The Healey administration is holding another dog and pony show that includes bringing nukes back to Massachusetts. To do this the administration wants to repeal an act that requires a referendum that gives the people the right to choose their energy future when it comes to nukes and nuclear waste.
We can do better. Let the Healey administration know, going backward is not an option!
Our legislators need to know that the people of Massachusetts must determine their energy future if nuclear power should return to the state. Our legislators need to hear that the repeal of this Act is controversial and has to be tabled. This is the first step to defeating Healey’s push for nukes.
Subject suggestion: Protect my right to decide my energy future!
(ensure your subject is unique so that emails do not get blocked)
Dear [inset Senator/Representative & their Last Name],
I am writing to urge you to block any repeal of the Acts of 1982, chapter 503, which forbids developing new nuclear power in Massachusetts unless there is first a statewide vote and a permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste. The repeal of the 1982 statute is in section 45 of bill H.4144 and section 80 of bill H.4744, but may also be introduced in other bills in the future. Repealing this citizen initiative that won by about 2/3 majority across the state would be undemocratic, to say the least. Please block any repeal of chapter 503 of the Acts of 1982.
If the governor and legislators believe nuclear power should return to Massachusetts, they should make the case publicly and allow the people to decide. That is what the principle of consent demands. This is an issue to be decided with robust public discourse and voter consent. In order to foster public trust, there must be transparency and inclusivity in determining our clean energy policy. The people of Massachusetts were clear: determining the state’s nuclear future is our right. Please defend our ability to make and uphold democratic decisions!
Best,
[insert your name]
[insert your address to demonstrate you live in their district]
Call to Action Vermont
In Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott, long a proponent of nuclear energy, threw his weight behind a bill Tuesday that could usher in a comeback for nuclear in 2026.
The governor voiced support for ideas included in H.601, a bill introduced by House Minority Leader Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, earlier this month. That bill would alter an existing state law—the Renewable Energy Standard—that requires all Vermont utilities to reach 100% renewable energy like solar and wind by 2035. Under the bill, the law would be renamed the Clean Energy Standard and would include zero-emission sources of energy like nuclear power.
In addition, this bill could undo a 2006 law requiring public engagement around new nuclear plants in Vermont. It could also make changes to nuclear waste storage at the state’s former nuclear site, potentially allowing to take waste from other states. It would take away the ability for the state to determine its energy future. How? Until now the Vermont legislature determined whether Vermont would go nuclear. Scott wants to end that by taking away legislators' power to act. This is unacceptable! These legislators represent us.
Tell your legislator that we want the people to choose their energy future. Call or email your Vermont legislator here and ask 5 friends to do the same:
Defend democracy—and tell your legislator that nuclear power is not clean nor green!
Protect MA environmental efforts, oppose Rep. Cusack's energy bill H.4744 and remove section 80!
Please join our letter campaign to tell Rep. Cusack that bill H.4744 is not the answer to the climate crisis. Call your friends and family to the same call of action and wake people up to the danger we’re in. Sign the letter campaign here. Thank you for your help!
CORRECTION—THE BILL DID NOT PASS THE HOUSE!
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REP AND ASK THEM TO VOTE NO—
IF AND WHEN IT IS BROUGHT!
House Writes its own Energy Bill H4744
Last week, House Rep. Cusack submitted Bill H4744 to replace Healey’s Energy Bill H4144.
H4744, An Act relative to energy affordability, clean power, and economic competitiveness—is now in the hands of the Ways and Means Committee.
Cusack’s justification for H4744 is "fiscal responsibility". While he raises real issues, he wants to take a wrecking ball to MassSave and other important energy saving programs that benefit all families and support lower energy use and cut carbon use. This Bill rollbacks many gains made to address climate disruption, carbon reduction. It also continues to support the resurrection of nuclear power, while undermining the peoples’ voice to choose their energy future under section 80.
We are facing real problems regarding high energy bills and escalating costs of living. But this Bill isn’t the answer. This appears to be an industry backed Bill to keep failing polluting industries alive. This is unacceptable! This legislation must be fought and fought hard. And section 80, just like section 45 of the Healey Bill, must be removed.
This Bill is moving fast! Please contact the Committee and your legislator to tell them that this Bill in its present form is unacceptable and that the renewal of nuclear power is intolerable.
Thank your legislators who oppose this Bill. Call your friends and family to the same call of action and wake people up to the danger we’re in.
Thank you!
Find your legislator here: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator Find Bill H4744 here. (H4744, Section 80, line 2041, located on page 97 of 108 pages, tersely repeals the Anti-Nuclear Power and Waste Storage Law that we need.)
Oppose Rep. Cusack's Bill, rolling back MA environmental efforts!
Here is a fast and easy link to contact the House Ways and Means committee. There is still time today and tomorrow to affect votes.
Click this link to send a letter to all 60 members of the Ways and Means Committee. You can edit it with your comments.
For more pointers and information about Healey's poison pill, please view this webinar, organized by Massachusetts Peace Action, co-sponsored by the Commonwealth Coalition For Democracy and Safe Energy: Meltdown of Democracy: Bringing Nukes Back Despite Statewide Vote Against Them.
A Case Study in Radioactive Waste Management
The nuclear industry and its politician-apologists claim that nuclear power is clean. Tell that to the communities that deal with its toxic legacy—radioactive waste!
All nuclear power stations create what the industry wants to call “low-level” waste. What’s in it? How radioactive is it? How dangerous is it? Where does it go? What happens when it gets there?
CAN is investigating the answers to these questions in collaboration with students and faculty from Worcester Polytech and UMass-Amherst. Take a look at the “story map” here for the first instalment of the story of low-level waste. And stay tuned for more!
The Enviro Show
The Ghost of Your Nuclear Past is lurking in various Northeastern States as we speak. Both NY Gov. Hochul & MA Gov. Healey are for it (a bit of irony on the latter: we are told Healey's parents allowed the Clamshell Alliance to camp on their land for a Seabrook anti-nuke action). The good news is The Clamshell Alliance is still alive and pushing back. Cliff McCarthy & Shel Horowitz of The Commonwealth Coalition for Democracy & Safe Energy join us for the details.
Protect Vermont from Climate Disaster
Dear CAN Supporters,
This Action Alert is very important and needs to be acted on ASAP by our supporters in Vermont.
Some key Republicans in the Vermont Senate are threatening to dismantle key pieces of legislation that protect Vermonters from climate disaster and help build a more affordable future: the Global Warming Solutions Act and the Renewable Energy Standard. Among the changes they are pursuing for the Renewable Energy Standard is to define Nuclear Power as “clean.” We can’t let this happen!
Anti-climate, Pro-nuclear, Senators are pursuing every avenue they can think of to roll back our climate laws—including a possible attempt to bypass the traditional committee process to force a floor vote to take immediate action (likely on a Senate version of this climate rollback bill), as soon as THIS WEEK. Before any voting begins on efforts to gut these laws, we urge you to contact your Senator(s) and ask them to stand up for Vermonters and defend climate action.
Please call or email your Senator(s) (or call the Sergeant at Arms to leave your Senator(s) a message) as soon as possible this week between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM. Ask them to vote against any rollbacks to the Global Warming Solutions Act and the Renewable Energy Standard to secure a better future for all Vermonters. We have no time to waste!
More info: If we allow the Renewable Energy Standard to change as proposed in this bill, we’ll re-center nuclear energy as a strategy and, functionally, would take a hacksaw to Vermont’s solar industry. If we give up on our climate commitments we are putting an even greater burden on the next generation of Vermonters when we should be working to make their futures brighter, safer, and healthier.
We cannot roll back our commitment to climate action! We must ensure Vermont’s progress on the clean energy transition remains strong, knowing that a fossil-friendly federal administration makes state-level action more important than ever.
Please Contact Your Legislator!
Take a moment to make a difference! Please contact your State senator and house representative today to support bills that protect the public and environment.
We are trying to rescind the clean energy definition pushed by the Governor, stating nuclear energy as clean energy. This is an assault to people who have suffered at the hands of nuclear waste.
Sen. Comerford has introduced legislation to rescind the clean nuclear designation. It is essential for Western MA people to contact their representatives to tell them to support this legislation.
There are also other bills that have been introduced to deal with nuclear waste and the communities in Massachusetts and its borders that are impacted by Yankee Rowe, Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, and Seabrook.
We can stop this! But only if we work together to push for real solutions and real protections for the citizens of Massachusetts.
Find the summary of the legislations that’s been introduced and need legislator's support here.
Corruption In The Nuclear Industry Revealed Moccasin Tracks; Community Radio, WZNC
Moccasin Tracks hosts talked with Chris Williams and Deb Katz, who shared true stories of an industry that continues to cost rate payers millions without solutions to waste and storage problems that are blatant examples of environmental racism.
Climate Disruption—What is Massachusetts up against? Are we Safe?
Not a driver? Ask us about upcoming events where you can help us handing out flyers.
We are also looking to revamp our website and are looking for a volunteer to help us with some of this work.
2023, Brattleboro Fourth of July Parade, Photo by Ann Darling
We're Taking the Cask on the Road.
If you’re interested in seeing our mock nuclear waste cask up close and having us talk at your event about why "Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Climate Change" please contact us at info@nukebusters.org.
The cask at The Science Fair 2023, UMASS Amherst, Photo by Ilan Bryant
Nuclear Spent Fuel & Homeland Security—The Case for Robust Storage
This presentation was completed in 2006. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station continued operating, and creating more high level nuclear waste (HLNW), for another 9 years—to 2014. Now, the spent fuel pool is being emptied of its inventory and the dry casks receiving the spent fuel are just as vulnerable as depicted in this presentation.
Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant continues to operate 17 years after this presentation was completed. Its HLNW inventory has more than doubled in size since then. Seabrook's spent fuel pool inventory is also being transferred to dry cask storage—arguably in just as vulnerable a configuration.
In association with C-10 Foundation, voiceover by Chris Nord
Rep. Whipps Withdrew Her Support for HD.3705! Thank You to all who contacted her!
Please contact Rep. Whipps to thank her for withdrawing her support for legislation that would undermine public participation and democracy in the decommissioning of Pilgrim reactor. Please contact her office to let her know that you appreciate her saying NO to Bill HD.3705.
REP. WHIPPS’ CONTACT INFORMATION Telephone in Boston: (617) 722-2090 Email: Susannah.Whipps@mahouse.gov
We are pleased to present a self-produced video explaining why atomic power is completely unsuitable as a “bridge” energy source to a sustainable future. This video features CAN organizers addressing five lies the industry promotes about nuclear power.
Artwork by Benjamin Katz, Age 8
Where do the Vermont Congressional Candidates Stand on Vermont Yankee's Radioactive Waste?
Vermont Yankee shuttered in 2014, but problems remain. Over 40 years Vermont Yankee created a serious amount of atomic waste. Now, 1,600 tons of the most highly radioactive waste sits in 58 casks out in the open near the banks of the Connecticut River. Neither Vermont nor the federal government knows what to do with it. Yet release of the radiation from these casks would leave our region uninhabitable for decades. Vermont isn’t alone with this problem; it’s the same at all reactor sites around the country. The nuclear industry and politicians in Congress are pushing to send this waste to “temporary” Consolidated Interim Storage (CIS) sites in working poor, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities in the Southwest, an area that already carries a heavy burden of nuclear contamination. The folks there don’t believe the move will be temporary and don’t want the waste there. CIS is environmental racism, pure and simple.
We all want the waste from Vermont Yankee gone, but we need to think about where it would go. Do we want “our” waste to contaminate someone else’s home?
Recently, the Vermont legislature passed The Environmental Justice Act (Act 154) requiring State agencies to incorporate environmental justice (EJ) into their work, rules, and procedures as they affect Vermonters. Act 154 says that Vermont will no longer allow the Vermonters the most burdened by pollution—rural, Indigenous, people of color—to be unjustly treated. It sets out a principled, ethical standard for our state to follow. Does this standard of environmental justice end at the border?! We need to let our House candidates know that plans for Consolidated Interim Storage are unjust and contrary to Vermont’s values.
ASK THE CANDIDATES WHERE THEY STAND!
Are they aware of Consolidated Interim Storage plans? What do they think about them? Will they stand for environmental justice in Congress?
Why isn’t there more government and industry investment in developing a permanent waste solution?
With its waste problem, why is nuclear promoted as a “green” solution to climate change?
MAKE SURE THEY KNOW YOU’RE CONCERNED AND WATCHING! And let us know what you learn.
The Progressive candidate for the US House of Representatives from Vermont is: • Barbara Nolfi
The independent candidate for the US House of Representatives from Vermont is: • Liam Madden (https://rebirthdemocracy.com)
Nuclear Power—Myth, Lure, Danger and Reality, a Climate Solution or a Dangerous Detour
with speakers M.V. Ramana (Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security), Diane Turco (Executive Director of Cape Downwinders), Deb Katz (Executive Director of Citizens Awareness Network), and David A. Kraft (Co-founder and current director of Nuclear Energy Information Service), hosted by Massachusetts Peace Action.
Speak Out! Tell Congress: No Backdoor Authorization of Illegal Nuclear Waste Dumps
A provision (Section 308) of the pending FY 2022 Energy and Water appropriations bill would authorize and direct the opening of supposedly temporary nuclear waste dumps.
The Section 308 provision would trigger a dangerous, unnecessary, decades-long, massive high-level nuclear power waste transport campaign through most Congressional districts in the continental US, including through densely populated cities and productive farmland.
Congress must not undo protections in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act with an obscure provision buried in the appropriations package. Shipping irradiated “spent” fuel and storing it at supposedly interim sites is dangerous and violates consent-based siting, environmental justice principles, and federal law.
Citizens Awareness Network is asking our supporters to call, write or email their Senators ASAP and tell them to remove Section 308 from S 2605 today!
New England Delegation on Senate Appropriations Committee:
I am writing today because I am concerned about Section 308 of S.2605. Section 308 authorizes the DOE to create a pilot project for Centralized Interim Storage of spent nuclear fuel. We should not be moving fuel until we have figured out where it is ultimately going to be disposed of. Section 308 also allows for the use of the Nuclear Waste Fund. The fund is ratepayer money to be used for disposal of the waste. We should not allow the fund to be tapped for a parking lot dump with no permanent disposal site as yet determined.
Similar proposals have been stricken from previous appropriation bills and this proposal deserves the same fate. We need to get moving on a scientifically sound, environmentally just solution. We don’t need to waste ratepayer dollars kicking the can down the road.
Sincerely, [your name]
Time is of the essence! Please write today. Thank you so much!
Nuclear energy is NOT a climate solution
Greg Jaczko: Funding Nuclear Energy Is A WASTE of
Government Resources, The Industry Is DYING
Call your Reps & Senators!
Say No to Parking Lot Dumps & Bailouts
Citizens Awareness Network has been part of nationwide effort to create a national coalition to bring grassroots pressure to the ongoing policy debate concerning High-Level Radioactive Waste. This summer the National Radioactive Waste Coalition will officially kick-off a national campaign to advocate for several key policies.
Stop the Yucca Mountain Repository.
Prevent Centralized Interim Storage (CIS) of commercial irradiated fuel.
Implement Hardened Onsite Storage (HOSS) of commercial irradiated fuel at current locations until a permanent facility is established.
Expensive and risky schemes to move spent fuel across the country to temporary parking lot dumps in the Southwest are irresponsible and short sighted. The United States has tens of thousands of tons of long lived waste that must be permanently sequestered from the biotic world. The National Radioactive Waste Coalition will work from coast to coast to see to it that policymakers hear from the citizenry and not just from an industry that has not acted in good faith to deal with the waste problem it has created.
Please contact your Senators and your Representative and let them know that Centralized Interim Storage is not an acceptable plan for dealing with power plant waste.
Also, this summer, as Congress debates a massive infrastructure bill, the nuclear industry has been calling for huge subsidies for old nuclear units around the country. Congress should be working the to strengthen Clean Energy Standards instead of bailing out dirty nuclear plants. The money for the bailouts would come from funds intended to mitigate climate change through investments in renewable energy generation, energy storage technology, and energy efficiency. In our view this is misguided and stupid.
Say NO to Parking Lot Dumps and Bailouts. Please contact your Senators and your Representatives now.
