Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, and expensive. It leaves a trail of deadly radioactive contamination throughout the entire nuclear fuel cycle – from mining, milling, refining, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication to transportation, reactors (power plants) and high-level radioactive waste.
Nukes and Climate: While the fission reaction produces no carbon, large amounts of carbon energy are used throughout the rest of the nuclear cycle, including future energy needs for keeping waste isolated from the environment.
Aging Time Bombs: Nuclear power requires mistake-proof technology and operations. Aging, accident-prone reactors are being given 20-year license extensions, none ever turned down by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Radioactive Waste: After 70 years of producing high-level radioactive waste at reactors, there is no solution for what to do with the first cupful. Plans are being made by the government to ship this waste around the country for “temporary storage”. This operation has been dubbed “Fukushima Freeways”. The first thing we need to do about nuclear waste is to stop making it!
Economics: Nuclear power is by far the most expensive way to generate electricity. Wall Street won’t invest in it. Nuclear power could not exist without numerous types of taxpayer subsidies. Nuclear subsidies are stealing development dollars from solar, wind and efficiency!
Ohio Senate Bill 381 would bail out FirstEnergy for its failed Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants on Lake Erie. This bill would cost Ohio electric ratepayers over $ 2.5 billion. FirstEnergy has already gotten a gift of $600 million from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. FirstEnergy thinks they are too big to fail and are threatening plant closure. Subsidies are intended for startup industries, not for well-established or outdated ones. See our fact sheet SAY NO TO OHIO LEGISLATIVE NUCLEAR BAILOUTS! for all the reasons why a re-regulation bailout for electric utilities is wrong – and what you can do.
Sites Where We Focus
Portsmouth Nuclear Reservation
From 1956 to 2001, uranium was enriched for nuclear bombs and power here in a complex that included over 100 acres under roof. Unfortunately, reprocessed high-level radioactive waste was brought to the site and run through the process for years, contaminating the buildings with plutonium and other transuranic and radioactive elements. Now the facility is being dismantled, and the pipes containing these highly-radioactive elements are planned to be buried onsite in a disposal cell located above the fractured rock. Other issues plague the site as well. See our fact sheet here.
Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor
This nuclear reactor (power plant) is on Lake Erie east of Toledo. It has had more accidents and violations than any other operating reactor in the U.S. FirstEnergy, its owner, is receiving a $600 million bailout from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, billed to ratepayers. Now FirstEnergy’s nukes are facing bankruptcy, and the company wants more bailouts from Ohio and the federal government. See our fact sheet here.
Perry Nuclear Reactor
East of Cleveland on Lake Erie, this reactor is on a fault line in one of Ohio’s most frequent earthquake zones. Perry suffered a strong earthquake while under construction. It was named by Reuters as the most dangerous nuclear plant in the world, in terms of danger to worker safety. First Energy is asking for a bailout to keep Perry in operation
Fermi
The Fermi site is on Lake Erie, 20 miles north of Toledo in Michigan. Fermi 1, a prototype fast breeder reactor, suffered a partial meltdown in 1966 (See the book We Almost Lost Detroit) and is now closed. Fermi 2 is the world’s largest Mark 1 reactor, the same type as those in Fukushima. It is licensed to operate until 2045. In April 2015 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted DTE a license to build a new reactor, Fermi 3. The Sierra Club was one of 4 organizations that intervened, delaying the licensure for over 5 years.
Canada’s Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump
Ontario Power Generation wants to bury low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario. This proposed “Deep Geologic Repository” is less than 1/2 mile from Lake Huron and just above Lake Erie. The Great Lakes supply the drinking water for 40 million people. Resolutions against the dump have been made by 155 cities and counties representing 21 million people in the U.S and Canada. After taking testimony for over 2 years, a review panel gave the dump a thumbs-up in May 2015.
Nuclear Fact Sheets
Click on the banners and photos below for important information on various aspects of nuclear power.
Four-page overview of nuclear power in the United States
High-level waste is irradiated (used, or spent) nuclear fuel. There is currently no scientifically valid way to permanently dispose of this waste. It needs to be stored much more securely NOW.
Nuclear power has a BIG carbon footprint.
Low-level radioactive waste is everything with radioactivity except the irradiated (used, or spent) nuclear fuel. It can contain all of the elements and radioactivity of high-level radioactive waste.
There is nothing “small” about these proposals. We say SMR stands for Squandering Money and Resources. Nothing will be done that is not financed by the public.
Why we don't need more nuclear plants
The “Front End” is how nuclear power gets its fuel. Uranium mining, milling, refining, and enrichment have a BIG carbon and environmental footprint.
Operating nuclear reactors are aging and dangerous. How long would you drive your car? Here is the "dirty truth."
The NEWGreen Facility on Lake Erie is NOT GREEN. This facility "cleans and refurbishes" radioactive equipment.
Our committee designed the Palisades fact sheet for the Michigan Sierra Club.
Conversion, Enrichment, Fuel Fabrication, MOX Fuel and More :
Sierra Club Fact Sheet on the “front end” industries beyond uranium mining, milling, and refining. Just take a look at all the processes that go into making fuel for nuclear power. A huge carbon footprint.
"Nuclear Presentation March 2018." PDF on Nuclear Issues in Ohio and Beyond by Pat Marida, Chapter Nuclear Committee Chair.
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