Ban Treaty anniversary reminds us of its importance

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force on January 22, 2021. As we approach its one-year anniversary, too many reminders have emerged that its importance is more urgent now than ever. More than 60 U.S. organizations — including Beyond Nuclear — issued a joint statement on January 12 calling for the…

Read More

Impacted communities speak out on radiation impacts

The National Academies hosted a virtual public meeting over two days in October 2021, to examine how to move forward with low-dose radiation research. This was part of a larger NAS effort, which will end with a report of recommendations. To NAS’s credit, the October meeting featured powerful and important presentations by downwinder and other…

Read More

The Washington Post gets it wrong (again) on nuclear power

The Washington Post ran a January 1, 2022 pro-nuclear editorial full of the usual clichéd misconceptions about both France and Germany. This followed an article replete with similar errors of fact. Both times, we wrote in, but the Post has declined to publish our responses. Here is the letter to the editor sent in response to…

Read More

Real progress or empty rhetoric?

“The People’s Republic of China, the French Republic, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America consider the avoidance of war between Nuclear-Weapon States and the reduction of strategic risks as our foremost responsibilities.” This was the opening paragraph of a January 3, 2022 joint…

Read More

NRC rejects Oklo application to build and operate a micro-reactor

Oklo Corporation does a better job of painting a picture of its Aurora micro-reactor mirage than convincing the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to jointly “pave the road as they travel” for an unproven technology. In this case, “A picture is worth a thousand words” literally does not apply to producing a cogent technical safety…

Read More

Nuclear, gas labeled ‘green’?

The European Commission is poised to make a decision that would classify nuclear power and fossil gas as ‘sustainable investments’ under the EU ‘taxonomy.’ Countries such as Germany have vociferously objected to this and now the World Wildlife Fund has exposed the backroom deal that may ensure the public has no voice in opposing this…

Read More

Nuclear prospects are shriveling

And the numbers don’t lie: “Making 10% of world and 20% of U.S. commercial electricity, nuclear power is historically significant but now stagnant. In 2020, its global capacity additions minus retirements totaled only 0.4 GW (billion watts). Renewables in contrast added 278.3 GW—782x more capacity—able to produce about 232x more annual electricity (based on U.S. 2020…

Read More

Piling on the truth

The nuclear power industry and its boosters have mounted a saturation campaign to convince lawmakers, media and the public that both currently operating nuclear power plants, and new so-called advanced ones, play an essential role in mitigating the climate crisis. Neither case is true, but those of us holding the facts don’t have the same…

Read More

Nuclear power took an unprecedented plunge in 2020

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2021 (WNISR2021) has been published and, as always, delivers an important quantity of empirical data confirming the continued decline of nuclear power. The 2021 edition assesses the status and trends of the international nuclear industry, and contains several focus chapters, including a first assessment of Nuclear Power and Climate…

Read More