About Harvey Wasserman

Harvey Wasserman edits NukeFree.org. He is Senior Advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service. He co-authored Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation.

The rust-bucket reactors start to fall

By Harvey Wasserman October 31, 2012

The US fleet of 104 deteriorating atomic reactors is starting to fall. The much-hyped "nuclear renaissance" is now definitively headed in reverse. The announcement that Wisconsin's Kewaunee will shut next year will be remembered as a critical dam break. Opened in 1974, Kewaunee has fallen victim to low gas prices, declining performance, unsolved technical problems and escalating public resistance. Many old US reactors are still profitable only because their capital costs were forced down … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: apocalypse, economy, energy policy, nuclear power

Fukushima spews, Los Alamos burns, Vermont rages and we’ve almost lost Nebraska

By Harvey Wasserman June 30, 2011

Humankind is now threatened by the simultaneous implosion, explosion, incineration, courtroom contempt and drowning of its most lethal industry. The nuclear one. We know only two things for certain: worse nuclear disasters are yet to come, and those in charge are lying about it---at least to the extent of sharing what they actually know, which is nowhere near enough. Indeed, assurances from the nuclear power industry continue to flow like the flood waters now swamping the Missouri Valley … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: activism, nuclear power, politics, pollution

Like Japan, let’s junk new nukes

By Harvey Wasserman May 12, 2011

Japan will build no new nuclear reactors. Their decision delivers a huge body blow to the global nuclear industry, and could mark a major turning point in the future of energy. As Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said about his country, We need to start from scratch… and do more to promote renewables. Wind power alone could---and now probably will---replace 40 nukes in Japan. The United States must join them. Axing the $36 billion currently stuck in the 2012 federal budget for loan … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: activism, harvey wasserman, Japan crisis, nuclear power

Japan’s quake could have irradiated the entire US

By Harvey Wasserman March 11, 2011

Had the massive 8.9 earthquake that has just savaged Japan hit instead off of the California coast, it could have ripped apart at least four coastal reactors and sent a lethal cloud of radiation across the entire United States. The two huge reactors, each at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, are not designed to withstand such powerful shocks. All four are extremely close to major faults. All four reactors are located relatively low to the coast. They're vulnerable to tsunamis, like … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: apocalypse, conservation, construction, James Hansen, nuclear power

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