Skip to main content

Anti-Nuke Alert: Alec Baldwin to Lead Charge Against Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant

What Lisa warned us about last week is about to come to pass: New York-born actor Alec Baldwin will be in New Jersey tonight to moderate a symposium/rally against the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant.

There's plenty more I could write about this morning, but I think I just ought to mention this: Like me, Baldwin is a native of Long Island. And as folks in the nuclear energy industry know, it was back in the 1980s that activists there that helped scuttle a perfectly good nuclear power plant -- Shoreham -- that was just about ready to accept fuel.

What was the result? How about some of the highest electricity rates in the nation, ones that squeeze the pocket books of working class families. I guess Baldwin is trying to bring that same sort of sensibility to New Jersey.

Here are some other interesting facts about nuclear energy in New Jersey -- a state that gets more than 50% of its electricity from nuclear energy -- from an NEI fact sheet:
Twenty-one of twenty-three counties in New Jersey are in non-attainment for EPA'’s new 8-hour ozone standard. Ozone contributes to smog, which can lead to asthma attacks and respiratory impairment in young children and the elderly.
The Hope Creek, Oyster Creek and Salem plants supply emission-free power to New Jersey homes and businesses, while helping to improve the air quality.

[...]

Generating electricity with nuclear energy prevents the emission of pollutants like sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) and greenhouse gases like CO2 associated with burning fossil fuels. New Jersey's nuclear power plants avoided the emission of 230,000 tons of SO2, 45,600 tons of NOx and 27.3 million metric tons of CO2 in the year 2005.(Source: NEI/EPA) Emissions of SO2 lead to the formation of acid rain. NOx is a key precursor of both ground level ozone and smog. Greenhouse gases, like CO2, contribute to global warming. For perspective, the 45,600 tons of NOx avoided by nuclear power plants in New Jersey is the amount of NOx released in a year by 2.4 million passenger cars. There are 4.0 million cars registered in the state of New Jersey.
Local NA-YGN members are planning to attend the event and hand out material like this telling the other side of the story. If you want to support the effort, send an email to supportOysterCreek-at-hotmail.com.

For the rest of our archive on Oyster Creek, click here.

Technorati tags: , , , , , , , ,

Comments

Anonymous said…
I thought Alec Baldwin was moving to France and giving up on the US if Bush was elected? Did Alec reneg on his campaign promise?
Anonymous said…
Just as a sample, one of the actions the gathering wishes to call for is:

Write to federal representatives demanding that Exelon prove the plant is currently safe to an independent panel of experts and demand that Exelon and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission minimize the risk of terrorist action at the plant.

So the fact that the NRC is continually monitoring and reporting on the plant safety and security is not good enough. The fact that there is no effective action a terrorist can take at a plant to endanger the public is not relevant.

Good luck to the NA-YGN. Their efforts are sorely needed.

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should