Happy New Year Everyone

Year of the Horse

May it be your best year ever.

What Republicans Are Suffering From

“Rabies is a severe, and often fatal, viral polioencephalitis that specifically affects the gray matter of the dog's brain and its central nervous system (CNS). Furious rabies is characterized by extreme behavioral changes, including overt aggression and attack behavior.”  ~ Source: Rabies in Dogs, PetMD.com

 I will confess that I chose not to watch the SOTU message last night. I just wasn't up to looking at the sour Republican faces, heroes being paraded out and over zealous Democrats standing and clapping as if they were punctuation marks in the President's speech.

So I watched some hockey instead where I was assured of not getting any crawler updates on the SOTU stretching across the bottom of my screen. Had it not been for leaving my Facebook page open I might have even gotten through the evening unscathed without even a blue tie count.

But today is another day and my email inbox was waiting for me with the Republican message. My new congressperson is Rep. Ann Wagner, she is my representative and at the same time she does not represent me. But today when I read her mail to me I realized what Republicans are suffering from - they have rabies, pure and simple.

This morning's rant went like this:

Time to Turn the Page

West Newsmagazine
January 27, 2014

To the Editor:

After five years of anemic economic growth, President Obama still doesn’t have an answer for one of the biggest questions facing hardworking families in America: Where are the jobs?

With more than 10 million Americans unemployed and millions more living paycheck to paycheck, the president has created a “new normal” in America.

His new normal involves taking more of your hard-earned money and redistributing it to pay for others’ cost of living. Your money is going to pay for skyrocketing health care costs, more unemployment checks, higher energy costs and growing the size and scope of the federal government.

This president continues to take more of your hard-earned money while offering no solutions for upward mobility and good-paying jobs.

Just ask any family in the 2nd District and they will tell you that they’re just one broken water heater or car repair away from not paying their bills on the 15th and 30th of every month.

Over the last five years, the president’s new normal has taken away the American Dream and has forced families to settle for less. That is not only unacceptable, it’s un-American. We can’t allow mediocrity to become the new normal in America.

Time and time again, the House has passed job-creating solutions that will increase upward mobility and restore the American Dream.

In fact, the House has passed 171 bills that are stuck in Harry Reid’s do-nothing Senate.

Republicans have passed bills authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, which will lower energy costs, create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and begin a new era of energy independence.

We have also passed common sense policies like the Skills Act, which helps the long-term unemployed by giving them the training they need to find good-paying jobs in this tough economy.

Without real leadership from President Obama and Harry Reid on job-creating solutions like these, our nation will continue to struggle and that’s not fair to the American people.

As your Representative, I pledge to you that I will keep fighting to increase the size of your paychecks, restore your individual liberties and lower costs on everyday items that you depend on like groceries, gasoline and the cost of your health care.

Rather than starting yet another year with the same old failed policies, it’s time we turn the page and begin a new era focused on finding solutions and making your lives just a little bit easier.

Rep. Ann Wagner

2nd District     

~  ~  ~

Rep. Wagner ends with "it's time we turn the page and begin a new era focused on finding solutions" - hmmm and I thought they already had the solutions? 

And I'm not sure what the people want is their "lives just a little bit easier", I think they want their lives a lot better. They want their children educated and to know that going to college won't leave them with a life long debt. To know they can get affordable medical care for themselves and their families.

Just this week a elderly neighbor was going through the halls in our building looking for someone who could help lift her husband off the floor where he had fallen. A man offering to help said "can I call 911 for you?"

"Oh, no", was her reply, "we have called before and it is just too expensive."

Rep. Wagner this is a family in your district that could use your help. I don't think President Obama is responsible for high healthcare costs, those costs were high long before he took office. He tried to turn the page and come up with a solution but Republicans were sitting steadfastly on the very books that contained the pages to be turned.

Help Wanted - Housekeeping Assistant, Buckingham Palace

Department

Master of the Household’s Office

Location

Buckingham Palace

Grade

36

Starting Salary

c. £14,400

Hours of work

40

Contract Type

Permanent

Accommodation available?

Yes

Mandatory Requirements

You must be willing to work away from London for approximately 3 months of the year.

Job Description

The Master of the Household's department is responsible for the staffing of the hospitality and catering events and all domestic arrangements at royal residences in the UK, be they official or private, or on special occasions abroad.

H Branch is specifically responsible for the care of guests and maintaining the cleanliness, presentation, and general upkeep of all accommodation.

You will carry out a range of duties at a number of Royal residences in the UK, including:
• the cleaning and presentation of accommodation;
• the care of antiques and specialist cleaning;
• personally caring for guests; and
• front-of-house duties at receptions and other events.

Person Specification

You will:
• have a passion for the Hospitality industry and ideally some practical hospitality experience;
• be meticulous, with a close attention to detail;
• thrive in a busy, team focused environment;
• be enthusiastic, show initiative and be keen to learn;
• have a hard-working, flexible and positive attitude; and
• be committed to achieving exceptional standards of service provision.

In this role accommodation is provided with slight salary abatement.

Application Closing Date

9 Feb 2014

USS Ronald Reagan - Sailors Sick With Cancer

This was one of the scenes aboard the USS Ronald Reagan after the US Navy went to assist in helping after the Fukushima disaster on March 23, 2011. Sailors scrubbed the flight deck and superstructure as a countermeasure to clean any potential radiation from the reactor's meltdown.

“I was standing on the flight deck, and we felt this warm gust of air, and, suddenly, it was snowing,” sailor Lindsay Cooper told the New York Post in an interview published Monday. The metallic-tasting snow was caused by the freezing Pacific air that mixed with the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima power plant that was wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. 

~ Source: International Business Times, David Kashi, December 24, 2013

Here is the link to the full story and more photos.  

Seventy US Sailors that have become ill and are filing a class action lawsuit for compensation. The number grows each day. To read more about this and other nuclear energy stories click here. 

"Then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan, at the time a nuclear supporter, says “the first meltdown occurred five hours after the earthquake.” The lawsuit charges that Tokyo Electric Power knew large quantities of radiation were pouring into the air and water, but said nothing to the Navy or the public. ......" - Source: Email received from Harvey Wasserman, January 11, 2014.

Polar Vortex At Nuclear Plants

"Chilled Work Environment" is what the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) calls it when workers at a nuclear plant are hesitant to raise safety concerns for fear of retaliation.

That has to be a terrible position to be in, damned if you do and damned if you don't. What happened to ethics in business and concern for your employees? Not to mention concern for the community you do business in and the world you inhabit.

There have been some safety concerns at Wolf Creek Generating Station in Burlington, Kansas and it looks like these issues are now being addressed. That is good news. For the full story click here.

Safety at nuclear power facilities should always be the number one concern. If operators of the plant bully employees that want to raise safety concerns they should be dealt with severely.

Wonder if this passes the smell test....

As always when it has to do with the state of Texas there is no competition. Governor Perry's friend seems to aways have the field to himself. Where will your nuclear waste go???

Texas Company, Alone in U.S., Cashes in on Nuclear Waste

"Space inside goes for $10,000 a cubic foot in some cases. Three-quarters of the money goes to Mr. Baltzer’s company, Waste Control Specialists, and the rest to the surrounding Andrews County and the state of Texas. WCS, as the company is known, has a monopoly: As aging nuclear reactors retire, their most radioactive steel, concrete and other components must be shipped for burial somewhere."

 Here is the link to the full story running in the New York Times today.

Putin's Smoke Screen

"SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says gays should feel welcome at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but they must "leave the children in peace."

Putin told volunteers Friday that gays visiting Sochi "can feel calm and at ease," and vowed that there would be no discrimination at the games. But he emphasized that, according to a law banning homosexual "propaganda" among minors, gays cannot express their views on gay rights issues to anyone underage.

Putin and other politicians have defended the June propaganda law as a protection of child rights, but critics believe that the law discriminates against sexual minorities.

In the wake of international outcry against the bill, Russian authorities have put limits on the right to protest during the Sochi games, which run Feb. 7-23. "  ~ HuffPost World 1/17/14

~  ~  ~

I wonder if all of Putin's protestations on gays hasn't turned into a very convenient smoke screen to cover up the thuggery and outright stealing in preparing for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. I am sure Putin and his band of merry men are smiling all the way to the bank.

The cost of the ski jump alone went from $40 million in the original budget to $265 million at last count. And that's a lot of Rubles!

In the end when all of the cheering is over and the Closing Ceremony has come and gone maybe Russia will be left with a nice Black Sea resort that the rich of Russia (aka Putin's cronies) can enjoy as they toss back their vodka shots and remember the good old days.

Fukushima Now - At Least Someone Is Talking About It

"Solutions to prevent the leak have been thwarted by various obstacles. The stop-gap solution to contain the already contaminated water in storage tanks has caused numerous incidents on site, due to faulty containers and tanks being over filled." ~ Greenpeace: Fukushima Now

Read the full story from Greenpeace today - Fukushima Now: Problems, Solutions, and Concerns.

Television News And The Need to Know

Today HuffPost ran an article This Is How Little Time Television News Devotes to Climate Change - in a nutshell it is down from 2009 and up in 2013 over 2012, another low year. The article's source is Media Matters For America.

My curiosity was piqued and I thought I would wander over to Media Matters to see if they had anything interesting to read on nuclear matters, especially relating to news time on television. I didn't find what I was looking for but I did find a few tidbits I will share with you. If you want the full story you can go to http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/11/07/myths-and-facts-about-nuclear-power/196793 and read it all.

I may be a bit like news media, in that I put out the story I would like you to read, not necessarily the full story. But it wouldn't be fair to relieve you of all the fun, now would it.

FACT: Expanding Nuclear Not Economical After Decades Of Subsidies

New Wind Generation Is Cheaper Than New Nuclear Generation. The chart below was created using data from the nonpartisan Energy Information Administration (EIA) on estimated total system levelized cost, which EIA states is a "convenient summary measure of the overall competiveness of different generating technologies," of new generation from solar photovoltaics (PV), advanced nuclear, conventional coal, hydropower, onshore wind, and conventional combined cycle natural gas-fired power in 2018. Wind is much cheaper than nuclear, while solar is expected to be more expensive in the near-future. However, solar costs are dropping rapidly, while analyses suggest that nuclear has actually been getting more expensive.

[Energy Information Administration, 1/28/13] [Climate Progress, 4/6/11]

MYTH: Nuclear Power Is Harmless

• In a Fox News op-ed, Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights claimed the "one danger of running a nuclear plant is a large release of radiation," which is "extremely unlikely." [FoxNews.com,7/23/11]
• Then-Fox Business host Eric Bolling said that "not a death" came from Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster while "dozens" have died from wind turbines. [Fox Business, Follow The Money with Eric Bolling,3/11/11]
• The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed suggesting that "low radiation doses may immunize the body against cancer and birth defects by stimulating these repair mechanisms into greater responsiveness, just as vaccines stimulate the immune system." However, the National Research Council states that the "weight of the evidence" does not support a positive impact from low doses of radiation. [Wall Street Journal, 3/6/12] [National Research Council, 2006]

FACT: Regulations Needed To Prevent Accidents, Attacks

Scientists: Fukushima Showed Need To Reevaluate Regulations On Nuclear Energy. Discussing Japan's nuclear crisis in the New York Times' Room for Debate blog, Frank N. von Hippel, a nuclear physicist and professor of public and international affairs at Princeton, wrote that the accident at Japan's Fukushima reactor suggests that "rejected suggestions like the filtered vent system should be considered again." Other scientists and experts suggested similar reevaluations of public safety regulations. From von Hippel's piece:

In 1982, a colleague and I pointed out that not all U.S. reactor containments would have survived the T.M.I. [Three Mile Island] accident, and we suggested that all U.S. reactors be retrofitted with a robust filter system made of sand and charcoal that could filter the gases that would have to be released if a containment was approaching its failure pressure. The nuclear utilities resisted, however, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as usual, did not press for change.

The Fukushima accident suggests once more that the "defense in depth" design of current nuclear reactors may not be deep enough and that previously rejected suggestions like the filtered vent system should be considered again. [New York Times, 3/13/11] [Media Matters,3/14/11]

AP: Poor Handling Of Expanding Nuclear Waste Poses Threat In Case Of Accident Or Attack. The Associated Press reported that current storage of an expanding amount of nuclear waste puts the U.S. at risk of a release of radiation, as occurred in Fukushima, while alternatives such as storing the waste in Yucca Mountain or reprocessing the spent fuel pose their own risks and political backlash:

The U.S. has 71,862 tons of the waste, according to state-by-state numbers obtained by The Associated Press. But the nation has no place to permanently store the material, which stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years.

Plans to store nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain have been abandoned, but even if a facility had been built there, America already has more waste than it could have handled.

Three-quarters of the waste sits in water-filled cooling pools like those at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Japan, outside the thick concrete-and-steel barriers meant to guard against a radioactive release from a nuclear reactor.

Spent fuel at Dai-ichi overheated, possibly melting fuel-rod casings and spewing radiation into the air, after Japan's tsunami knocked out power to cooling systems at the plant.

The rest of the spent fuel from commercial U.S. reactors has been put into dry cask storage, but regulators only envision those as a solution for about a century and the waste would eventually have to be deposited into a Yucca-like facility.

The U.S. nuclear industry says the waste is being stored safely at power-plant sites, though it has long pushed for a long-term storage facility. Meanwhile, the industry's collective pile of waste is growing by about 2,200 tons a year; experts say some of the pools in the United States contain four times the amount of spent fuel that they were designed to handle.

[...]
Safety advocates have long urged the NRC to force utility operators to reduce the amount of spent fuel in their pools. The more tightly packed they are, the more quickly they can overheat and spew radiation into the environment in case of an accident, a natural disaster or a terrorist attack.

[...]

Some countries -- such as France, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom -- reprocess their spent fuel into new nuclear fuel to help reduce the amount of waste.

The remaining waste is solidified into a glass. It needs to be stored in a long-term waste repository, but reprocessing reduces the volume of waste by three-quarters.

Because reprocessing isolates plutonium, which can be used to make a nuclear weapon, Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter put a stop to it in the U.S. The ban was later overturned, but the country still does not reprocess. [Associated Press, 3/22/11]

GAO: Nuclear Waste Fire Could Lead To "Widespread Contamination." The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that if a fire were to occur in a spent fuel pool (containing nuclear waste), the probability of which is "difficult to quantify" but may be "low," there could be "widespread contamination":

Studies show that the key risk posed by spent nuclear fuel involves a release of radiation that could harm human health or the environment. The highest consequence event posing such a risk would be a self-sustaining fire in a drained or partially drained spent fuel pool, resulting in a severe widespread release of radiation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which regulates the nation's spent nuclear fuel, considers the probability of such an event to be low. According to studies GAO reviewed, the probability of such a fire is difficult to quantify because of the variables affecting whether a fire starts and spreads. Studies show that this low-probability scenario could have high consequences, however, depending on the severity of the radiation release. These consequences include widespread contamination, a significant increase in the probability of fatal cancer in the affected population, and the possibility of early fatalities. According to studies and NRC officials, mitigating procedures, such as replacement water to respond to a loss of pool water from an accident or attack, could help prevent a fire. Because a decision on a permanent means of disposing of spent fuel may not be made for years, NRC officials and others may need to make interim decisions, which could be informed by past studies on stored spent fuel. [Government Accountability Office, 8/15/12]

Study: More Protections Needed To Protect Against Terrorist Attacks On Nuclear Plants. Reuters reported that none of the U.S.'s 104 nuclear reactors is protected against at 9/11-style attack:

U.S. nuclear power plants are not adequately protected from threats, including the theft of bomb-grade material that could be used to make weapons and attacks intended to cause a reactor meltdown, a University of Texas report said on Thursday.

Not one of the country's 104 commercial nuclear reactors or three research reactors is protected against an attack involving multiple players such as the ones carried out by 19 airplane hijackers on 9/11, said the report by the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project, or NPPP, at the University of Texas, Austin.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) only requires power plants to protect against attacks carried out by five or six people, according to the report, entitled Protecting U.S. Nuclear Facilities from Terrorist Attack. In addition, the NRC does not require plants to protect themselves against attacks from high-powered sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. [Reuters, 8/15/13]

Emergency Planning

It might surprise you to find out that the last time we had an update to the NRC evacuation plan was in 1979 when Three Mile Island nuclear event occurred. We don't talk about it a lot but our nuclear power facilities could very well be a target of a terrorist attack.

My plan has never been to use fear as a weapon against nuclear energy, rather instead to use logic. So doesn't it make sense that since it is now 2014 we should probably have a current, updated plan in effect should an accident happen at one of our nuclear power facilities?

I know it is asking a lot, perhaps too much, to have you get involved. But just on the chance one or two of you out there would like to do something I share the following information for your consideration.

If so inclined you can send an email, make a phone call or do nothing at all. It really is up to you. But I will rest a little easier tonight knowing that I have at least passed on this information.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Help bring NRC emergency planning regs into 21st century

Ask your local officials to support expanded emergency planning zones and better first responder training

January 15, 2014

Dear Friends,

It's time to turn up the heat on the NRC's resistance to bringing its emergency planning and evacuation regulations into the 21st century.

Those regulations were implemented following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and established 10-mile Emergency Planning Zones around each reactor site in the U.S. Annual exercises (later changed to once every two years) are required to practice emergency procedures, including steps necessary to effectively evacuate the entire zone if necessary.

Since then, as we all unfortunately know, real-life has intervened to show the woeful inadequacy of these regulations. First Chernobyl, then Fukushima demonstrated clearly that in real life, evacuations beyond--sometimes far beyond--10 miles can be necessary to protect public health and safety from real nuclear disasters. The botched evacuation of New Orleans (when, unlike most nuclear accident scenarios there was plenty of advance warning) before Hurricane Katrina in 2005 demonstrated the need for better training for both First Responders and public officials

And can you believe that even in the wake of Fukushima--a disaster initiated by an earthquake and tsunami--the NRC requires no exercises at all that include a scenario of a natural disaster initiated nuclear accident?

It's time to change that; to bring emergency planning into the 21st century and to reflect real-life situations rather than someone's computer models--which is what NRC regulations currently are based on.

You can start by contacting your local officials and asking them to support NIRS' initiative to expand emergency planning zones and improve emergency training and exercises. We have prepared a sample letter for you to send to your officials, although we encourage you to edit it to reflect your own communities and situation.

Nearly two years ago, NIRS submitted a formal Petition for Rulemaking to the NRC that would expand emergency planning zones and would require emergency planning exercises that include complicating or initiating natural disasters as a component. This petition calls for expanding the basic Emergency Planning Zone from 10 to 25 miles; creating a new zone with more limited, but still significant planning requirements for jurisdictions within 25-50 miles; increasing the "ingestion pathway" zone (which enables identification and interdiction of contaminated food and water supplies) from 50-100 miles, and requires the new and more relevant training and exercises. You can read and download the petition here.

The NRC Commissioners accepted the Petition for consideration and then proceeded to sit on it. Every few months they contact us to tell us it's still being considered. It's time to move this process along, and you can help.

NIRS' Salsa platform has a new database of city, town, and county elected officials across the country. Your e-mails will go directly to these people--the ones who are most responsible for public safety in your communities. These officials also are usually more responsive to citizen involvement than your federal elected officials, who represent far greater numbers of people. Encourage your local officials to pass resolutions in support of this petition, or at least its concept. You can read and download a sample resolution here.

Let's all encourage cities, towns and counties, especially those that lie from 10-50 miles from nuclear reactors and thus receive no training or emergency support whatsoever, to join cities like Pittsburgh, PA, which in August became the largest jurisdiction to pass such a resolution, and South Miami Beach (near the Turkey Point reactors) to enact a resolution in support of these goals. As more jurisdictions take such actions, the pressure will grow on the NRC to act. But it all begins with you asking them to.

Once we obtain enough local jurisdiction support for improving emergency planning around nuclear reactors, we can then move to the state level for additional support. We are committed to forcing the NRC to move on this issue.

Improving emergency planning is a necessity as long as nuclear reactors continue to operate and pose the threat of a nuclear meltdown. It is obviously not a substitute for closing reactors and we are continuing to press with nuclear shutdown campaigns this year--that's our highest priority for 2014. But current NRC emergency planning regulations are irresponsible and negligent, and must be changed until we can close every nuclear reactor.

In addition, as more jurisdictions join this effort, and as the utter impossibility of successfully evacuating larger areas around most U.S. nuclear reactors becomes self-evident to local officials, the pressure for reactor shutdowns will grow--not just from anti-nuclear activists but from towns, cities and counties across the country. The nuclear industry wants to keep emergency zones as small as possible, so it seems like the repercussions of nuclear accidents would also be small. But reality is that nuclear accidents will almost always affect people much farther away than 10 miles. That must be planned for, and where successful evacuations cannot be accomplished, reactors must close.

To learn more about nuclear emergency planning issues, please visit NIRS' Nuclear 911 page here.

Note: there are thousands and thousands of cities, towns and counties across the country and thus tens of thousands of local elected officials. This is the first time we have used this new local officials database. We cannot guarantee every single jurisdiction, especially  small ones, will be included. Please let us know if you encounter any glitches or if your officials do not appear as recipients. Send an e-mail to nirsnet@nirs.org with any problems you encounter and we will pass them on to the tech support people at Salsa, which compiled the database.

As always, thank you for your activism and support. Change does not happen without you. Your financial support is also important for us to be able to mount campaigns like this one. If you have anything left over after your holiday bills, we hope you'll consider making a tax-deductible contribution to NIRS online here, or by sending a check to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. And thank you to all of you who supported us during the holiday season. We are very grateful. This Alert is a direct result of your support. Acquiring the local officials database cost money. Your contributions paid for it. That's how we use your funds: to further build our movement and our outreach, organizing and empowerment capabilities.

Thanks for everything you do,

Michael Mariotte
President
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
www.nirs.org
nirsnet@nirs.org

Brain Waste

It seems I have waste on the brain, I mean literally. Read this interesting opinion piece by Maria Konnikova in the New York Times this morning, Goodnight. Sleep Clean.

I never thought about the brain creating waste and the need to have time set aside in order to clean out this waste. But after reading this it makes perfect sense to me.

"As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking."

I have sleep issues and without the aid of pills I probably would drop dead from lack of sleep. I tried to figure out what is different now, because I literally used to sleep like a baby. I suppose it is really a combination of lots of different things; less physical activity, age itself and the real culprit, I think - the electronic age.

I think my brain just gets so bombarded by electronic junk each day which comes from my television, my computer and phone and reading devices that it just can't get itself to a point where sleep can take over.

Dreams weren't mentioned in Goodnight. Sleep Clean, but I kind of think of dreams as the equipment that the brain's janitorial services uses to tidy things up.

Think about it. There is just so much more to be learned about our heady little organ.

American News Media MIA?

Can someone tell me why the American news media is not reporting on Fukushima? Read this.  I will have to look elsewhere to find "America Tonight" as my cable provider AT&T Uverse does not carry the Al Jazeera America network.

I know, I know it sometimes is tough having to choose between Honey Boo Boo and Duck Hunters and Al Jazeera America. Americans get uneasy when they have to venture out of their comfort zone and sadly we know the comfort zone of most Americans.

Did I hear the new season of The Bachelor is on?  Wait just Juan minute, I will have to get back to you on this Fukushima thing.

Spent Fuel Ameren Missouri Style

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me i got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

~Buffalo Springfield

Breaking News: In the Matter of Ameren Missouri Callaway Plant Spent Fuel Storage  (Click and read)

"In the Matter of Ameren Missouri, Callaway Plant; Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation; Order Modifying License (Effective Immediately) 

ACTION: Order; modification.
Jan 08, 2014 (Menafn - FIND, Inc. 

via COMTEX) --SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a general license to Ameren Missouri (AmerenUE), authorizing the operation of an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), in accordance with its regulations. This Order is being issued to AmerenUE because AmerenUE has identified near-term plans to store spent fuel in an ISFSI under the general license provisions of the NRC's regulations."

ISFSI as defined by the NRC:

Independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI)

A complex designed and constructed for the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel; solid, reactor-related, greater than Class C waste; and other associated radioactive materials. A spent fuel storage facility may be considered independent, even if it is located on the site of another NRC-licensed facility. For further information, see Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Locations of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations.

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Wednesday, December 11, 2013