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Fresno, California

Despite a state moratorium on new nuclear reactors, Fresno Nuclear Energy Group, LLC signed a letter of intent with Unistar Nuclear Development, LLC to design, build, and operate a new 1,600-megawatt reactor in California’s primarily agricultural central valley. The partnership with Unistar Nuclear, which is a jointly owned subsidiary of Constellation Energy and the French government-owned nuclear power company Areva, was set up in December 2006. Fresno Nuclear Energy Group consists of six local businessmen with no collective experience in the nuclear power industry. 

A 1976 California law bans new nuclear plant construction in the state until there is a permanent solution for the disposal of nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the federal government’s proposed site for a geological repository for the country’s nuclear waste, faces licensing barriers and public opposition. Even if the site is opened, it will not be able to hold waste produced by new reactors. 

Fresno Nuclear Energy Group CEO is claiming that spent fuel reprocessing is the solution for nuclear waste and proposes to build a reprocessing facility in tandem with the new reactor. Reprocessing, which is the separation of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, is extremely expensive, poses a security threat, and contaminates the environment. Moreover, reprocessing does not negate the need for a permanent repository for nuclear waste.

Along with Fresno Nuclear Energy Group, a Southern California legislator is seeking to lift the moratorium on new nuclear plants.  Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irving) introduced a bill in April 2007 that would have removed the current ban.  The bill is based on the assumption that nuclear power is necessary to meet the state’s need to address global warming, as mandated by 2006 legislation (but for which Mr. DeVore did not vote).  On April 16, 2007, the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources voted 4-2 to uphold the ban. The bill was not expected to pass since the chairs of both the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources and the Utilities and Commerce Committee have vocalized their confidence that the state can meet its needs through environmentally sound methods of generation, such as geothermal, wind, and solar power.  DeVore has stated that he will reintroduce the bill next year.

We need YOU to get involved to help raise public opposition to this unsafe and unnecessary plant! For more information, contact the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility or contact Allison Fisher with Public Citizen.

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