NEIS sent the following today to Illinois state and federal legislators, as well as to its entire media list. We share it with you now: We hope that this latest installment of our energy transformation series finds you well, and as you wind down towards the end of the Spring legislative session, that your work […]
NEIS has a number of events lined up for Earth Week 2019 — April 22-27. We close out the week with a very special activity. We’re co-hosting a workshop with noted activist/organizer/author George Lakey who is in town to promote his new book, “HOW WE WIN: A Guide to Non-Violent Direct Action Campaigning. This will […]
NEIS sponsors a week of activities against premature, hazardous radioactive waste transport through Illinois NEIS hosted a week of events and activities in response to recent House Congressional legislation that would prematurely place hazardous high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) on our roads, build expensive and unnecessary HLRW storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico, and would […]
August 16, 2018 Dr. Norma Field, professor emeritus of Japanese Studies at the University of Chicago, and Dr. Yuki Miyamoto, ethicist and professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University are interviewed by Jerome McDonnell on his “Worldview” program, on WBEZ-FM 91.5 public radio Chicago. The Japanese Government has been engaged in a program to dismantle […]
It’s August already. They don’t call this time of year “the dog days” for nothing. After a pretty frenetic Spring, things have slowed down a bit. But that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. We at NEIS are using this relatively “slow(er)” time to re-group, plan, groom and educate those who are in need of […]
A new NEIS “Know Nukes” program made its debut this August 6th at the Chicago Hiroshima Anniversary Observance, held at the site of the Henry Moore Sculpture to Nuclear Power on the campus of the University of Chicago. The site – memorialized by the world-famous sculpture — is the exact location where the Nuclear Age […]
Congressional Briefing: “Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants: What Congress, Federal Agencies and Communities Need to Know” WHEN: Monday, July 16 2018 | 2 PM – 3:30 PM Eastern Live webcast will be streamed at: www.eesi.org/livecast WHERE: Room HC-8, U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. WHO: Mayor Al Hill, of Zion, Illinois, home of the decommissioned Zion Nuclear […]
Written By Kari Lydersen, Energy News Network, July 13, 2018. Members of Congress are scheduled to receive a briefing next week from nuclear energy experts and watchdogs on pending nuclear waste storage proposals and the decommissioning of nuclear plants that have closed or could soon. Among the organizers of the July 16 briefing and a […]
When he was 11, my stepson taught me one of the most valuable Life-lessons I’ve learned when he said, “You know Dave, man isn’t a “rational” animal. He’s a “rationalizing” one!” Truer words have never been spoken when examining the nonsense rationalizations being paraded around by execs of unprofitable electric utilities and their governmental […]
S.1903 – The Stranded Act Of 2017 NEIS would like to commend IL Sen. Tammy Duckworth and IL Rep. Brad Schneider for introduction of S.1903 and H.R. 3970 respectively – the “Stranded Act of 2017;” and acknowledge State Sen. Melinda Bush and Zion Mayor Al Hill for their tireless efforts to obtain much deserved community […]
NEIS Board members, Gail Snyder and Jan Boudart recently attended a presentation given by Annegret Groebel the Director of International Relations at the German Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway. Of special note to us was that after the Fukushima Nuclear disaster in Japan the German government and people decided to permanently phase out all of their nuclear energy production and close all nuclear power plants, shutting down 8 reactors immediately with the phase out of the remaining 9 reactors by 2022.
While the article below leads the story with Germany’s phase out of coal what we learned is that in Germany the priority is to shutdown all their nuclear reactors. They determined the risk of a nuclear accident was to great and that all their nuclear power should be shutdown. In the U.S. and the State of Illinois where we are located many still ignore or downplay this same risk and the harm that can be caused by nuclear accidents. It is time for legislators and environmentalists in the U.S. to tell the truth to themselves and the public about these risks and stop limiting their risk evaluations only to carbon emissions. Illinois has the most operating nuclear reactors, 11 of them, of any state in the nation. Every day those 11 reactors operate the citizens of Illinois take on the burden of risk for the Exelon the company that operates them.
(Note: The article below says 19 reactors, 2 were closed prior to 2011 leaving 17 operating when the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in 2011 when Germany decided to shutdown 8 immediately and phase out the remaining 9 by 2022.)
In Illinois Federal investigations into Exelon should be making legislators and others who have had dealing and negotiations with Exelon and their company, ComEd, question if the same old methods of making energy policy really produce the best outcome for the citizens of Illinois. We think this would be a great time for legislators to disconnect renewable energy policy from nuclear energy policy and move Illinois forward with the goal of 100% renewable energy for Illinois’ citizens. Renewable energy is a competitor to Exelon and Exelon has been and continues to be an obstructionist to the advancement of renewable energy in Illinois and other states. Lobbying efforts by Exelon and negotiations with them do not advance renewable energy, they stall it. Exelon has been very good at convincing legislators to advance renewables only in baby steps. This is why we still have such a low portfolio of renewable energy in Illinois. Will the Governor and legislators let Exelon’s crisis stall advancement of renewables again this next legislative session? We hope not.
Nuclear Energy is NOT clean!
“fossil-fuel pollution can be reversed. Nuclear waste is here to stay for hundreds of thousands of years.“