6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912; 301-270-6477; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org
October 13, 2010
Dear Friends,
Well, you learn something every day....Yesterday we sent you the Alert below. But a lot of you never got to see it. Seems that since the subject of the Alert included an exclamation point (well, we are happy Calvert Cliffs-3 is heading to a deserved demise!) and a dollar sign, a lot of e-mail programs figured we were trying to sell you something you don't want and sent the Alert right to your spam boxes (we know, we found a test copy in one of our own spam boxes!).
So, our apologies if you're getting this for the second time. And it's true that more than 3200 letters against any more taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power have been sent to Congress in the last 24 hours. But we need a much bigger outpouring than that. So if you didn't receive this yesterday, please read and take action. And if you did receive it, but haven't yet taken action or forwarded it on to your organization's or personal e-mail lists, please do so now.
We had a tremendous victory this past weekend, now we need to defend it and focus on preventing our taxpayer dollars from going to the rest of the proposed new reactors out there! If you want to skip the rest of the Alert, take action here!
Thanks so much for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
NEW REACTOR AT CALVERT CLIFFS STOPPED!
AND NUCLEAR "RENAISSANCE" SPUTTERS!
SO INDUSTRY PRESSURES CONGRESS TO MAKE IT EVEN EASIER TO GET TAXPAYER MONEY....
ACT NOW TO PREVENT NEW NUKE SUBSIDIES DURING LAME DUCK SESSION
...AND, PLEASE JOIN THE VIRTUAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON!
October 12, 2010
Dear Friends,
This is a huge victory: Over the weekend, Constellation Energy announced it is pulling out of the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor project in Maryland, which effectively ends this new reactor.
NIRS has spent more than three years fighting this reactor tooth and nail.
We've intervened twice in Maryland Public Service Commission proceedings. We're the lead intervenor in NRC licensing proceedings for Calvert Cliffs--and our contention against foreign ownership in this project (it's dominated by the French government through Electricite de France and Areva) has proven a major stumbling block. And with all our allies in the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition we've been in the streets, the media and the public arena demanding an end to this boondoggle.
And, on Saturday, we won!
Here is a link
to our statement released Saturday.
to a New York Times article on some of the reasons behind this decision. And
to an article I wrote in August predicting exactly this outcome.
Please act now to protect this victory at Calvert Cliffs, and to stop any more taxpayer money being wasted on new reactors,
by writing your Senators and Representative here
. Here's why:
In its statement announcing it is shelving Calvert Cliffs-3, Constellation claimed it was doing so because the terms of a $7.5 Billion loan the Obama administration was ready to give the company were too "onerous."
For this $10 Billion+ reactor (the French government was going to chip in another $2.9 Billion), the administration wanted the utility to either put up $880 million of its own money (called a credit subsidy cost, kind of like the down payment you would have to put on a mortgage), or $300 million and guarantee sales of only 75% of the reactor's electricity.
This was too risky and "onerous" for Constellation Energy. In other words, they admitted they wanted taxpayers to take ALL the risk of this project.
In fact, that was just a smokescreen. Constellation would have cancelled Calvert Cliffs even if there had been no credit subsidy cost at all--the economics of the project simply didn't make sense. And it's telling that Constellation shares skyrocketed up in the first day of trading after their announcement: investors were delighted Constellation got out of this dumb deal.
But the nuclear industry is already working in Congress to not only get more taxpayer money for nuclear loans, but to force the administration to make taxpayers take all of the risk for those loans. And they're hoping they can sneak such legislation through in the lame duck session that begins in mid-November.
All year, with your help, we have blocked the industry from receiving any new funds for nuclear loans. Now we have to act again.
Please protect this victory at Calvert Cliffs, act to stop any more taxpayer money being wasted on new reactors and to make sure taxpayers don't have to take all the risk of new reactor construction,
by writing your Senators and Representative here.
Here is a link to this action that you can forward to your friends and colleagues who will want to take action too: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4378. The industry lobbying effort will be strong and well-financed, and it will take as many of us as possible to counter them.
We are, of course, walking on air that our long battle over Calvert Cliffs was successful (as, so far, has been our campaign to stop new taxpayer subsidies for new nukes). But these successes are only possible with your help and support! Please celebrate this victory by making a tax-deductible donation to NIRS today.
, or send a check to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912.
Virtual March on Washington
Have you joined the Virtual March on Washington yet? Stand up and be counted! It's easy and it's fun. An outgrown of the actions of International Radioactive Waste Action Day, the virtual march will keep building between now and April 26, 2011--the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
All you have to do to join is send in a photo of yourself to
. If you'd like to hold a sign (and we encourage that!),
you can download and print a sign here
, or make one of your own. You can also s
of the growing number of people who have joined in so far.
So send your pictures in today, and let's get thousands of people to join in this Virtual March on Washington!
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
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