Coalition Proposes Amending Federal Law
to Empower States to Shutter Nuclear Power Plants
For Immediate Release August 15, 2013
Contact: Nancy Burton 203-938-3952 NancyBurtonCT@aol.com
The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone launched a national drive today to persuade Congress to amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to provide states with authority to permanently shut
nuclear power plants for reasons of public health and safety by inserting the following language in the Act:
“Nothing herein [Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C. §2011 et seq.] shall prohibit a state from ordering permanent cessation of a nuclear power plant operations within its boundaries for reasons of public health and safety.”
The Coalition’s drive was announced a day after the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on August 14, 2013 holding that the state of Vermont had no authority to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor because that power vests alone in the federal government.
“Federal nuclear regulators are far removed from the concerns of all the communities in America living in the shadow of nuclear power plants who are fed up with the nuclear industry’s lies, chronic malfunctions, radiation and toxic chemical releases, thermal plumes, not to mention spent fuel build-up, with no real say,” Burton said.
The initiative honors the legacy of Katie the Goat, who served as a radiation monitor near the Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford. Her milk was regularly sampled by Millstone and was found to have high levels of strontium-90 and other radioisotopes. Katie passed away from cancer a year ago this month.
