Fukushima

In light of what we’ve learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, do you support our continued reliance on nuclear power?

Background    The March 11, 2011 earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.   Within days there were meltdowns in three of the six reactors at the site, followed by hydrogen explosions at units 1 and 3.  Then the spent-fuel pool in reactor 4, where 1,535 rods were being stored, caught fire and also exploded.

Currently the situation at Reactor 4 poses the greatest threat.  On March 23, 2012, the former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, wrote to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warning  “It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on N0.4 reactor.”

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) recently visited the Fukushima disaster zone and has confirmed the gravity of the situation in letters written to Japanese ambassador to the US, Ichiro Fujisaki; Energy Secretary Steven Chu; NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Loss of containment in any of these pools, especially the pool at Unit 4, which has the highest inventory of the hottest fuel, could result in an even greater release of radiation than the initial accident.”

Still Critical:  Radiation Levels at Fukushima Can Kill in Minutes

Updates on the Continuing Crisis and Radioactive Contamination in Japan, the U.S. and Elsewhere

Andy Caffrey

Absolutely not.  I was arrested in 1994 blockading Watts Bar in TN, the last nuclear power plant to go online (video forthcoming).  My plan calls for shutting down nuclear power globally as fast as humanly possible.

Brooke Clarke

Because the NRC is one of those agencies that suffers from Regulatory Capture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_Capture) they are not regulating our nuclear power plants and I’m concerned for plant safety.  There needs to be a Congressional review of all our generating plants for safety.  Note that virtually all electrical generating plants are located near water and are more at risk if the sea level rises.  There are newer designs for nuclear generating plants that are much safer and these should not be ruled out in general.

William Courtney

No response received.

Larry Fritzlan

No response received.

Mike Halliwell

Fukushima reminds us that there is no “fool proof” technology to prevent meltdowns in nuclear power plants.  Even if there were no accidents, nuclear waste is an insolvable problem.  It is impossible to recycle and its accumulated heat (similar radioactive isotopes keep the Earth’s core molten) will melt any container it is stored in.  No new nuclear power plants and phase out exiting ones!

Jared Huffman

I do not.  I support California’s moratorium on nuclear plants and I have gone much further by calling on President Obama to match Germany’s ambitious plan to decommission all nuclear power plants within a decade and replace them with a combination of increased renewable generation and energy efficiency.

Stacey Lawson

No response received.

John Lewallen

I have organized nonviolent direct action with the Abalone Alliance to stop nuclear power, and because of our activism, there are no nuclear power stations in Northern California.  We should shut down all our nuclear power plants and move rapidly to provide wind and solar sources of energy, and achieve energy efficiency.  I would work with activists to write a National Energy Conversion Act, to move away from nuclear and hydrocarbon energy and into renewable sources, along with a large federal jobs program to achieve energy conversion.

Tiffany Renée

No.  I’ve opposed nuclear energy since I was a child living in the shadow of Rancho Seco in Sacramento.  As I’ve mentioned in a previous response, I am seeking to move Sonoma County on to the renewable energy grid and away from fossil fuel and nuclear energy.

In regards to the Japanese earthquake, we are still under major threat from Fukushima.  The West Coast is facing a slow-moving debris tsunami from the earthquake as well.  Leadership in Washington has not done enough to address these issues.  What is fortuitous is the timing of the leak that occurred post-Fukushima at San Onofre.  We must work to reduce nuclear energy production, including no new permits for new facilities.  As we are beginning to see the long-term affects from Fukushima, we must enact a lasting Clean Energy policy that addresses real GHG reductions, a cap and dividend system and reflects true costs of environmental impacts.  We must break our dependence on natural gas, coal, and oil through efficiency programs and clean energy innovations.

Daniel Roberts

Yes, but need to solve the storage issue.

Norman Solomon

I have spoken out for decades against the dangers of nuclear proliferation.  I was the director of the National Citizens Hearings for Radiation Victims in 1980 and co-authored “Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience with Atomic Radiation,” with Harvey Wasserman, which exposed the health and environmental effects of the nuclear industry.  I spent time in jail opposing the spread of nuclear power in the 1970s.

In this congressional campaign, I have called for an immediate closure to California’s two nuclear power plants (Diablo Canyon and San Onofre).  Please see the full-page ad in the Pacific Sun that my campaign took out last May entitled, “Isn’t It Time to Close California’s Nuclear Power Plants?”: http://www.solomonforcongress.com/assets/files/PacificSunAd_RGB_Rev_Web.jpg.

These plants pose major risks to all Californians, with the dangers heightened because both plants are located on major earthquake faults along the coast.  The ongoing disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant demonstrates the real dangers of nuclear power – and underscores the need to quickly transition to safer and truly sustainable energy sources.

I support public investment in solar, appropriately sited wind, tidal and other energy sources that are clean and renewable – and making such energy affordable and accessible for homeowners and small businesses.

Susan Adams

No, I believe we need to decommission all nuclear power plants now on line and stop new ones from coming on line. We have two active nuclear power plants in California, on earthquake faults, although San Onofre has been shut down due to” unusual” wear and tear. We can’t afford any nuclear disasters in this Country, and should push ever more aggressively for alternative energy solutions.