Winter Speaker Series

2021 Zoom Speaker Series


Seabrook Nuclear Plant:
Winds of Change?


Doug Bogen

Executive Director, Seacoast Antipollution League

January 13, 2021 at 7:00 pm
Required Registration


Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s (FOMB) first presentation of their 24th annual Winter Speaker Series, Seabrook Nuclear Plant: Winds of Change?, features Doug Bogen, Executive Director of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League. This event, FOMB’s first ever virtual meeting presentation will be held via Zoom and is accessible via a hyperlink at the top of the FOMB web page at www.fomb.org . The event takes place Wednesday January 13th at 7 pm and is co-sponsored by Peace Action Maine.

In a May, 2019 op-ed published in the Washington Post, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Greg Jaczko discusses the reality of nuclear power in 2019. He tells it like it is – stating that nuclear power is, “no longer a viable strategy for dealing with climate change, nor is it a competitive source of power. It is hazardous, expensive and unreliable, and abandoning it wouldn’t bring on climate doom.” Construction began on Seabrook in 1976 and it was commissioned in 1990. Its age is slightly less than the average (38 years) of U.S. nuclear plants yet it is not without serious problems, one of them being accelerated concrete deterioration. The plant is perilously close to the ocean and thus threatened by sea-level rise and of course it is upwind of Maine should a radiation emitting accident occur. Bogen’s presentation will update us on the continuing and future potentially life-threatening problems with Seabrook Nuclear Power Station on the NH coast and introduce us to one possible alternative, offshore wind.

Doug Bogen, has been an environmental organizer and advocate for over 30 years. With his expertise in the field of environmental science and education, his extensive knowledge of the history of the energy industry, and a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory process, Bogen is able to develop real-world community-based solutions to our most challenging environmental issues. In addition to his work at SAPL, Doug is a founding member of Seacoast Peace Response and the Portsmouth-Severodvinsk Connection. He was Program Director of the Seacoast Area Renewable Energy Initiative from 2011 to May, 2016. From 1991 to 2009, Doug worked with Clean Water Action’s New Hampshire program, where he served as state program director for most of that time. His work included cleaning up the state’s old fossil-fueled power plants, combatting climate disruption, drinking water protection, coastal water quality efforts, and addressing toxic contamination—particularly mercury and military waste. He has also served since 1995 as the Co-Chair of the Restoration Advisory Board for the superfund mitigation of toxic waste sites at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Doug holds a MS in Environmental Education from Cornell and BS in Biology from Colorado College.

FOMB normally hosts their Winter Speaker Series October-May, the second Wednesday of each month. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the current series is abridged and virtual, running January-May. The FOMB February 10th presentation, “Searching for Smelt, Citizen Science & Maine’s Sea-Run Fishes”, features Claire Enterline & Danielle Frechette, researchers with Maine’s Department of Marine Resources. This event takes place 7:00 pm with the Zoom access link available at www.fomb.org a week or so prior to the presentation.

Speaker Series presentations are free, open to the public. Visit www.fomb.org to see speaker biographies, full event schedules, video recordings of past presentations, become a member, and learn more about how you can help protect beautiful Merrymeeting Bay.

For more information contact FOMB at 207-666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.


 

 

Watercolors by
Sarah Stapler