Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

On August 20^th of this year a valve in the Columbia Generating Station (CGS) nuclear power plant’s condenser froze shut, stopping its ability to cool the reactor core and forcing plant operators to rapidly shut down the nuclear plant. It remained at zero power for nearly two weeks. This loss of power generation gives us an insight into how the years have taken their toll on this aging GE Boiling Water Reactor – the last remaining commercial nuclear power facility in the Pacific Northwest.

As I began writing this article in September in Shady Cove, I smelled smoke. The Chetco Bar fire was burning in the Illinois River Valley, Chetco River corridor, and Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The Milli fire was burning in and near the Three Sisters Wilderness. At home, the Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia Gorge was growing. Friends recently evacuated from the west side of the Gorge were returning home, while those to the east prepared to leave.

At the beginning of this year, Oregon PSR joined a new campaign to shut down Portland General Electric’s plans to build new gas power plants at the Carty Generating Station near Boardman, Oregon. The plants would have increased imports of fracked "natural" gas from Canada into the state, replacing the soon-to-be decommissioned Boardman Coal Plant with another climate-busting fossil fuel.

Ten years after being founded by Physicians for Social Responsibility's international federation (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War), the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their successful efforts to establish the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Join us Sunday, October 15th at 3pm for "What Unites Us," a Portland Gay Men's Chorus concert uplifting the work of social justice organizations including Oregon PSR, the NAACP of Portland, and more.

Breaking news! We're celebrating a huge victory today. As a co-director of the Power Past Coal coalition, I'm thrilled to thank each of you for working so hard to defeat the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminal project, the largest coal export facility in the country. Your hard work, connected to the work of health professionals and activists from the mines to the ports, helped convince the State of Washington to deny a key permit today. This dirty and dangerous coal facility cannot be built! 

Huge piles of coal on the banks of our Columbia River, with dangerous coal dust contaminating our river and our neighborhoods? Diesel pollution damaging our health?

That’s what we could be looking at – uncovered piles of coal 8 stories high and 16 mile-long, uncovered coal trains barreling every day of the year along the Columbia River, through our neighborhoods, threatening our air quality, water quality, and public safety.

John Oliver, formerly of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," tackled the expansive issue of nuclear waste and its dangers on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight." The episode aired on August 20th, 2017 (content warning: explicit language). The comedian made some very good points (and jokes) about the health impacts of this frequently hushed-up issue. We take a look at what Mr. Oliver and his team did well, and what wasn't quite right.

On August 10th, 2017 Susannah Frame of King 5 News in Washington State published an in-depth look at nuclear waste transport violations at the Columbia Generating Station near Richland, WA. The report was based on a tip provided by our Nuclear Power Program. Because of multiple errors in its shipping of radioactive waste, The Washington State Department of Health has suspended indefinitely the shipment of radioactive waste from the nuclear plant.

A westbound 120-car coal train derailed at approximately 11:00 pm on Sunday, August 13th about 10 miles west of Noxon, Montana. Thirty of the 120 uncovered rail cars, each fully loaded, dumped dirty and dangerous coal next to and into the Cabinet Gorge Reservoir of the Clark Fork River. There were no injuries. Crews are working to clean up the mess and hope to finish on Wednesday. The track is closed.