As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves a construction/operating license for two new reactors in Georgia, alarming reports from Japan indicate the Fukushima catastrophe is far from over.  

A federal judge has told the people of Vermont that a solemn contract between them and the reactor owner Entergy need not be honored.

The fight will almost certainly now go to the US Supreme Court. At stake is not only the future of atomic power, but the legitimacy of all deals signed between corporations and the public.  Chief Justice John Roberts' conservative court will soon decide whether a private corporation can sign what should be an enforceable contract with a public entity and then flat-out ignore it.

A federal judge has told the people of Vermont that a solemn contract between them and the reactor owner Entergy need not be honored.

The fight will almost certainly now go to the US Supreme Court. At stake is not only the future of atomic power, but the legitimacy of all deals signed between corporations and the public. The corporatist court will be asked to decide whether a private corporation can sign what should be an enforceable contract with a public entity and then flat-out ignore it.

The year 2012 has opened with news that Fukushima's radioactive cloud may already have killed some 14,000 Americans, according to a major study just published in the International Journal of Health Services. 

The wall-to-wall tents at Dewey Square make a bright, brilliant statement against the idea of yet another useless imperial war. Defying all odds, Occupy Boston has sustained its place in the sun. And with it comes the unmistakeable message that the 1% is dead wrong to think it can count on a free pass to attack Iran.

On a bright, sunny Sunday, for a full 90 minutes prior to the coming of the great Peter Tosh, the Occupy Movement, Boston Branch, made it clear that this spontaneous global grassroots uprising has come to be in the knick of time.

 

The global upheaval that is the Occupy Movement is hopefully in the process of changing---and saving---the world.

Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, it has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed.

A long-term agenda seems to be emerging: social justice, racial and gender equality, ecological survival, true democracy, an end to war, and so much more. "When the power of love overcomes the love of power," said Jimi Hendrix, "the world will know peace."

Republicans up in arms about the infamous failed federal $535 million loan guarantee for the Solyndra solar panel producer are finally tasked to apply the same standards to nuclear power.

If that happens, there will be no more commercial reactors built in the United States.

Unlike solar power, atomic energy cannot attract private capital. So if the GOP succeeds in dragging down the entire federal energy loan program, the "Nuclear Renaissance" could be definitively done.

The horrible news from Japan continues to be ignored by the western corporate media.

Fukushima's radioactive fallout continues to spread throughout the archipelago, deep into the ocean and around the globe---including the US. It will ultimately impact millions, including many here in North America.

The potentially thankful news is that Fukushima's three melting cores may have not have melted deep into the earth, thus barely avoiding an unimaginably worse apocalyptic reality.

But it's a horror that humankind has yet to fully comprehend.

 

Amidst a life-and-death struggle to finally shut the nuclear energy industry, the power of green music flows again this Sunday. 

America's budget crisis has the world economy at the brink. Social Security, Medicare, aid for needy children, environmental protection and much more are being chopped. 

Yet Congress and the White House may still want to use our money to fund atomic power.

Specifically, $36 billion in loan guarantees may still be on the table for building new nukes. Millions more are slated for "small modular reactors" and other atomic boondoggles.