geoharvey

US:

A Duke Energy wind farm will soon house a 36 MW storage battery. [Article in OA Online]

Opinion:

Johnny Johnson, Prairie Island tribal council president, spoke to the press about a decision made by an appeals court on Friday.  The decision instructed the NRC to review its practice of allowing in situ long-term nuclear waste storage.  He said, “Today’s court decision is a strong signal to the federal government that rather than avoiding its responsibility and looking for ways to legalize long-term radioactive storage at temporary sites, the federal government needs to comply with the law to build a permanent repository and remove nuclear waste from Prairie Island.”  The Federal Government needs to obey the law! Wow! The Federal Government needs to accept its responsibilities! Bravo!

The quote appears in an article in the Post-Bulletin, of Rochester, Minnesota.

Here, in New England, we have a lot of groups of people working to bring some sanity to the use of nuclear power.  The New England Coalition (NEC) puts efforts into legal and legislative battles, and is among those who represent science based sanity before public boards and the NRC.  The NEC has also provided legal and technical support to the states of Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York and New Jersey, including support helping produce Friday’s court decision.  Pilgrim Watch has worked tirelessly in court and before the NRC to close the Pilgrim nuclear plant.  Many other groups, such as the Citizens Awareness Network, and Safe and Green, have worked to increase awareness among the public of the dangers they face for the sake of the profits of corporate owners and managers.

Johnny Johnson has eloquently reminded me once again that we are all in this together.  Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, and Indian Point take up much of my attention.  Fukushima gives me bad dreams.  But there are groups fighting the same fight in Minnesota, and, indeed, all over the world.  Johnny Johnson has reminded me of the eternal and cosmopolitan nature of valuing responsibility and lawfulness, which our government and corporate leaders seem to have forgotten.