New Government Study: Wind farming doesn't nuke property values
Beyond Nuclear Bulletin
December 10, 2009
Top Stories
Background: While it is said that "Living near a wind farm is a nuisance", the Department of Energy's most recent study on wind power confirms that home and property values are not affected by a facility's visible presence and electricity generating operation.
Our View: Sustainable community building as well as agriculture development is compatible with renewable energy. To the contrary, we are more often contacted alarmed would-be home buyers discovering that their "dream home" is near a nuclear plant. (No one need ask about safety risks associated with installing solar panels!) Safe energy does not need an evacuation plan. Real risks will always translate into negative economics. One study -When Bad Things Happen to Good Property - found that, just like living next to a toxic dump, atomic power negatively impacts housing and property values. The study concluded that 20 percent of a property value can be lost if it is located within a ΒΌ mile of a nuclear plant. Commercial farms within 60 miles of atomic power plants have lost 10 percent of their value just because of the implication of radioactive contamination alone.
New Jersey hearing to require new cooling system for nation's oldest reactor
Background: The New Jersey State Senate Environment Committee is holding a hearing on Monday, December 14, 2009 on legislation that would require the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township, NJ to upgrade its 40-year old reactor cooling system which currently takes in 1.4 billion gallons of water per day directly from the Barnegat Bay then discharges the super heated water back into the dying bay. The installation of cooling towers, the logical upgrade, would effectively ban the environmentally-damaging once-through system currently used by Oyster Creek.
Our View: Oyster Creek is one of 59 of the nation's 104 operating nuclear power stations that rely on the deadly once-through cooling system that is destroying aquatic and marine life coast-to-coast. Nuclear power plants using the once-through system routinely draw in vast amounts of water along with billions of fish, spawn, biota and even endangered species such as sea turtles. Oyster Creek and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are currently back before the National Marine Fisheries Service for repeatedly exceeding their "incidental take limit" of Kemp's ridley and Green sea turtles as protected under the Endangered Species Act. The discharge of billions upon billions of gallons of super-heated and radioactive cooling water back into oceans, bays, lakes and rivers then additionally upsets the environmental balance by displacing indigenous aquatic species and destroying sensitive marine habitat.
What you can do: Beyond Nuclear supports the passage of New Jersey Senate Bill 3041, the protection of Barnegat Bay habitat and a permanent nationwide ban on the once-through cooling system. We encourage and promote the introduction of similar state legislation around the country.
The French Nuclear Medusa
For Copenhagen, Areva makes the (false) nuclear case
In anticipation of the Copenhagen climate conference which began this week, Areva CEO, Anne Lauvergeon, stated during a French radio interview that nuclear power "does not release CO2" and that it "produces very little waste." These remarks were immediately condemned by the leading independent French radiological laboratory -CRIIRAD -who demanded that Lauvergeon take immediate steps to clean up the company's contaminated African uranium mine sites in Gabon and Niger. CRIIRAD also reminded Lauvergeon that (1) nuclear releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases, (2) that every stage of the nuclear fuel chain produces large quantities of radioactive wastes for which no safe storage solution has been found and (3) Areva has left populations to live on land or in dwellings contaminated by its activities. Any decisions made at Copenhagen should not be based on erroneous information emanating from the nuclear industry, CRIIRAD said. From uranium extraction to enrichment, reprocessing and contamination of water supplies, Areva's nuclear activities leave a virtually permanent trail of highly radioactive waste. The CRIIRAD press release is available in French and contains details of the radioactive contamination caused by Areva's activities in France and overseas. And see also an article in English from Agence France Presse about Areva's radioactive contamination in Gabon.
The Nuclear Retreat -our newest Web page!
Watch the nuclear industry running in reverse
We coined the term, "Nuclear Retreat" here at Beyond Nuclear to counter the nuclear industry's preposterous "nuclear renaissance" propaganda campaign. If you get the feeling the nuclear industry is running up the down escalator -you are not alone. The story so far of the alleged nuclear energy revival has been one of delays, cancelations and cost over-runs. On our new Nuclear Retreat Web page, we'll be keeping tabs on every new delay, cancelation, cost over-run and other failed nuclear ventures. This week features the latest pushback by UniStar at Nine Mile Point where a new EPR had been planned. This comes on the heels of the fiasco in Texas (see the San Antonio entry). And feel free to send us your own contributions.
December 10, 2009
Top Stories
Background: While it is said that "Living near a wind farm is a nuisance", the Department of Energy's most recent study on wind power confirms that home and property values are not affected by a facility's visible presence and electricity generating operation.
Our View: Sustainable community building as well as agriculture development is compatible with renewable energy. To the contrary, we are more often contacted alarmed would-be home buyers discovering that their "dream home" is near a nuclear plant. (No one need ask about safety risks associated with installing solar panels!) Safe energy does not need an evacuation plan. Real risks will always translate into negative economics. One study -When Bad Things Happen to Good Property - found that, just like living next to a toxic dump, atomic power negatively impacts housing and property values. The study concluded that 20 percent of a property value can be lost if it is located within a ΒΌ mile of a nuclear plant. Commercial farms within 60 miles of atomic power plants have lost 10 percent of their value just because of the implication of radioactive contamination alone.
New Jersey hearing to require new cooling system for nation's oldest reactor
Background: The New Jersey State Senate Environment Committee is holding a hearing on Monday, December 14, 2009 on legislation that would require the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township, NJ to upgrade its 40-year old reactor cooling system which currently takes in 1.4 billion gallons of water per day directly from the Barnegat Bay then discharges the super heated water back into the dying bay. The installation of cooling towers, the logical upgrade, would effectively ban the environmentally-damaging once-through system currently used by Oyster Creek.
Our View: Oyster Creek is one of 59 of the nation's 104 operating nuclear power stations that rely on the deadly once-through cooling system that is destroying aquatic and marine life coast-to-coast. Nuclear power plants using the once-through system routinely draw in vast amounts of water along with billions of fish, spawn, biota and even endangered species such as sea turtles. Oyster Creek and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are currently back before the National Marine Fisheries Service for repeatedly exceeding their "incidental take limit" of Kemp's ridley and Green sea turtles as protected under the Endangered Species Act. The discharge of billions upon billions of gallons of super-heated and radioactive cooling water back into oceans, bays, lakes and rivers then additionally upsets the environmental balance by displacing indigenous aquatic species and destroying sensitive marine habitat.
What you can do: Beyond Nuclear supports the passage of New Jersey Senate Bill 3041, the protection of Barnegat Bay habitat and a permanent nationwide ban on the once-through cooling system. We encourage and promote the introduction of similar state legislation around the country.
The French Nuclear Medusa
For Copenhagen, Areva makes the (false) nuclear case
In anticipation of the Copenhagen climate conference which began this week, Areva CEO, Anne Lauvergeon, stated during a French radio interview that nuclear power "does not release CO2" and that it "produces very little waste." These remarks were immediately condemned by the leading independent French radiological laboratory -CRIIRAD -who demanded that Lauvergeon take immediate steps to clean up the company's contaminated African uranium mine sites in Gabon and Niger. CRIIRAD also reminded Lauvergeon that (1) nuclear releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases, (2) that every stage of the nuclear fuel chain produces large quantities of radioactive wastes for which no safe storage solution has been found and (3) Areva has left populations to live on land or in dwellings contaminated by its activities. Any decisions made at Copenhagen should not be based on erroneous information emanating from the nuclear industry, CRIIRAD said. From uranium extraction to enrichment, reprocessing and contamination of water supplies, Areva's nuclear activities leave a virtually permanent trail of highly radioactive waste. The CRIIRAD press release is available in French and contains details of the radioactive contamination caused by Areva's activities in France and overseas. And see also an article in English from Agence France Presse about Areva's radioactive contamination in Gabon.
The Nuclear Retreat -our newest Web page!
Watch the nuclear industry running in reverse
We coined the term, "Nuclear Retreat" here at Beyond Nuclear to counter the nuclear industry's preposterous "nuclear renaissance" propaganda campaign. If you get the feeling the nuclear industry is running up the down escalator -you are not alone. The story so far of the alleged nuclear energy revival has been one of delays, cancelations and cost over-runs. On our new Nuclear Retreat Web page, we'll be keeping tabs on every new delay, cancelation, cost over-run and other failed nuclear ventures. This week features the latest pushback by UniStar at Nine Mile Point where a new EPR had been planned. This comes on the heels of the fiasco in Texas (see the San Antonio entry). And feel free to send us your own contributions.