethanol from corn, and diesel from soy, have become multi-million-dollar industries nationwide. Now they are sure to explode in volume. Environmental groups strongly oppose using food crops for fuel, and corn gives an especially poor return on energy investment. Solar topian advocates instead are pushing hard for legalizing hemp, one of the best fuel crops of all. Legal in neighboring Canada (not to mention Japan, China, Germany and other countries), many argue it could save Ohio agriculture as well as boosting our energy independence. But however that plays out, there’s no doubt that Ohio’s two aging reactors are more politically precarious than ever. The idea of a new one may make some fur fly for a while, but is almost certainly doomed. For in a post-Fukushima world, Ohio’s energy future almost certainly belongs to the sun and wind.

Nuclear Waste Has Nowhere To Go

The U.S. has more than 60,000 tons of nuclear waste with Ohio having 1,136 tons of spent fuel in cooling pools and 37 tons in dry cask storage, according to information that the nuclear power plants voluntarily report annually to the Nuclear Energy Institute. There is no long-term storage in the U.S. for this waste which the federal government pledged to take ownership of more than a decade ago. Nuclear waste, which stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years, is stored on site at nuclear power plants in both dry casks and overloaded cooling ponds, with some pools containing up to four times more waste than they were designed to store, experts say. Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned this month that it could be decades before any permanent solution for the waste is developed. Plans to store nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain have been derailed by the Obama administration and current inventory of nuke waste already exceeds Yucca’s proposed capacity with about 2,200 tons of new waste being generated each year. Nevertheless, President Obama wants to expand the nuclear industry. His administration has announced more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to build the first nuclear power plant in three decades. It still remains to be seen if the events unfolding in Japan will alter Obama’s plans for investment in the nuclear power industry. Whether you support nuclear power or not, it is clear that solutions for its waste need to be a top priority. The disaster in Japan re-emphasizes the importance of Congress passing energy legislation that will speed up the nation’s transition to generating electricity with renewable energy.

Publication List
Using a screen reader? Click Here