Saturday, February 24, 2007

Time Wave - Uranium is an Addiction

Well... we hear echoes, rumblings in the distance... and I guess, I guess, we need to explain ourselves a little bit here at GNB... so it won't all come as a complete shock and surprise... I mean, come on, what did you really think, that Indian Point was just another nuke, another run of the mill, rubber stamping by the NRC? Come on, give us a little bit more credit than that, for creativity, for longevity... I mean how long has this battle been going on, with this Mexican Stand-off... We don't build any new ones, you leave the ones we have running alone... That was pretty much what happened after the NoNukes concert in Battery Park in New York in 1980... Everybody went home tired, beaten... The NRC had won... Indian Point got a free run for another 27 years... and look at it now, leaking, accident prone every day reported in the press, depressed workers, enough is enough... give us a break, your turn to go home, leave us alone.

How did all this get so bad really? I mean think about it, how did we end up with such a mess, a critical mess, waste we don't know what to do with, radiation leaks, destroyed ground water, strontium-90 fish, skyrocketing breast cancer rates... How? I mean what was to gain from all this? To all you youngins out there, who are just tuning in, who don't have any of the history about nuclear power... How does it feel to suddenly realize, be confronted, with a new environmental ill, you didn't even really know existed, because so much money has been spent in the media by these companies to keep you in the dark about the realities of the poison uranium extractions? So here's a quick, short and quick, little history lesson on the Peaceful Atom.

You see this dude, Einstein, figured out, that if you made an atom unstable enough, and uranium was a substance we knew unstable already... thanks to Marie Curie... if you banged it hard enough, in this case with lots and lots of targeted dyno-mite inside a circular cannister, well... oops, a chain reaction happens, and whopper kazzoo... bit freakin' bang you get... so they kept it all under wraps, some big fat secret... even though one of the physicists on the team, another dude named Oppenheimer, wasn't so cool with that at all, couldn't keep his mouth shut, so even though he was the best of the bunch, they kicked him out the Manhattan Project, this secret cabal of scientists the military jumbled together to make this super bomb idea into a gonzo weapon, to beat the Nazis!

It was up to Truman, U.S. President at the time, who even though he had intel told him wait a few more weeks, we got Japan beat, decided to drop Fat Man & Little Boy anyway, one after the other, from this cool bomber called The Enola Gay. And pow, the secret was out, the cat was out of the bag... everybody knew you could take just a few enriched atoms, and kaboom, explosion like you never seen before... So it made people very nervous, but also very curious... what if you could harnest that power for good? So the Peaceful Atom was born. Ah, but you see, there was a catch, the military was in charge, and used the opportunity as a pretext to keep their weapons programs funded, cause face it, can't part these boys from their toys now, know how they cry.

So they geared up this big PR campaign, atoms were everywhere in the 50's, part of the lore of the day, Tiki Kulture and furniture, warm little talking atom logos everywhere, on every cap, every t-shirt... in burger joints... The Jetsons... and Astro Boy. But the story not being told, is that after the second world war, we also brought back all the German scientists, and the German spies, called SS and Gestapo, to join the ranks of our own intelligence services, the OSS, to keep the Russians at bay, because we were convinced they were going to invade the rest of Europe, and wouldn't stop at Berlin. So we built a wall, to keep them in, and keep us out, or keep us in and keep them out, I'm still not sure how that worked out.

Anyway... backtrack... We didn't want anymore energy secrets to get out... what if the other side got them, or worse, what if a way of making electricity could suddenly be so easy, that all the people making money selling electrons would be out of a job... wow, what would happen to the economy? So, Truman, and a bunch of others, they did two things. First they consolidated U.S. and German intelligence, with a little help from the Vatican Secret Police, who had helped smuggle all these good Germans into West Palm Beach airport... via Project Paperclip. They turned the OSS into the CIA, did that in 1947, at the same time they signed into law the Atomic Energy Act (1946) and the National Security Act (1947), which for all intent and purposes automatically classified any energy conversion innovation on the planet! Presto, one stroke of the pen... and every scientist and engineer working on energy science projects, was subject to CIA oversight, and it's been like that... ever since.

Now, what's the big deal, right, we got iPods, and TVs... and toasters... so what's the big freakin' deal? Well folks, and this is where it gets complicated... The way we make electricity today, except for new sources like solar and wind, well folks, it's polluting as hell, and we're choking on our own spew. I've been around, people tell me I shouldn't say I'm old, but face it... I've kicked around a bit... and I've done my fair share of energy studies... Some even called me a child prodigy before the age of 5... more I think because of who my grandfather was, who Tim Leary called the Godfather of the new consciousness movement, maybe a little wishful thinking on their part, than any real performance on mine I suspect... but it made me curious, what if I was that smart... what could I do, what could I create, what could I invent, what could I build... But we'll leave that for another day.

There's a car out there called the Tesla Roadster. They called it that because there's a whole cult of suppressed energy technology around Nikola Telsa, the man who invented alternative current, and was rumored to have built a car than ran on ambient electricity in the air. We've mentioned it here a few times, it's been in the news quite a bit... Leo DiCaprio will be driving one up to the red carpet at the Oscars... They say 330 celebrities in LA have already bought the car, on a waiting list. They are custom made, with 6000 little li-ion batteries from China... now ain't that nice, that MIT won't allow the licensing of their solid state li-ion protocol to be mass produced in America, so we can have big packs instead of this ridiculous charade, where we have to string 6000 pen light batteries like Christmas tree lights!

That's what I mean, that's what I'm talking about. BECAUSE of the National Secrecy Act of 1947, any really good energy conversion technology is kept under wraps, as a military ace in the hole, in case we go to war, get this, WITH China, who we are buying all the things we should be making here, with our own hands, since they are our own inventions!!! Am I missing something here? Ah, but that's the game... all during World War 2, all the weapons dealers and their families were partying in Switzerland, neutral zone, intermarrying each other, while the Rockefellers were selling petroleum to the Nazis through a secret pipeline in Sweden... Trading With The Enemy... this immediately after we bombed Germany's synthfuel (from coal) industry into oblivion... hmmm...

The U.S. military after World War 2, and the S.H.A.P.E. became this huge machine, it needed a reason to survive, to perpetuate, to breed... Today, it's a trillion dollar industry every year in this county, the largest employer, owns more property than the Catholic Church... Well... it is the Catholic Church, forgot about that... and here we are... wanting to shut down a nuclear power plant, few miles North of Metropolis, and we can't get it done, because the NRC is just a front for the DoE, and the DoE is just a front for the DoD... and they're all joined at the hip like this football team, making darn sure we don't get to look under the hood, to really see what's been going on behind the velvet curtain all these years... all these wasted billions and billions, all these secret propulsion programs some now say, to the tune of hundreds of whistleblowers, coming out of secret weapons programs, who tell us we have all the solutions to global warming, our secret energy programs are 40, 50 years ahead of the curve from the civilian sector... hey, maybe that's why Robert Kennedy Jr. is prive to be keynote speaker at technology transfer conferences. Maybe the Powers That Be realize now, they just can't keep sitting on all these solutions... that the earth is burning, melting, and we need them.

So what do we do? Well... we have not been wasting our time, we do have organizations, organizations that help people get in touch with people, to uncover secrets, confront the status quo with the truth of the situation. I will name them. They are the Disclosure Project and Arcos Cielos... and through them you will meet hundreds of scientists and engineers coming out from behind the velvet curtain not afraid to speak out, to tell you, the NRC is full of it... that smashing atoms together to boil water is the most ridiculous thing you ever heard, stone age stuff compared to what they are toying with now, and that's all it is folks, just toys, big fat, costly toys. So no wonder our women are upset, and don't want to talk to men anymore, look at the mess we made. Can't find a single straight girl in Minneapolis anymore... they all hate us... they hate us for what we've done to the earth... and I for one, do not blame them.
So it's time to stop. It's time to make it all alright. It's time to rip the veil of secrecy, the way Senator Moynihan wanted us to do, a couple of years before his death. It's important you know, it really is, the fate of the planet and the species depends on it... so that maybe this time next year, it won't just be Leo behind the wheel of a Tesla... but all of us... share these new found energy technologies with Asia and Africa so they don't make the same mistakes we made, so they can start with their best green foot forward.
If you think this is science fiction, think again, we're thousands strong now, clamoring the same message, we're all over the web, MySpace, list servs, ready to assemble at a moment's notice... but we've seen what happens when we stick our neck out, inventors murdered, labs trashed, libraries destroyed... So not anymore folks, not this time... This time we quietly come with pressure to bear, gentle purrrsuasion, we are sitting here, looking, making sure that this time, Indian Point doesn't get a rubber stamp relicensing, shuts down tomorrow if we could, so we can take this country, this planet, into a new energy direction, which is already happening, as Native Americans all over the land are investing their casino earnings into hundreds of wind farms on their reservations... for they will be providing America power in the future...

Indian Point is Cracking Up!

Cracked fuel rod found at Indian Point 2
By GREG CLARY

THE JOURNAL NEWS
BUCHANAN - Workers at Indian Point 2 discovered a cracked nuclear fuel rod in the reactor's spent-fuel pool yesterday morning, causing them to halt a routine inspection until they could determine the extent of the damage and devise a plan to safely move and store the broken pieces.
The action did not require the shutdown of the nuclear reactor, and plant officials and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said there was no danger tothe public.
The broken 12-foot-long rod remained underwater in the 400,000-gallon storage tank, which is used to shield workers from exposure to radiation.
"It's something that happens infrequently, but it's not rare for the industry," said Larry Gottlieb, the director of communications for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point. "The vendor said it happens about 10 percent of the time.
"Workers had identified the rod as "imperfect" and had placed it in a special device designed to hold the rod in place while a high-resolution camera scanned it for flaws.
Gottlieb said the half-inch pellets of enhanced uranium didn't fall out of the broken pieces onto the floor of the 40-foot-deep tank, because they expand slightly when they're exposed to water.
"They didn't remove the rod from the pool," Gottlieb said. "And we tested the air and found there were no radiological impacts. The (radiation) dose rates were all normal."
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan confirmed that there was no release of radiation and said resident inspectors from the agency were monitoring the work.
About 200 rods are housed in a 15-foot assembly that is used in the nuclear reactor until all of its 240 pellets are spent.
Each pellet, about the thickness of a fingertip, produces as much energy as120 gallons of oil. Normally the assembly is stored standing up in racks on the floor of the spent-fuel pool.
Gottlieb said the rod that broke was placed in the sleeve of a camera device and would remain there. The sleeve will be moved to a separate part of the pool and inserted in the racks that normally hold the assemblies, so there would be no need to takeit out again and possibly sustain more breakage.
The pellets themselves are made of special ceramic material that canwithstand very high temperatures; NRC and company officials said there wasno leakage of uranium into the pool itself.
Reach Greg Clary at 914-696-8566 or gclary@lohud.com
[[ Thanks Greg for the amazing IP reporting these last few weeks... Stay safe... Remember they ran Silkwood off the road. RemyC ]]

Friday, February 23, 2007

In Murder/Suicide, Lessard of Indian Point Goes Nuclear...Is Kirk Sorensen Following Suit?

First Green Nuclear Butterfly got attacked by an industry hack here locally (as in a Pro-Nuke Insider) by a nimrod who puts out a podcast titled, "This Week In Nuclear". No problem, if you are on the side of right, you get used to attacks from the peanut gallery.

Next was the anal retentive chimp from Maryland who has his OWN COMPANY...something like ROD ADAM's...a boring looking guy who seems to have spent his life on his knees, or in the missionary position depending on which piece of his diatribe you find yourself reading. This guy is serious plugged into the nuclear industry, gets QUOTED in NEI's propaganda blog on a regular basis for his position on nuclear waste. He's all liquored up about REPROCESSING, ready to witness to any one and everyone that there is no nuclear waste, only future use resources that can safely be stored ONSITE at aging reactors until hell freezes over. Pity some of this science guys did not get LAID more in high school.

Now it seems Green Nuclear Butterfly has attracted the wraith of one Kirk Sorensen. Do some Google, and it becomes clear this guy has a Thorium Axe to grind, and has decided we are RAINING ON HIS PARADE. Where do the likes of Entergy find these fruit loops at? We stopped by his blog, and he seems to be preaching about some cross pollinated interbreeding thorium/bubble gum reactor that creates Sweet Tarts as a waste stream...get off the lime green KoolAid there JUNIOR.

Our theory....with readers in over 30 countries, and some of the BIGGIES in the Pro Nuke Propaganda Machine attacking us, we must be doing something right...so please Kirk, Rod and all the others...keep those postcards coming in.

Fuel Rods CRACKING UP, Reactor Core NEXT?

I know I cannot pronounce the word, but show me where the RED LAUNCH BUTTON IS!
First it was an employee cracking up in a stranger than life murder/suicide plot unfolded over the weekend with a HIGH RANKING employee at Entergy's Indian Point Nuclear Reactors. Now it seems that Indian Point's leaking spent fuel pools have even BIGGER PROBLEMS as employees located a brittling, aging fuel rod that had splintered apart. Calls to Indian Point's public relations chimp, Larry Gottlieb went unanswered, and our dear Mr Sheets was/is on vacation, so we elevated our inquiry to NRC's Region 1.
We spoke with Diane in the Public Affairs office at (610 337 5330), and it was clear from the very start that she was UNCOMFORTABLE discussing fractured, breaking spent fuel rods, and the incident at Indian Point. We got an elaborate, round about no comment that provided some insights. First, Entergy/Indian Point has 45 days to submit an event report! Such a long period of time is allowed in the hopes the public will have forgotten about the event by the time they divulge WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, and they can sweep it under the carpet.
As Diane and I did our dance, me trying to nail her down, her trying to give up nothing, some things became clear, most important of them, that the incident today at Indian Point is not one of and isolated nature. Seems that spent fuel rods have been BREAKING APART at other nuclear reactor storage pools around America. Seems that the NRC has a committee studying this very issue, which led me to ask what I thought a fair question..."if there is a committee studying this very issue Diane, could I get a list of the incidents that have occurred?" I got a TOO QUICK..."There is NO LIST, WE DO NOT KEEP LISTS" answer. I quipped back to her, "Then how is a committee studying this very issue if you do not keep lists?" She was NOT HAPPY.
I fenced with Diane a bit longer, pointing out that old brittle spent fuel rods breaking apart could bring into serious questions the structural stability and safety of the entire dense packed racking system, but she of course WAS NOT WANTING TO HEAR IT, so I got off the phone with her and called up the NRC Chairman's office to see if they would be more forthcoming...seems they are not overly concerned with press deadlines....especially those of a blogger they are not overly fond of. The Chairman's assistant has promised to have someone GET BACK TO ME early next week...early being before next Wednesday.
On a sidebar issue...seems that Congressman John Hall will make an appearance at next Friday's Indian Point summit, but needs to head out by 3:15 PM to be in New York City for an evening party...in short, he'll be there for the industry leaders, but is skipping out on the all important CITIZENS portion of the event to be held at 6:30 PM. The Green Nuclear Butterfly is attending this Indian Point summit, and have requested interview time with John Hall...we will see what happens.
Indian Point: Cracked fuel rod discovered; no danger to public

By GREG CLARY
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: February 23, 2007)
BUCHANAN
- Indian Point workers (Think murder/suicide.) discovered a cracked fuel rod in the spent fuel pool of Indian Point 2 this morning, causing them to stop a routine inspection so they could determine the extent of the damage and what repairs are needed. Details of how serious this is will not be known for around 45 days.

The action did not necessitate the shutdown of the nuclear power plant.

A spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point, said there was no rise in radiological dose levels around the rod and no danger to the public.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission resident inspectors are monitoring the pool and the repair. The agency also said there was no evidence of a radiological release in the spent fuel pool area.

The broken pieces stayed underwater, which is how the old fuel is normally shielded from workers.

Katharine Hamnett to the Rescue! Welcome Home Katharine! ;o)

WORLDWIDE NUCLEAR BAN NOW
www.katharinehamnett.com
I have been campaigning on many environmental issues for the last 20 years, including for a worldwide nuclear ban. Suddenly, the British Government, wants to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, despite advice against doing so for economic and environmental reasons. The results of this would affect Britain for the next million years. Here is an explanation of why this is not advisable and what to do if you want to stop it.

WHY NO TO NUCLEAR?
One aim of the Government´s 2003 Energy White Paper was:

"To put ourselves on a path to cut the UK´s CO2 emissions by some 60% by about 2050, with real progress by 2020". It also made clear that whole the issue of nuclear waste and the inherent inability of nuclear power to compete in a liberalised electricity market without public subsidy remained unresolved, nuclear power would stay in the wilderness.

Despite this, the Government in 2006 has launched a new energy review, which plans a large increase in British nuclear power stations.

So what has happened since 2003 to make the Government announce a new energy review and reopen the door to new nuclear power stations? (Greenpeace)

Could it be because the government for over a year has been secretly working with the Americans on a replacement for Trident nuclear warheads? This is in material breach of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty according to Matrix Chambers, the law firm for which Cherie Blair works. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is inextricably linked to nuclear power by a shared need for enriched uranium, and through the generation of plutonium as a by-product of spent nuclear fuel. The two industries have been linked since the very beginning and a nuclear weapons free world requires a non-nuclear energy policy. (CND)

A majority of people in Britain would accept new nuclear power stations if they helped fight climate change, a poll suggests. But it doesn´t. (Some 54% said they would accept new stations being built for this reason, the Mori survey of 1,500 people for the University of East Anglia found).(BBC 17/1/06)

Why nuclear energy does not help fight climate change

Doubling nuclear power in the UK would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% (CND)

Nuclear power is not carbon emission free. The whole nuclear cycle from uranium mining onwards produces more greenhouse gases than most renewable energy sources with up to 50% more emissions than wind power. Doubling nuclear power in the UK would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% because the electricity sector accounts for a quarter to a third of all carbon emissions (transport and industry account for most of the rest). (CND)

Nuclear power is dirty and dangerous

A major study conducted by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) into the dangers of low-energy, low-dose ionizing radiation concluded that there appears to be no safe radiation exposure level.

Meanwhile, Sellafield nuclear power station is discharging 2 million gallons of radioactive waste water into the Irish sea every day.

Downs Syndrome births amongst ex-pupils from a school in Dundalk, on the Irish sea, were found to be 89 times higher than the national average.

Incidences of leukaemia are higher than normal near nuclear power stations and atomic research establishments.

No safe solution has been found for dealing with the problem of nuclear waste

Radioactive waste from nuclear power stations remains dangerous for thousands of years. Britain has 2.3 million cubic metres of nuclear waste stored around the country (click here to see the sites http://www.corwm.org.uk/content-659). It will cost £85 billion to clear up. THORP, BNFL´s re-processing plant at Sellafield has been unable to vitrify (safely dispose of) the amount of nuclear waste it was designed to deal with, and is due to close in 2010. BNFL posted losses of £1 billion for the year ending 2003.

Nuclear energy does not make economic sense
It cannot exist without huge public subsidy

The £56 billion of taxpayers' money being used to fund the clean up of the UK´s current nuclear sites (run by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority), could instead buy 50 GW of installed wind capacity, equivalent to 20% of the UK´s electricity needs. (Greenpeace)

British Energy, the UK´s only private nuclear operator, avoided bankruptcy in 2003 via a multimillion pound Government loan and a public bailout package worth £4bn.

In March 2006, the Sustainable Development Commission, the government´s advisory body on sustainable energy development, published a new report that concluded that investing in nuclear power was not the answer to climate change or energy supply.

Read the report: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/060306.html

The Government has failed to support its commitments to renewable energy and energy efficiency requirements.

The Government´s main support mechanism for renewable energy, The Renewables Obligation, has failed to offer any significant support to less developed renewable generation technologies, particularly smaller scale renewable energy sources. (Greenpeace)

On wave and tidal energy, the Government pledged £50 million for research and development, but so far nothing has been done to encourage these potentially crucial technologies into the market place. (Greenpeace)

A report by accountants Ernst & Young of 7/2/06 said that the UK was falling behind in its attempt to meet its renewables target. (The Guardian website 8/2/06)

As for alternatives to nuclear power, "The UK has Europe's best wind, wave and tidal resources yet it continues to miss out on its economic potential," said Jonathan Johns, head of renewable energy at Ernst & Young. (The Guardian website 8/2/06)

The current Government support programme for solar energy is to be wound down six years early, despite attracting major private sector investment in solar PV manufacturing.

The program spent just £31million of the £150million that was committed in 2002.

In the same week that Blair urged China and India to invest more in zero and low carbon technologies, he cut the UK´s Low Carbon Buildings Program support for micro-renewables from an average of £11.25 million to £9.5 million per annum.

The UK has a mere 7.8 MW of installed solar PV capacity compared to Germany´s 794 MW and the Netherlands 48 MW. (Greenpeace)

Nuclear power is not sustainable

There are only 50 years´ worth left of high-grade uranium ores. If the whole world were to run on nuclear, there is only enough uranium left to power it for 12 years.

Nuclear power is accident-prone

Nuclear power is prone to accidents due to human error and carelessness, and there have been several major accidents. In the last 2 years alone there have been two major radioactive leaks in the UK. One major leak at THORP, Sellafield remained undiscovered for 8 months and has been classified as a level 3 nuclear incident (the 1986 Chernobyl disaster listed as a level 7 incident, and the 1979 Three Mile island incident as a level 5) (INES).

What to do about it
Act now

The government is in the process of an energy review whereby it will decide whether to invest in a future of nuclear power as a major source of energy in the UK. This review is due for completion in summer 2006. You have the opportunity to have your say as an individual or an organisation by 14th April by going to: http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/review

Tell them you think nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unnecessary. Tell them you want the Government to stick to the commitments in the 2003 White Paper, and put in place the policy and regulatory framework that will enable renewable energy and energy efficiency to deliver the deep emissions cuts needed.

They need to restore the promised funding for alternatives and give tax breaks to individuals and organisations who cut their carbon emissions and use sustainable energy.

We need the government to publish a Decentralised Energy White Paper, setting out all the necessary steps for a coherent and rapid transition to a sustainable and decentralised system.

Write to Tony Blair and Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, or Ian McCartney, chairman of the Labour party telling them the same thing, and saying that you won´t vote Labour at the next election if they don´t do this.

Contact Tony Blair by visiting http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page821.asp or writing to;

Rt Hon Tony Blair, Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1 2AA

Contact Malcolm Wicks by emailing wicksm@parliament.uk, or writing to;

Malcolm Wicks MP
84 High Street
Thornton Heath
Surrey
CR7 8LF

Contact Ian McCartney by emailing info@new.labour.org.uk marking it to the attention of Ian McCartney, or writing to;

Ian McCartney
Labour Party
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H OEU

You could also write to your local MP, for whom contact details can be found at www.locata.co.uk/commons

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Obama in pocket of EXELON :: 4th Largest donor to his campaign!!!

From:
Mary Olson
nirs@main.nc.us

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7338511

is a Scott Simon piece on Weekend Edition --

Ken Silverstein is interviewed about Obama's funding -- including EXELON (biggest nuke outfit in the USA) is the 4th largest donor -- and has been an Obama backer for a long time...

Paraphrasing Silverstein: "in the case of Exelon...Obama voted against an amendment that would have killed loan guarentees to for nuclear construction...and Obama says we should not take nuclear off the table..."

Can't make it to the top without nukes...

Curse The French!

Well, folks, looks like we're all going to the ball... March 2nd... This Town Hall meeting Rock The Reactors had been advocating ever since John Hall has been elected to office is about to take place... I want to apologize to Manna Jo Greene for thinking she'd been flaking out on me since I ruined her sail up the Hudson on the Clearwater Sloop after the Coast Guard boarded the ship because their intelligence told them some organization wanted to rock the reactors. If that's "intelligence"... If the Coast Guard couldn't even Google Rock The Reactors to discover it was just a website with a muse for a beacon, then folks, we're in a lot more trouble than we bargained for, because that day, I realized that indeed, we're not safe on the Hudson.

But face it Manna Jo, it was raining cats and dogs, you were over an hour late, we were soaked, nobody wanted to take a sail that day anyway... and you didn't give me the time of day... you wouldn't return my calls, you wouldn't talk to me... You had me do this all around you, because you wouldn't share, you thought I was just some crazy Frenchman... Well I am, oh... yeah... But look where I am!

And look at you? Working diligently, in absolute secret from OUR own intelligence services, running with it, making your back room deals with your connections, probably going around saying, make sure Remy and all his crazy friends don't hear about this... well... you can't hide a press release... you want people in the room don't you? So can't we just bury the hatchet, can't your organization, and our organization, now the largest coalition of anti-nuclear groups in the nation since the Clamshell Alliance just work together to finish the job? Did you really think you could do this all alone... by yourself, just with your Westchester country club friends? When we're about to shut ALL of nuclear industry down?

Come on Manna Jo, this is the NRC we're talking about... Which is tied in with DoE... and DoD... this goes all the way back to the National Secrecy Act of 1947... You think they're going to give up their greed, their ignorance, their INSANITY because a few local well intentioned Congressmen sign a bill to go take a peek inside? You want to know how bad it is? It's so bad plant workers are now committing mass murder-suicide, that's how bad. Doesn't that tell you something?

OK, it's true, we're tabloid journalism at best, we rattle the cages, we make noise, we're like children. But guess what? Our blog traffic is through the roof, which is better than I can say for IPSEC's old cranky website not been updated since cobwebs took over... It's better than Riverkeeper, where poor Lisa, who I love, seems to be all alone in her corner, with Robert Jr. nowhere to be seen or heard on this issue... attending military technology transfer conferences... what the heck is he doing? Planning his return on a white horse?

Or Clearwater, Manna Jo, what happened to Clearwater, that Pete Seeger himself would want to distance himself from it... all his life has he been wanting to shut down this plant, so why don't we give it to him as a going away present, so he can be there when our muse flips the switch? I have this planned down to the micro second Manna Jo... Don't you know? Don't you know? Entergy isn't getting away this time...

So I just wanted to say thank you for working so hard, albeit pushing Rock The Reactors aside, pushing Green Nuclear Butterfly aside, and lining up such an illustrious bunch of people... with the monies all your donations allocate you... but now, let's make it count OK? Not like IPSEC then charging $60 for the DVD of Helen Caldicott's talk in White Plains so NOBODY can afford hearing it. Ask Mark Jacobs how many PRO-nuclear F*** he's got on his board... and the conflict of interest NIMBY hypocrites has, keeps sabotaging chances of IP shut down!!!
2012 their license is up. Are we going to wait for the end of the Mayan calendar, massive Global paranoia on the scale of Y2K, to shut the place down? Clean it up...? Let it be so the good people of Rockland county can breathe again? So ALL of Manhattan and Fairfield County can know their only fear is a meteor... or that if, or rather when, the ice caps melt, nukes riverside won't contaminate all bodies of water worldwide?

Let's take a hint folks... Let's not Lessard and his extended family's passing count for nothing... This man was troubled... We need to know why he went bezerk... What was his job, his responsibility? Who is this Lessard family which seems to have so many of their members scattered and employed throughout the nuclear industry? Will Congressman John Hall open an investigation into this incident, this gruesome murder? This is what the people want... So let's give it to them.

Entergy knows Indian Point is a sitting duck. I've heard from industry people themselves who told me they don't think they'll be able to hang on to this one, that the coalition building up to shut it down was going to be too great. They saw it coming months ago... I had one letter from an Entergy supporter who threatened to leave NY state in disgust because he knew the bloody commie liberals would succeed in destroying its local economy by shutting down Indian Point. Well that ain't gonna happen folks, because we are, as we speak, working with UBS and HSBC to bring alternative energy investment into Rockland County.

It's done, we've already won, put that in your pipe and smoke it, manifest it. It's fait accompli. Scuze my French. This has been in the works for so long... so long... you can't imagine. Since 1980 we've wanted to shut down this plant, prove to the world that the soft energy path was the direction home for humanity. It had to come down to the wire somewhere, so why not Indian Point, why not just a few miles North from the most amazing city in the world? A new fresh start... N'est-ce pas Mr. Wasserman?

So let's it be done and over with shall we? Let's just walk over to the Indian Point office, and quietly, calmly, ask them to flip the switch. Give it up, just go home, back to your families. A coworker of yours, who used to do under welding at the plant, has it all ready for you, come work with us in the residential solar industry, courtesy of the CT Technology Council.
Resistance is futile, and I'm tired of all this agony... I got better things to do in my life than slay dragons for maidens who don't want to talk to me... I have a techno circus to build. Just pack it up will you? Shut out the lights, go home, clean up the place... give John Hall his alternative energy center on the old plant grounds... Let's keep saving and cleaning up the Hudson... let's clean up this mess before it's too late, before all the women in a 50 miles radius die of breast cancer... before this planet awash in a radioactive nightmare... all so fat cats at Entergy can keep getting rich on electrons we can make you for free!

Ain't it a beautiful morning?

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Did Entergy KILL A Family? Lessard Murder Suicide Raises UGLY QUESTIONS

This Woman Was Killed By Her Husband, Steven Lessard...Could Entergy Have PREVENTED IT?
Imagine the shock and horror in quaint Peekskill Lake as the residents learned that a very well known and respected employee of Entergy's Indian Point Nuclear Plants in Buchanan, New York had killed his wife and daughter before taking his own life...more importantly, what signs did Entergy miss on February 8th, 2007 that could have saved the lives of these innocent victims of Steven Lessard's great agnst and anger? We might never known the full hideous truth behind this local murder/suicide, but it is obvious that the NRC needs to open up a full fledged investigation into the issues surrounding the Indian Point/Lessard MURDERS!

Perhaps the stress of working within the confines of Entergy's failing Indian Point Reactors was too much for the normally quiet 51-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate, and he just SNAPPED...or perhaps something far more SINISTER was/is at play? His behavior on February 8th, 2007 was ODD ENOUGH to capture the attention of his fellow employee, caustic enough for them to bring his behavior to the attention of his immediate superiors...whatever occurred, Entergy kept it SECRET, hid the horrid truth of his actions from authorities who might have been able to save Steven Lessard's life. Perhaps if Entergy had not been so secretive about Indian Point and it's incestuous family of workers, authorities could have intervened, could have saved the innocent lives of Steven's wife and daughter!

We have all heard the recent reports of the leaked strontium 90, and tritium from the Indian Point plant, have heard about the leaking spent fuel pools...what if what we have here is NOT a murder/suicide? What if Steven Lessard was about to become a major whistle blower, and someone needed him silenced, like the lambs? What if there was some kind of a RELEASE at the site that affected Mr. Lessard? So many questions that the public NEEDS answers to, yet will we come up against a wall of silence, will Entergy close ranks and keep the events surrounding February 8th forever silent and hidden from public review?

MURDER-SUICIDE: Father was placed on leave for irrational behavior
By Greg Clary
The Journal News
(Original Publication: February 20, 2007)

http://www.nynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070220/UPDATE/702200410

BUCHANAN - Steven Lessard, the killer in the Putnam murder-suicide case, first showed some irrational behavior at his Indian Point job on Feb. 8, when co-workers noticed that he seemed to be unusually upset about his car getting a flat tire.

The normally quiet 51-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate didn't routinely generate much notice among his co-workers, said a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates the plant.

But that day, he was visibly upset about what he had to do to get his car back on the road, and it triggered the other members of his 12-employee project management group to notify their supervisor, Michael Rutkoske.

"We're trained and required to do that," said Entergy spokesman Jim Steets. "It was a relatively minor personal issue, so after talking to his supervisor, the two of them went up to speak to the fitness for duty coordinator."

Sharon Quinn, a registered nurse, spent 90 minutes with Lessard and Rutkoske and they all agreed that Lessard should go home until he felt better. Steets said he continued to be paid during his time off.

"She offered him help through our employee assistance program, but he declined," Steets said. "He said he was seeing a doctor. She even asked him if he were comfortable with that doctor and he said he was."

Lessard was due today to speak to Entergy officials about returning to work, a day after authorities discovered that he had strangled his wife, Kathy Lessard, 48, and their 14-year-old daughter Linda, and then killed himself in their family home in Putnam Valley.

Indian Point officials said Lessard had been transferred at his own request from an engineering job at Indian Point 2 to a project management position that served the entire nuclear site.

At the time of his leave, he was working on a piping upgrade to serve Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3. He did not operate any equipment or deal with any safety-related procedures, officials said.

Rutkoske said early this afternoon that Lessard was "a very dedicated worker" who had come under Rutkoske's supervision in October.

"He was relatively quiet," Rutkoske said. "Very much interested in following proper processes and procedures."

When the flat tire problem upset Lessard so much, Rutkoske said he knew it had something under it that was the real cause of his agitation.

"It just meant to me that there were other things going on, if a car tire was getting him upset," the supervisor said.

Rutkoske said Lessard wasn't the kind of guy who mixed a lot with co-workers and ate his lunch alone most of the time. He said he hadn't heard anything about possible domestic troubles.

Lessard's co-workers were concerned enough about him that they took up a collection and sent him a basket of fruit while he was on medical leave. His wife even called up to thank the workers for their thoughtfulness and said he was doing better, company officials said.

"He had no performance issues, and when they asked him about lightening his load, he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to burden his co-workers," Steets said. "The feeling was that he was very hard on himself. But he was considered a 'valuable contributor,' which is a category of employee rating that the company uses."

Lessard had come to the site in 1995 as an employee of General Physics, an engineering contractor. He was given a routine psychiatric evaluation and background check at the time. The background check was updated as required in 2003, with no visible problems, Steets said. He had been hired full time by Con Edison in 2001, right before the plants were sold to Entergy.

"The background check can often turn up outside stresses, such as financial," he said. "But none showed up."

Steets said the company would review all of Lessard's work, "given what's occurred," but didn't expect to find any problems. (Forget reviewing Lessard's work, how about MAKING IT PUBLIC?)

"There's no reason to think there would be anything wrong with his work," Steets said. "And he wasn't working on any critical things." (Why does Steets feel compelled here to assure us that Lessard was not working on ANYTHING critical?)

Manna Jo Comes Out Slugging!

Don Quixote and the Nuclear Power Plant ~ WAYNE WILDCAT

MEDIA ALERT
for
Friday March 2, 2007

Contact:

Stephen Kent:
845-758-0097 cell 914-589-5988
skent@kentcom.com

Steve Densmore:
845-234-8713
stevied423@hotmail.com

Scott Cullen:
631-428-0034
scullen@gracelinks.org

Manna Jo Greene:
845-454-7673 x 113 cell 845-807-1270
mannajo@clearwater.org

Technical Briefing & Roundtable for Members of Congress and the Public on Radioactive Leaks from the Indian Point Nuclear Plant.
WHAT?
A free, public, technical briefing and town meeting with nationally known experts in relevant fields including hydrology, geology, public health, ecological impacts, and regulatory issues, sponsored by Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Pace Academy for the Environment and the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC).
Presentations and roundtable discussions will elucidate the best currently available information on strontium 90 and other radioactive isotopes from the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan, New York leaking into groundwater and the Hudson River. The extent of the leaks, first identified in Sept. 2005 as "small amount of slightly radioactive water" of "less than a pint a day", has been closely monitored. More than a year later this estimate was revised to a more substantial "Central Park Reservoir"-size leak, which exceeds drinking water standards for strontium-90. Strontium-90 has also recently been found in Hudson River fish.
Members of New York's Congressional delegation are invited and scheduled to attend, along with their staffs, representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, elected officials from eleven surrounding counties, relevant New York state agencies, and concerned citizens. This month members of New York's congressional delegation reintroduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require an Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) at the Indian Point nuclear power plant, including in-depth review of Indian Point's safety and mechanical systems, spent fuel pools, and radiological emergency evacuation plans.
WHO?
Presenters at the briefing will include:
* On the current status of the leaks -- Dr. Greg Jaczko, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner (invited) and Paul Gunter, Nuclear Information and Resource Service
* On hydrogeology of leaks -- Lynn Sykes, Lamont-Doherty seismologist (invited); Sergio Smiriglio, hydrologist (invited)
* On public health concerns -- Dr. Adela Salame-Alfie, NYS Department of Health; Arjun Makihijani, PhD, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
* On ecological impacts - Dr. Barbara Youngberg, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation; Jesse Schwartz, Oregon State University fisheries biologist
* On jurisdictional issues/federal oversight -- David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists; Phillip Musegaas, Riverkeeper
Additional roundtable panelists will include:
US Congresswoman Nita Lowey (invited); US Congressman John Hall (invited); State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky; Legislator Michael Kaplowitz; Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet; Tony Sutton, Westchester EMS (invited); Lisa Rainwater, Riverkeeper; Alan Steinberg, Regional Director, US EPA (invited); Mark Jacobs, Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition; Susan Shapiro, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and others.
Moderated by Manna Jo Greene, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.
WHERE & WHEN?
Willcox Gymnasium, Pace University, Pleasantville Campus, at the intersection of the Taconic Parkway & Rt. 117.
Friday, March 2. Technical briefing: 1:30pm - 5:00pm. Town Hall-style evening meeting: 6:30-8:30pm.
NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS:
TO RSVP, for further information or to request side interviews with presenters and panelists, call 845-758-0097.

Monday, February 19, 2007

UN's new international radiation symbol


Posted by linton on hugg.com

Rudy, Poster Boy for Entergy, Cover boy for Breast Cancer!

Rudy Giuliani, the Entergy poster boy for rubber stamp relicensing is on the cover of Women & Cancer magazine, based in Ketchum, Idaho, 80 miles East of Idaho National Labs, home of Nuclear Power 2010 and Global Nuclear Energy Partnership!?!

Freakin' hypocrite!
Hasn't he read all the research compiled by Gary Null and Gail Merrill demonstrating the undeniable reality in dramatic rise of cancer rates linked to radiation in close proximity to nuclear power plants?
We posted Gail's deposition to the CT Legislature, on the CTSOS List a few weeks ago!
Did you know that Hillary Clinton sits on the board of Cornell University's Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factor and yet, there isn't a single mention of links between radiation and breast cancer on their website. Could it be because Cornell University also trains nuclear plant engineers? In turn hired by BGA Engineering, the company which co-owns 50% of ETS Energy Store, who puts job recruitment ads in the Cornell University newspaper to hire engineers fresh out of school to do maintenance at Indian Point and Millstone?

Wake up people, this web of lies and conflicts of interest can't hold. You can't have your cake and eat it to. Either you're pro-nuclear, you live with the cancer, the disease, the atrocity, the looming possibility of a Chernobyl on the Hudson! Or you severe your links with Entergy, you join our coalition, and you put the monster down!

National Nuclear Bills Legislation to Date

Research provided
by David Bedell
dbedellgreen@hotmail.com

I did some searching on http://thomas.loc.gov, and came up with the following history of bills introduced.
I've grouped them by topic:

INDIAN POINT
OYSTER CREEK
POTASSIUM IODIDE
OTHER REGULATION

I didn't find any other bills related to specific nuclear plants, although the search went back to 1990. Maybe I missed some.
Notice some are House, some are Senate bills. Sponsor and cosponsors are listed. This is just a starting point for identifying potential cosponsors for a nationwide nuclear safety bill. I suppose the next step would be to identify all the House districts where reactors are located.
List of reactors at

-David
INDIAN POINT

110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 994 - To require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct an Independent Safety Assessment of the Indian Point Energy Center.IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 12, 2007 Mr. HALL of New York (for himself, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. ENGEL, Mrs. LOWEY, and Mr. SHAYS)

109th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2488 - To require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct an independent safety assessment of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 3, 2006 Mrs. CLINTON

OYSTER CREEK

109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 966 - To require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider certain criteria in relicensing nuclear facilities, and to provide for an independent assessment of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station by the National Academy of Sciences prior to any relicensing of that facility.IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 17, 2005 Mr. SAXTON

109th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1381 - To require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider certain criteria in relicensing nuclear facilities, and to provide for an independent assessment of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station by the National Academy of Sciences before any relicensing of that facility. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 12, 2005 Mr. CORZINE
POTASSIUM IODIDE

109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1291 - To require the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense, and Homeland Security to carry out activities toward bringing to market effective medical countermeasures to radiation from a nuclear or radiological attack.IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 15, 2005 Mr. ISSA (for himself, Mrs. DAVIS of California, and Mr. SESSIONS)
108th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5000 - To require the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense, and Homeland Security to carry out activities toward bringing to market effective medical countermeasures to radiation from a nuclear or radiological attack.IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESJuly 22, 2004Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. ISSA)

107th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 783 - To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to direct the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for stockpiling potassium iodide tablets in areas within a 50-mile radius of a nuclear power plant. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 28, 2001 Mr. ENGLISH

107th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 3279 - To require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure that sufficient stockpiles of potassium iodide tablets have been established near nuclear power plants and that appropriate plans for their utilization exist. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 13, 2001 Mr. MARKEY
107th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 3510 - To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide for the stockpiling of potassium iodide tablets in the United States in areas within a 50-mile radius of the homeport of a naval vessel operated by nuclear power. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES December 18, 2001 Mr. FILNER

OTHER REGULATION

109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 755 - To provide for the external regulation of nuclear safety and occupational safety and health responsibilities at any nonmilitary energy laboratory owned or operated by the Department of Energy. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 10, 2005 Mr. COSTELLO (for himself, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. EHLERS, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. WOOLSEY, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. WU, and Mr. MCNULTY)

106th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 3907 - To provide for the external regulation of nuclear safety and occupational safety and health at Department of Energy facilities.IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMarch 14, 2000Mr. BLILEY (for himself, Mr. BARTON of Texas, Mr. UPTON, Mr. BURR of North Carolina; Mr. SENSENBRENNER, and Mr. CALVERT)
103d CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2254 - To amend the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to establish an Independent Nuclear Safety Board, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESJUNE 30 (legislative day, JUNE 7), 1994 Mr. BIDEN

108th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1376 - To include the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as employers for the purposes of whistleblower protection.IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESJuly 8, 2003 Mr. REID (for himself and Mr. ENSIGN)
107th CONGRESS 1st Session H. CON. RES. 267 - Expressing the sense of the Congress concerning the security of nuclear facilities in the United States. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESNovember 13, 2001 Mr. GEKAS (for himself, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mr. PITTS, and Mr. PLATTS)

105th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 960 - To amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to authorize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to direct that a portion of any civil penalty assessed be used to assist local communities. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 25, 1997 Mr. DODD (for himself and Mr. LIEBERMAN)

102d CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 645 - To amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to authorize the States to regulate the disposal of low-level radioactive waste for which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not require disposal in a licensed facility. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 24, 1991 Mr. MILLER of California (for himself, Mr. SLATTERY, Mr. PAYNE of Virginia, Mr. MCCLOSKEY, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mr. OWENS of Utah, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. NEAL of North Carolina, Mr. MOODY, Mr. SABO, Mr. NOWAK, Mr. BRYANT, Mrs. SCHROEDER, Mr. YATES, Mr. STOKES, Mr. PENNY, Mr. KLECZKA, Mr. STARK, Mr. ATKINS, Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Mr. MACHTLEY, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. JONTZ, Mr. CONTE, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. HOCHBRUECKNER, Mr. KOSTMAYER, Mr. POSHARD, Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota, Mr. ROE, Mr. MAVROULES, Mr. RICHARDSON, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. WEISS, Mr. GIBBONS, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr. HOUGHTON, Mr. SCHEUER, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. WALSH, Mrs. UNSOELD, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr. WHEAT, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. MRAZEK, Mr. VENTO, Mr. DWYER of New Jersey, Mr. BUSTAMANTE, Mr. FASCELL, Mr. DELLUMS, and Mr. JONES of Georgia

103d CONGRESS 2d Session S. 1165 [Report No. 103-331] - To provide for judicial review of Nuclear Regulatory Commission decisions on petitions for enforcement actions, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 25 (legislative day, JUNE 22), 1993 Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself and Mr. BAUCUS)

109th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5761 - To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to improve the material control and accounting and data management systems used by civilian nuclear power reactors to better account for spent nuclear fuel and reduce the risks associated with the handling of those materials. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 11, 2006 Mr. SANDERS

109th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3634 - To amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to improve the material control and accounting and data management systems used by civilian nuclear power reactors to better account for spent nuclear fuel and reduce the risks associated with the handling of those materials. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 11, 2006 Mr. JEFFORDS (for himself and Mr. LEAHY)

101st CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 3527 - To establish within the Department of Energy an Office for Environment, Safety , and Health. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 25, 1989 Mr. SCHEUER (for himself, Mr. TANNER, Mr. HOCHBRUECKNER, and Mr. PALLONE)

Nuclear Power-Why it is Dangerous, Costly and Unnecessary

by Hattie Nestel
2-07

The colossal failure of nuclear power became apparent to most of the world more than 30 years ago. By the end of the seventies it was well known that the economics, safety and reliability issues associated with nuclear power had failed the test. By 1992 the building of 121 reactors had been cancelled. The last reactor was ordered over 30 years ago and took 23 years to complete."The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale," reported Forbes magazine in 1985. "The utility industry has already invested $125 billion in nuclear power, with an additional $140 billion to come before the decade is out, and only the blind or the biased, can now think that most of the money was well spent."
Despite being a dangerous, financial disaster the industry found opportunity to create a nuclear renaissance predicated on the erroneous premise that nuclear power will prevent global warming. The government and nuclear corporations commandeer hundreds of millions of dollars to sell us on the idea that nuclear power will combat global warming. Today we see Entergy¹s ads throughout Vermont saying,"Green-not Greenhouse" and Entergy hiring PR spokespersons like Patrick Moore to twist the facts and try to convince us that nuclear energy is clean, reliable, and sustainable.
It is simply not true. The entire nuclear fuel chain beginning with mining uranium, transporting and processing the fuel, construction and storing wastes are heavily fossil fuel dependent. However, the most important issue remains that nuclear power is inherently dangerous. It has always been known in the scientific community that there is no accident free reactor and no safe level of exposure to radiation. The National Academy of Science has now confirmed this in their 2005 BEIR V11 report. (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation). The dangers include the daily release of radioactive emissions from every reactor. "Each day, a nuclear reactor releases more than 100 chemical into the air," states Joseph Mangano, national coordinator of Radiation and Public Health Project. "These chemicals, which are created only in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, are radioactive and cause cancer by damaging cells. After entering the body through breathing and food, each chemical affects the body in a different way. Iodine 131 attacks the thyroid gland, strontium 90 seeks out bone and cesium 137 disperses throughout soft tissues.
The fetus and infant with undeveloped immune systems and rapidly dividing cells are most affected." These illnesses are passed on to future generations through the sperm, ovum and mothers milk til the end of time.As nuclear power produces electricity it also produces radioactive waste which is now stored on site in spent fuel rods. Exposure to spent fuel rods means instant death. "The magnitude of the radiation generated in nuclear power plants is almost beyond belief. The original uranium fuel that is subject to the fission process becomes 1 billion times more radioactive in the reactor core. A thousand megawatt nuclear power plant contains as much long-lived radiation as that produced by the explosion of one thousand Hiroshima bombs." writes Helen Caldicott. Much of the radioactive waste generated by nuclear power has an extremely long half-life ranging from plutonium 239 with a half-life of 24,000 years to iodine 129 with a half-life of 15.7 million years. We are told that reprocessing will solve the problem. However, reprocessing results in the separation of weapons usable plutonium which adds significantly to the risks of proliferation.
Presidents Carter and Ford outlawed reprocessing in the United States in 1976-1977 due to the environmental and proliferation risks. Since there are no repositories qualified to take this waste, they must remain on-site at each of the 103 reactors in the U.S. The Yucca mountain repository in Nevada costing $9 billion taxpayer dollars over 20 years is generally acknowledged to be geologically unstable and unsuitable for long-term radioactive waste. There is no solution in sight.Nuclear power is the stepping-stone to all nuclear weapons. Nuclear power is totally interdependent and interconnected to nuclear weapons. Because uranium can be used in both nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs, nuclear power has significant impacts on proliferation.
Mohamed ElBaredi, the director general of the IAEA, noted, "The technical barriers to mastering the essential steps of uranium enrichment- and to designing weapons-have eroded over time, which inevitably leads to the conclusion that the control of technology, in and of itself, is not an adequate barrier against further proliferation."Preventing global warming through the use of nuclear power is no more true than the previous rationale promoted by president Eisenhower in 1953 that using nuclear power will create electricity "too cheap to meter".
Nuclear power construction is a prohibitively costly and lengthy process. It is dangerous both in the present and during the next million years when the waste generated today must be safeguarded by our descendents. The risks of catastrophic reactor accidents, the potential for the nuclear fuel cycle to enable nuclear weapons proliferation and the impossibility of managing highly radiotoxic nuclear waste for the long-term, should make it clear that nuclear power is not a viable energy option for now or ever.We can have safe, reliable, sustainable and locally generated energy at affordable prices without nuclear power. Energy efficiency is the cheapest and safest way of reducing greenhouse emissions. Conservation practices including improved insulation and passive solar will greatly reduce our emissions. A combination of passive solar systems, thin-film solar cells and wind power will also greatly reduce our emissions. The entire transportation industry is responsible for most of our carbon dioxide emissions. Creating safe, efficient, economical public transportation will go a long way toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The U.S. Office of Technology Assessment estimated we could reduce our electricity usage by 20% to 45% through energy efficiency. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory report shows that between 99% and 124% of the nations electricity can be supplied by renewables by 2020. President Bush's Energy Policy Act of 2005 allocates billions for the nuclear industry. That money can be used to create sustainable safe energies. Decentralized, sustainable technologies work and are becoming ever more efficient and cost effective. Throughout Europe they are implementing those technologies successfully. Let's step up to the plate and say a resounding NO to nuclear power, nuclear weapons and a clear YES to wind, solar, conservation and energy efficiency. It is time to lobby elected officials not to relicense Vermont Yankee when its 40 year license expires in 2012 and get serious about providing efficiencies, conservation and safe, sustainable, renewable energy solutions.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Oyster Creek...Another Community Being Raped

It Will TAKE REVOLT To Shut Down Dangerous Reactors!
WAKE UP AMERICA...it's not just Indian Point sitting on the banks of the Hudson just up river from New York city that is a MAJOR ACCIDENT waiting to happen. Vermont Yankee is not the only plant with far too many problems. Let's not forget about Pilgrim, or Diablo out in California either, but it is more than just that...the NRC is playing with OUR LIVES. Perhaps for some of you, that is fine...problem is, it is NOT FINE for those of us living within the circle of death around 103 aging reactors, it is NOT FINE for the folks of Nevada where the DOE/NRC and nuclear industry dip chits want to dump high level wastes, less than and hour from a major tourist MECCA.

We in the host communities are being sold to SATAN, and it is time that we join together and speak a NATIONAL VOICE. Congressman John Hall and Senator Hillary Clinton need to introduce NATIONAL LEGISLATION that would force a Independent Safety and Security Assessment of every nuclear plant in America. Local governments need to use our police departments, use our National Guard troops to shut down these facilities, and if necessary, BY FORCE. When dealing with human lives, when dealing with PUBLIC SAFETY, the NRC has no business rubber stamping the unsafe license renewals of 103 again reactors...Ignore THIS WARNING, and you are setting your community up to be an American Holocaust. It is time to do what must be done locally to close these plants...if that means FORCE ON FORCE, then so be it...Let George Bush be remembered as the president that killed innocent civilians in the name of the failing American Nuclear Industry.

Westchester County is not OWNED BY ENTERGY, Lacey is not owned by Exelon, and our communities ARE NOT OWNED by the NRC, or by the federal government...NO MEANS NO, and if it takes local government employing FORCE to shut down these aging relics, then the time has come to order law enforcement to begin it's preparations.

NRC disregarding signs of trouble at Oyster Creek
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/18/07
BY JANET TAURO

Let's do some role-playing.

You are a federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission member. You are charged with overseeing safety at the country's nuclear reactors — the most costly, dirtiest and "most dangerous technology available for boiling water."

You must decide whether the nation's oldest reactor situated in the middle of a densely populated region can chug along until its 60th birthday without jeopardizing the lives of 630,000 people living nearby.

You have a list of problems that don't bode well for the plant, which is owned by a powerful company, Exelon:

A document written by an Exelon engineer surfaces cautioning that the support floor to the elevated pool, already packed with 450 tons of nuclear waste, was not built to design and not adequately attached to the walls.

State officials legally challenge your agency to assess the plant's vulnerability to terrorist attack — specifically that the radioactive waste is sitting in pools 70 feet above ground and protected only by a metal roof. That challenge is supported when the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to interfere with an appeals ruling mandating evaluation of terrorist risk before license renewal.

The commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection states her preference for installation of cooling towers to stop the killing of billions of marine life, including endangered species. Soon after, the federal Environmental Protection Agency rules that nuclear plants install cooling towers to limit environmental damage.

The drywell, the steel liner shielding the public from radiation, which even Exelon estimated to be just .06 inches away from failing safety code, has now rusted at least another .02 inches.

A national laboratory study shows there is a significant chance the drywell is already below safety code.

An internal memorandum from a plant employee shows that Exelon knows the way it analyzes the drywell's structural strength is fundamentally flawed.

A glass soda bottle is found embedded in the drywell floor, and a DEP official wonders what other "voids" might be exasperating corrosion in a letter posted on an NRC Web site.

An e-mail exchange between Exelon executives stating that the equipment used to take measurements of the drywell didn't perform worth "———" becomes public.

Now what do you do with this list? Cease operations until a plan of action can be drawn for safety and security? Order Exelon to empty the fuel pool and secure contents in concrete cask storage? Assess the effects of an aircraft attack? Enforce the EPA order to install cooling towers? Demand immediate state-of-the-art modeling to determine the actual thickness of the drywell? Find out what other garbage is embedded in the drywell floor? Find out more about the disturbing e-mail exchange?

If you chose any of the above answers, you're wrong.

In this very real scenario, the NRC has instead apparently put Exelon on the fast track to the relicensing finish line and given preliminary approval to the safety review for the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey.

Don't be surprised. A few months ago, the NRC disregarded the fact that Exelon had used 35-year-old data to assess the plant's environmental impact on Barnegat Bay. If the license is renewed, Ocean County will have the dubious distinction of being the nation's test case for whether a nuclear plant with an obsolete design can operate safely many years beyond its retirement date without hurting anyone. That's a Guinness record we could live without.

And that is why our coalition, Stop the Relicensing of Oyster Creek, with expert representation by our attorney, Richard Webster of the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic, is by no means finished with our fight.

Our legal proceedings, which are ongoing, already have forced a more careful monitoring and analysis of the structural integrity of the drywell.

The DEP, with approval from Gov. Corzine, will reportedly hire an independent expert to analyze the drywell's structural integrity.

That expert should also take a close look at the spent fuel pool and its floor support, of which Exelon's own engineer wrote, "If the rebar (a metal fastener) is really corroding as projected, I suspect our design analysis of the floor support is not valid today, let alone for a 20-year life extension."

The governor has stated that if the plant is not safe to operate, it shouldn't operate. We respectfully draw the governor's attention to the list provided here. If the roles were reversed and he were an NRC commissioner charged with safeguarding the lives of hundreds of thousands, what would he do?

Janet Tauro, Brick, is a member of Stop the Relicensing of Oyster Creek, a coalition of six citizen and environmental groups.

Sunday February 18th, 2007-Green Nuclear Butterfly News Briefs

Contestant in Russian Nuclear Beauty Contest...I love those green teeth!
Greetings Readers:

Yes, the fearless leader...is that what they are calling radical dreamers these days?...as Remy shared with you, has been under the weather of late. The good news, is as of last night I have been cigarette free for THREE WEEKS! Now, to put this in perspective, I've been smoking since I was six, and at the time of my last puff was a two-three pack a day addict. How do I feel...AWFUL...trusting at some point, that this all gets EASIER? The long and short of it all, is that I have not been near as active on the blogs as I would like in the past ten days, and will work to improve that (hopefully this coming week).

Our poetry contest is starting to pick up speed. For those who have missed it, we have $1200 up for grabs, and our deadlines for entry are fast approaching. More on this later...need to find out from Remy if he has started posting any of the entries up on Rock The Reactors.

Next week is a busy week for the Green Nuclear Butterfly...first, our founder and EXSMOKER is going to be 51 on Wednesday, February 21st! For those not sure what to get me, a DONATION to the cause would be HELPFUL...between the new office, printing costs, and our poetry contest, Remy and I so far have about $4,000 into the creation of this movement (let's not forget the full page ad against Entergy in Vermont we helped fund!) with little in the way of outside contributions coming in...we need your help to grow this folks. Tomorrow night we record our first RADIO SHOW! More on that later! We'll be putting the word out on our poetry contest, and I'll more than likely get a plug in for my landscaping.

No word yet from Greenpeace and their Executive Director...oh well, we shall see what we shall see. Think I'll bring that issue up on the radio show tomorrow night as well. I have feelers out for another talk show as well, so for a start up, we are getting out there.

Upcoming Projects:

We are in the process of designing a MOVEMENT STENCIL that will be easy to replicate.
Much like a movememt years ago over in Germany, the idea will be to get our readers to help spread the word by REPLICATING our stencil in various areas where the public can view it.

We would like to take out a full page advertisement in a few of our local papers such as the advertizer...however, this will take some DONORS...so, if we have any readers out there that have been watching this unfold, we could really use your help in moving the ball down the field.

As we suspected, Congressman John Hall's bill was nothing but a rehash of Congressman Maurice Hinchey's FAILED BILL, and is NOT GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL in moving us close to shutting down Indian Point, or any of the other failing reactors, such as Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim to name two. We need a NATIONAL BILL, and the Green Nuclear Butterfly has been trying to make this point to the deaf ears of John Hall's staff...we are thinking our next step should be protesters out on the sidewalk in front of his various assorted offices. Let us know what you think on this...in the meantime, we'll see if Congressman John Hall has enough political savvy to schedule a meeting with us before it comes to that. God forbid he makes himself obsolete and ineffective by failing to address the concerns of those of us in the CLOSE INDIAN POINT DOWN camp. If he was not serious about shutting the plant down, then maybe he should have kept his mouth shut...OH, BUT THEN HE WOULD NOT HAVE WON now would he? Face it John Hall, we delivered for you, and the time has come to deliver for us....otherwise, we launch our RETAKE 19 blog...yes, it is already up and ready to go. We got rid of Sue Kelly, and if we have to, we can get rid of you as well.

As everyone knows, I missed Green Drinks in Manhattan...maybe next month. On the good news side of the equation, if I can get my act together today, and my mind out of a fog, I do have the opportunity to have an article published on this whole nuclear issue as it relates to the EV issue, so wish me luck, as I'll be writing most of the day to meet the deadline.