Saturday, January 20, 2007

Nuclear Experiments On Humans...Where Did The Documents Go?

This Child Was Used in Nuclear Experiment...Is Nothing SACRED?
Opposing the licensing of Indian Point, fighting against the wrongful relicensing of aging reactors in what can only be called a scam visited upon host communities is not my first brush in with the NRC or DOE. I have fought against the wrongs visited upon humanity before, opposed the creation of, and NRC licensing of USEC back in the 90's, have read the entire EIS on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. This history is shared for a reason. In those days, I had my own little document repository in my home, collected documents like some collect books...many of my friends in the Green Anti Nuke movement donated them along the way when they themselves were done with them. Sadly, those documents are gone to the seven winds, but I have my memory...today I remembered reading several documents years ago on the inhumane human experiments in radiation that have been conducted on humans...I went on a search to restore those documents to my new library being accumulated on CD's as I scour the web trying to build resource material.

I wanted these documents for a reason, wanted them handy when I compose my comments on Pilgrim, on Indian Point, on GNEP because we are now being forced once again to act as human genie pigs in assorted Nuclear Industry, DOE and NRC experiments, the first of which is the aging fleet of nuclear reactors going through relicensing. NRC, nor the industry really know the effects of aging on reactors, at best they are guessing...problem is, if they are WRONG, which of our communities will pay the ultimate price? The DOE, Nuclear Industry GNEP is another experiment, humans the subjects of their study.

The DOE has a horrid history with trans waste streams, a horrid history in changing one thing into another, with Hanford one perfect example of this analogy. Yet, if you read up on GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Program, the DOE has opted to skip a test/pilot program to prove their theory, but instead has chosen too invest billions on a new unproven technology to change reactor waste into product, they want to go right to building the facility in a LEARN AS WE GO APPROACH...they want to do this for a simple reason. Licensees are allowed to store on site future use resources...this was how the DOE dealt with spent uranium waste stockpiles at both Piketon and Paducah. After all, the stuff could be used in armor piercing AMMO, it did have a use...the fact that they had so much of this stuff that the supply can never be substantially reduced is beside the point. In short, to push the program forward, they want to conduct a grand experiment...problem is, most of the nuclear experiments of the past have real human deaths associated with them, and thus my search today.

I went to the place the documents were supposed to be found at.

DOE Openness: Human Radiation Experiments
The Office of Human Radiation Experiments, established in March 1994, leads the Department of Energy's efforts to tell the agency's Cold War story of radiation research using human subjects. We have undertaken an intensive effort to identify and catalog relevant historical documents from DOE's 3.2 million cubic feet of records scattered across the country. Internet access to these resources is a key part of making DOE more open and responsive to the American public.

From here, one is directed to this http://hrex.dis.anl.gov where you find this message.

The HREX website is currently closed down for two reasons: (1) After the events of September 11, 2001, the Federal Government undertook a review of all information on its websites to determine the appropriateness of the information on the websites. The database for the HREX website is currently undergoing a review in light of the events of 9/11 to determine whether all of the information in the database is appropriate. (2) The HREX website was hosted by antiquated technology. After the review of the information in the database is complete, it will be moved to the OpenNet website which is a platform composed of current technologies. The timing of when the HREX information will be available on OpenNet is unknown, therefore you may wish to periodically visit the OpenNet website at http://www.osti.gov/opennet. Thank you for your patience.

If you click on that link, and scroll down to Human Radiation Experiments, you start this whole circle over again. Going on six years later, a whole new GNEP human experiment getting ready to happen with us as subjects, and this crucial information is in hiding...how convenient.

NRC Is Supposed To Be Funded By Industry Fees...Why Are They Asking Congress For More Money?

Someone correct me here if I am wrong, but isn't the NRC supposed to be funded by the fees and fines paid to said agency by the industry that they are supposed to oversee? If they are experiencing a BUDGET CRUNCH, shouldn't they be raising the fees and penalties of the nuclear industry, instead of asking Congress for $100 MILLION dollars. I read another article where Entergy profits are up, yet another that said the company has received over $280 Million in Community Block Grants to recover almost their full losses from Hurricane Katrina. The DOE budget for GNEP related costs in 2007 is $250 Million. Seems to me, that tax payers have subsidized the Nuclear Industry for far too long, and that the NRC needs to meet with the industry to discuss this financial shortfall that will be created when all THESE NEW LICENSE APPLICATIONS start flowing in. Call or write your Senators and Congressmen/women, and tell them you OPPOSE funding additional staff at the NRC. Inform the Congress that any NRC budget increases need to come from their licensees, not the American Taxpayer.
GAO Report: NRC Needs Increased Funding to Handle Heavier Workload


From the AP:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ability to hire enough workers to manage the expected onslaught of new nuclear reactor applications will be crippled without increased funding, a report by the investigative arm of Congress says.

NRC Chairman Dale Klein said he, too, was concerned about the agency's ability to handle the license requests unless it receives more money from Congress. Without a new budget, the agency will be $95 million, or 12 percent, short.

"It will slow (the licensing) down," he said in an interview.

A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday examined his agency's workforce challenges.

"The funding and full-time equivalent restrictions ... would have a crippling impact on our ability to manage human capital," Klein wrote in a response included in the GAO report released Wednesday.

ATTENTION GRASSROOTS...Every Relicense Application That Has Been Granted NEEDS CHALLENGING in Light of Diablo Ruling!

NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE NOT SAFE, SECURE and VITAL IF ATTACKED BY TERRORISTS...THEY ARE OUR DEATH TRAPS!
DIABLO IS OUR RALLY CRY!
Attention all GRASSROOTS organizations...if your city is in re licensing now, if your community was forced to accept a re licensing renewal over the community's objections, GET AN ATTORNEY NOW, and file a motion to overturn the decision, ask for a TRO. File a petition for REDRESS with your Congressman or woman. File a request for review with NEPA asking that the decision be vacated, and a new re licensing application started. File a formal VERIFIED COMPLAINT with NRC. In short, PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS.
In light of the Ninth District ruling on Diablo, coupled with the Supreme Court refusing to hear Pacific Gas & Electric's pathetic request, we have a chance here to GO BACK TO SQUARE ONE. We need to flood the NRC with litigation and verified complaints from ACROSS AMERICA! STAKE HOLDERS, TAKE BACK YOUR COMMUNITY from the NUCLEAR INDUSTRY. Our communities are OUR HOME, not the home of aging reactors!

This case proves that the NRC erred in refusing to include terrorist attacks in the decision making process. Every community denied the chance to present their case on this important issue in the re licensing process WAS CHEATED, DENIED THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS. The time to move is NOW...NRC is going to try to do a end run around us by going to the commission...FLOOD THE COMMISSION with DEMANDS TO INTERVENE, before NRC screws you once again, and gives nothing more than LIP SERVICE to Diablo, and to the rest of the communities who were cheated, FORCED TO PLAY HOST TO DEATH TRAPS for another TWENTY YEARS.
Don't WAIT ON THE NRC TO SLAP YOU, but instead ACT NOW to deliver a serious KNOCK OUT BLOW to the aging fleet of unsafe reactors...we have the chance here to set the clock back to zero, but we must move fast. Forcing the entire re licensing process for every re licensed reactor to in effect go through a do over, throws the entire DOE Nuclear Power 2010/GNEP into complete disarray! We can use Homeland Security's own public documents on dirty bombs against the NRC....if a briefcase NUKE can send you into forced sheltering in place for over four days, what would an attack on a nuclear reactor that was successful do? Where would we stand after a terrorist attack in light of Congress extending the Price Anderson Act when it comes to MAKING US WHOLE?

SPREAD THE WORD!WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE SWORD OF JUSTICE, LET US USE IT TO SHUT DOWN THESE MONSTERS THAT ARE POLLUTING OUR COMMUNITIES.

WHERE IS GREENPEACE, WHERE IS NIRS? SIGN ONTO OUR LETTER FOLKS, WE HAVE THE CHANCE WE NEED!

HOW ABOUT PETITIONS FOR RULE MAKING INCLUDING A REQUEST THAT ALL RELICENSES BE SET ASIDE? NEW RISK ASSESSMENTS? HOW ABOUT A CONGRESSIONAL LAW DEMANDING SAFETY AND SECURITY ASSESSMENTS ON THE ENTIRE NUCLEAR FLEET? WE MAY NEVER AGAIN GET A CHANCE TO HAMMER THEM LIKE THIS FOLKS, THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD.

DIABLO IS OUR RALLY CRY, LET OUR VOICES RISE ABOVE THE LIES OF THE INDUSTRY....DIABLO DIABLO DIABLO
By Ben Lando Jan 19, 2007, 23:57 GMT
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday not to hear an appeal by a California nuclear company means federal regulators will have to decide how to factor in terrorist attacks when evaluating environmental impacts of nuclear waste storage.

In denying Pacific Gas & Electric's appeal of a June 2 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the high court may have forced the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address the threat of terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities like it hasn't in the past.

The appellate court said the NRC violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it didn't include a terrorist attack in an environmental impact report for an application to create dry cask storage at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant near San Luis Obispo, Calif.

PG&E, which owns Diablo Canyon, was granted the license and is constructing the storage for waste that will soon accumulate beyond can be contained in the cooling pool, where newly spent nuclear fuel is immediately placed.

The environmental impact report was part of the license.

The NRC maintains the terrorist threat should be addressed under the Atomic Energy Act, not NEPA. The commission said it will now decide to what extent it needs to address terrorism in environmental reports, while keeping the door open to challenge the court ruling in the future.

Opponents of New Jersey's Oyster Creek nuclear plant had hoped the ruling would help their attempt to block the plant's license renewal. The NRC, in a statement Friday, said "there are no environmental impacts that would preclude license renewal."

NRC officials said the report was completed prior to the Supreme Court's ruling. The commission's environmental impact statement for Oyster Creek's renewal had no mention of terrorism, though opponents raised the issue numerous times in public hearings.

"Basically, since we didn't know how the Supreme Court would come down, we couldn't really be planning in advance of that," said David McIntyre, spokesman for the NRC.

"And now that they have come down and said they're not going to review the case, we need to wait for the commission to decide. I don't think they're going to waste a lot of time on this," he said. "They're going to decide fairly soon."

Until then, the NRC will continue with business as usual. Opponents of the license renewal of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant plan to raise the terrorism issue at a Jan. 31 hearing on a draft environmental impact report. If the commission determines the court's ruling demands terrorist threats be included, McIntyre said it will be included in a final report.

NRC Rubber Stamping Continues, Another Entergy Reactor Wins Relicensing

Nuclear Needs Put Out To Pasture
It's no wonder Entergy is upset with the Green Nuclear Butterfly, no wonder it's publisher is under attack, and CLOSE SCRUTINY...they do not want the grassroots UNITING, and taking this fight NATIONAL, as they know they will lose. Keep the fight local, that is their strategy, that is their game plan. Local grassroots have no chance of stopping the Juggernaut, as the government is in cahoots with the Industry, they need these nuclear reactors UP AND RUNNING for the DOE's Nuclear Power 2010/GNEP plan to have ANY PLAN OF SUCCESS.

Yet another community has been eaten by the machine as the Palisades Reactor recently purchased by Entergy won re licensing this week. The two magic dates for GNEP are 2030 and 2050. This flurry of re licensing rubber stamping by the NRC, coupled with their plan to once again change the rules to offer the Nuclear Industry a second bite at the re licensing apple before their licenses expire just after 2030 will keep these aging reactors up and running through 2050...the year when DOE predicts they can have enough new generation reactors up and running to replace the electric now produced by Entergy's dilapidated and aging fleet.

Only in joining together as one can we in the grassroots stop the 21st Century Schizoid Man that is the nuclear industry. Take Action Grassroots! Sign onto our letter asking Greenpeace to join the crusade by clicking this link. Or, sign our petition to CLOSE INDIAN POINT.
Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:38am ET

NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday renewed the operating license of CMS Energy Corp.'s (CMS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) 767-megawatt Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan for an additional 20 years until March 24, 2031.

In a release, the NRC said Nuclear Management Co., which operates the plant for CMS, submitted the renewal application in March 2005. The current 40-year operating license will expire in 2011.

The Palisades renewal brings the total number of operating license renewals to 48 reactor units, the NRC said.

The NRC uses the license renewal process to determine how an operator will manage the aging of a reactor. It is a two-step process including a safety and environmental review.

The Palisades station, which entered service in 1971, is located in South Haven in Van Buren County, about 60 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

One MW powers about 800 homes in Michigan.

CMS' Consumers Energy subsidiary owns the station.

In July, CMS agreed to sell Palisades to Entergy Corp. (ETR.N: Quote, Profile , Research), of New Orleans. As part of the deal, Entergy agreed to sell all of the power from Palisades back to Consumers Energy for 15 years.
Entergy To Buy Palisades Nuclear Energy Plant from Consumers Energy

Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) and Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), have reached an agreement for Entergy to purchase the 798-megawatt Palisades Nuclear Plant near South Haven, Mich., for $380 million.

With the addition of Palisades, Entergy – the nation's second largest nuclear power company – will own 11 nuclear generating reactors and manage a 12th. Palisades is the company's second reactor in the Midwest. Five others are in the South and five are in the Northeast.

Friday, January 19, 2007

IP Safety Assessment Meeting, Jan 22 - 3pm

Westchester County Board of Legistlators
Thomas J. Abinanti
Chair, Environment & Energy Commission
Legislator, 12th District
(914) 592-7100 cell

For Immediate Release
January 19, 2007

ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS INDEPENDENT SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF INDIAN POINT

COMMITTEE MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2007 at 3pm TO DISCUSS INSPECTION AT NUCLEAR SITE

On Monday, January 22, 2007 the Environment & Energy Committee of the Westchester County Board of Legislators will meet to discuss an Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) Resolution pertaining to Indian Point.

The ISA is an in-depth, intensive and rigorous inspection of the operations of a nuclear power plant conducted by a high level team of NRC, state and independent contractors, skilled in the workings of a nuclear power plant.

The meeting will be held on the 8th floor of the County Executive Building. All are welcome.

800 Michaelin Office Building 148 Martine Ave. White Plains, NY 10601 Phone (914) 995-2900 Fax (914) 995-3113

Attacks On Green Nuclear Butterfly Publisher Continue

ENTERGY and/or THEIR BACKERS ON A WITCH HUNT?
Earlier today, the Green Nuclear Butterfly commented on, "Indian Point assessment may not be that independent" written by Greg Clary of "The Journal News" at this link. In my comments I took specific exception to the commentary of one, "nuclear environmentalist" who all but admits to being inside the power circle of Indian Point. Interestingly, the attacks that had waned in the past few days REIGNITED in a huge way shortly after my comments went up on this local newspaper's site that is closely followed by Entergy insiders. Green Nuclear Butterfly believes it is no accident that the "nuclear environmentalist" commenting on the Journal News site spoke about anti nuke activists being on a WITCH HUNT, as these latest attacks on this link shows. I would guess, that the Journal News has the ability to see who it was that posted the comments on their web site, and in that, EXPOSE the person, who I believe is on Entergy's payroll that is bringing these attacks against me.
For your amusement, and so that you know what extremes the Pro Nuclear Side will go to in their vain attempts to shut down the oppositions voice, to discredit them, I am sharing below the links to the latest online attacks. What's disturbing about these attacks, is their attempt to discredit me by using my business and internet branding efforts as the names of their own blogs meant to attack me. I give you the reader important information in red. If you visited the blogs, at least the person has a bit of a sense of humor...what is sad, is that it is intermingled with a vapid hatred of anti-nuke people, or perhaps a hatred of myself as a person or both. A pathological attraction to trying to destroy me, or silence my voice in this movement.
beltwaypintobean This is the name of a blog I have posted here on Blogspot.
Rank: 2,497,448 (No blogs link here yet)
http://beltway-pinto-bean.blogspot.com The dashes let this slide through the system.
DON'T LET FRUITY ELECTED OFFICIALS FORGET THE DEBT THEY OWE THEIR RADICAL CONSTITUENTS!
Tagged: Indian Point, Nuclear, porgie, royce Using Porgie, Royce as tags.

theyardwhisperer The business name I use for my landscaping work.
Rank: 2,497,448 (No blogs link here yet)
http://theyardwhisperer.blogspot.com
WHY MUST MILLIONS DIE? WHY CAN'T WE HAVE PEACE BETWEEN BUGS AND MAN?
Tagged: Armageddon, Death, Destruction, entergy, Indian Point, Nuclear, porgie, royce

YARD FART The license on my car is YARD ART. No way they would know this without someone watching me in real life, or having the ability to do a DMV data search.
Rank: 2,497,448 (No blogs link here yet)
http://yardfart.blogspot.com
Show your FULL anger! Protest in the nude! Join Greenpiece in protest (not affiliated with Greenpeace). March! Peace!, Piece!, Justicia! Victoria! Salmonella! Rubella! Licorice!
Tagged: entergy, Equality, Freedom, Indian Point, Justice, LSD, Nuclear, nude volley ball, nudity, penstinger, porgie, Power, royce, Tofu, VOLLEY BALL
BPG MORTGAGES The name of a mortgage company that I was briefly associated with over five years ago.
Rank: 2,494,348 (No blogs link here yet)
http://bpgmortgages.blogspot.com
Tagged: Activism, Energy, Engels, entergy, farting, Freedom, gerbils, Greenpeace, hinchey, Indian Point, Justice, martinelli, Marx, mice, Nuclear, penstinger, Petition, porgie, Revolution, royce

ROYCE PENSTINGER One of my online pen names, as well as the email I use for the Green Nuclear Butterfly Blog.
Rank: 2,494,348 (No blogs link here yet)
http://royce-penstinger.blogspot.com
Tagged: Butterfly, Congress, conspiracy, Energy, entergy, Fear, Green, guilt, Heaven, hell, Ignorance, Indian Point, Lies, martinelli, Nuclear, porgie, Pottery, royce, sin, untruth

ADDITION TO THE ATTACK LIST THAT WAS JUST FOUND:
http://whitenuclearsnowflake.blogspot.com/

Entergy Green Nuclear :: Point/CounterPoint

Above is a copy of the ad recently published by Entergy in many local New England newspapers in and around areas of the Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim nuclear power plants. It can be viewed legibly at this location. In response to this ad, the text below is being published in the Reformer newspaper in Brattleboro Vt.

VERMONT’S ENERGY FUTURE

IS
Solar Photovoltaics
Wind Power
Biomass
Geothermal
Cogeneration
Cow Power (Methane)
And Hydro.

IS
Efficiency and Conservation,
Yankee ingenuity and Self-reliance.

IS
Leading the way to a
responsible, safe,
secure, flexible,
and sustainable way of life.

IS
A common sense approach to reversing global warming
and climate disruption.

VERMONT’S ENERGY FUTURE

IS NOT
Nuclear power, the most toxic source of energy known to man,
and the single greatest threat to the economy, safety, and environment
of the region.

IS NOT
Routine emissions of ionizing radiation
that endanger us all.

IS NOT
Warning sirens, tone-alert weather radios
and unworkable evacuation plans.

IS NOT
Complicity in the manufacture of bomb-making plutonium
and depleted uranium weapons of mass destruction.

IS NOT
Adding more waste to a radioactive dump on the Connecticut River
that will be deadly for 10,000 generations.

IS NOT
Squandering money on a dying industry (despite the current surge) when
funds are needed
to develop honestly safe, clean, and reliable energies.

VERMONT’S ENERGY FUTURE?
Vermont’s decision, not Vermont Yankee’s

Paid for by members of the Citizen’s Awareness Network
www.nukebusters.org
The New England Coalition On Nuclear Pollution
www.necnp.org
Nuclear Free Vermont
www.nuclearfreevermont.org
The Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance
www.greennuclearbutterfly.com
www.rockthereactors.com
and other concerned citizens.

ATTENTION ALL Anti Nukes...We Need COMMENTERS on GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Program)

This Picture From The Idaho National Labs Sight SHOWS THE BRILLIANT SCIENCE AND THOUGHT BEHIND YUCCA MOUNTAIN...YES, IT REALLY IS A PART OF ONE OF THEIR DOCUMENTS.
We all know how DOE and the NRC work...they use the Federal Registry as a weapon against us, regularly sneak through programs and decisions because we missed our opportunity to comment. Well, the DOE is at it again, and we have to hold them accountable...the time to KILL GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Program) is now. If you read closely, the plan is OBVIOUS...move fast and furious, and relabel all reactor spent fuel RELABLED as future potential use resources! Every reactor in America can store RESOURCE on their sites...DOE builds a reprocessing reactor with untested fuzzy science, and BINGO our waste is now future potential fuel resources that will sit at our reactors until ready for reprocessing.

Domestically, GNEP involves a programmatic proposal as well as project-specific proposals. The programmatic proposal is to begin to recycle spent fuel and destroy the long-lived radioactive components of that spent fuel. Toward this end, GNEP includes project-specific proposals to construct and operate three facilities. The proposed nuclear fuel recycling center would separate the SNF into its reusable components and waste components and manufacture new nuclear fuel using reusable components that still have the potential for use in nuclear power generation.

We are talking Portsmouth Ohio on steroids, and environmental NIGHTMARE like none we have ever seen before! Further, it is being FAST TRACKED, with many of the stakeholder communities such as New York being cut out of the public process. To mitigate public event involvement, they have deliberately chosen to only hold public meetings in the communities chosen as potential HOST SITES, even though GNEP affects the entire United States of America, and the future energy road we will travel down for the forseeable future (at least 100 years). Excluding Washington, DC, none of these public discussions are being held in the top cities in America.

You can read the Federal Registry Notice here.

Green Nuclear Butterfly will atttempt to increase PUBLIC COMMENTS submission against this plan by posting a basic generic public comment here on our site in mid march that members of the public can make all their own. Only through MASSIVE comments opposing this plan can we stop it, kill it, and save our environment for our children, and our grand children.

Entergy's FALSE Green Advertisement Blitz in Vermont

This IS What The After Effects Of A Nuclear Incident At A Reactor Looks Like...Once Vibrant Communities Abandoned and DEAD.
Entergy is trying to flex it's corporate muscle in Vermont as they try to thrust re licensing down the throats of the citizens in and around Brattleboro. Using their financial might, they are trying to paint ugly, aging, antiquated and dangerous reactors such as Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee and Indian Point green.
Green companies, greed industries do not leak strontium-90 into our rivers and streams, do not continue to operate when they cannot locate leaks in their spent fuel rod storage pools. However, that has not stopped Entergy, NEI, NRC, DOE, Idaho National Labs and others in the nuclear industry from trying to steal the GREEN label for themselves. Below is a well written letter to the editor from Russell Weis, a stakeholder up in Vermont Yankee territory, and I post it, as our community is next, our community will begin seeing this same FALSE ADVERTISING as we move through our own re licensing nightmare with Entergy.


Letter to the Editors

I turned green from the ad on the back of Section A of your January 10 issue. It made me sick to see how Lousiana-based Entergy Corporation is trying to bamboozle Vermonters into supporting a twenty-year license extension for its aging Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Don't believe the misinformation being spewed from Entergy headquarters like radiation from a nuclear waste site. Nuclear energy is NOT green and nuke plants are still not safe, clean or reliable. Nor is nuclear power cheap, when you figure in the billions in subsidies the industry has required.

And as for claims that it'll help solve our global warming crisis, the truth is that nuclear power is fossil-fuel intensive, from the mining of the uranium to the storage of the waste. Contact VPIRG (http://www.vpirg.org) and CAN (http://www.nukebusters.org) and find the facts out for yourself.

The best way to secure Vermont's energy future is by supporting truly renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass - viable, local technologies that don't harm people or the environment and that require no evacuation plans and no hazardous waste dumps.

Now is the time to contact your legislator. Don't allow a relicensure vote to occur before an independent safety assessment and a thorough citizen input process are conducted.

Let's not saddle our children and succeeding generations with a radioactive legacy. And let's not let biased corporations tell us what "green" is. Our Green Mountain State must make its motto: "True Green Energy, not Green with ENVY (Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee)."

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Mothers For Peace 1 :: Diablo Canyon 0

On January 16, 2007, the US Supreme Court ruled against Pacific Gas and Electric Company's (PG&E's) petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the June 2, 2006 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace v. NRC, 449 F.3d 1016. The Supreme Court's rejection of PG&E's petition means that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must carry out the Ninth Circuit's mandate to consider the environmental impacts of intentional attacks on the proposed dry cask storage installation at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California.

PG&E had asked the Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit's ruling that, in order to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the NRC must consider the environmental impacts of terrorist attacks before it licenses the new facility.

The San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, a local group that has actively opposed the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant since 1973, is extremely pleased that logic prevailed in this important court ruling, which sends the NRC back to the drawing board to complete the Environmental Impact Statement. The group hopes that effective mitigations will be put in place to provide defenses against possible air attack. MFP spokesperson, Jane Swanson, is elated with the Court's decision. "After the events of September 11, 2001, it is only reasonable that the significant health and environmental risks of terrorist attacks be considered when designing and building nuclear facilities. Now, after years of resistance, the NRC and PG&E are forced to address these concerns."

MFP's attorney, Diane Curran, said that she expects the NRC to issue a new environmental review document that addresses the impacts of an intentional attack on the proposed facility. In the meantime, PG&E is precluded by law from loading fuel into the new facility.

San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
http://mothersforpeace.org

Weld Concerns See NRC Issuing RED ALERT WARNING to Four Reactors

Could Your Community Be The Next Hiroshima?

Entergy, the Nuclear Industry and NRC don't really want us to know the reality...all of the old, aging fleet of reactors are held together with a never ending patchwork of welds and patches. Green Nuclear Butterfly raised this issue in a previous article. Our attempts to raise the alarm were, for the most part met with deaf ears, and denials from the long ball hitters in the Nuclear Industry who will use any trick in the book to save their dilapidated fleet of reactors.

Well, the cat is OUT OF THE BAG, though the industry is already attempting to mitigate the news. Four North Eastern Reactors have received ALERTS after a nuclear reactor in Monticello, Minn. shut itself down. The CULPRIT...WELDS. Yes, the very welds that we have raised serious concerns about, the welds that have been used to make repairs deep in the bowels of the reactor itself.
"The Monticello plant has been shut down since Jan. 10 when welds failed that held in place a 35,000-pound box containing valves that control steam pressure. No radiation was released, officials said."
As communities are raped and plundered through a re licensing process that can only be called RUBBER STAMPING, these relics of an era long gone are plunging towards the cataclysmic MELTDOWN that we are told can never happen. How big was this "incident" in Monticello you ask? We are talking a 17 TON TOOL BOX CRASHING DOWN on the very pipe that carries radioactive STEAM! In short, only the God's above allowed us once again to dodge the bullet of another Chernobyl, though company officials are trying DESPERATELY to mitigate the scare...but of course. Of IMPORTANT NOTE HERE, Monticello just two months ago received their NRC RUBBER STAMP to continue operations for another 20 years. Even the spokesperson for the plant admitted, "I don't want to sugarcoat it; this was a significant problem," What this writer finds MOST DISTURBING though was the next quote shared here, "I think we have our arms around what caused it." HE THINKS? These reactors are now being operated on guesses? The rubber stamping of license renewals needs to stop, the WEAKENING of the rules has to stop...you can only cut corners so much, and for so long before one or more communities here in America become a radioactive WASTELAND.
This disturbing and stressing news is of immense importance to those of us who live in the epicenter of death that is Indian Point...you see, Entergy's entire fleet of reactors are old, antiquated and breaking down...more IMPORTANTLY, three of the reactors who have received the ALERT belong to Entergy's fleet! The reactors that are involved in this RED ALERT are Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek, and Nine Mile Point, another dangerous facility RIGHT HERE IN NEW YORK. Perhaps because Entergy plans to submit its application for license Renewal in just over one month, NRC threw them a bone in leaving Indian Point off the Red Alert list?

The only person who seems to have a real clue is George Crocker, executive director of the North American Water Office who was quoted, "Market forces that push nuclear plants to the limit, coupled with aging issues, coupled with the lack of understanding about how these components and materials perform over time as they're subjected thermally and radiologically-- all of these factors are increasing the likelihood that a really unforgiving event will occur..."

This event makes Green Nuclear Butterfly's question all the more important,"Where is Green Peace?" For that matter, where is NIRS, where is the Sierra Club, where are the national and international groups in this, our hour of need?

Killing Babies, Grandma and Grandpa To Save an Entergy Reactor?

Will your child be an acceptable statistic? Will your grandmother or your grandfather be EXPENDABLE?
A brutally inflammatory and impassioned question, yet one that must be asked. Is Entergy, DOE, NRC, the nuclear industry, even our government prepared to sacrifice the lives of our American society's most vulnerable citizens to save say Indian Point's aging, trouble plagued reactors in case of a serious incident at the plant? A simple question that Indian Point, Entergy, NRC, FEMA, the Emergency Management folks, and even Andy Spano's office have refused to answer honestly and directly got me to doing some late night research. What I have found, is very disturbing and has begged the question...are our most vulnerable citizens expendable in the eyes of the nuclear industry?
Look at your Emergency Evacuation Plan booklet if you have actually recieved one. I say that, as I went to a great deal of trouble to get my own...even more disturbing, according to FEMA's website, we are supposed to be provided a NEW ONE once a year. (Yes Entergy, I can provide the link to this FEMA statement.) This worthless piece of bird cage lining recommends two basic courses of action.
1. Evacuation-curious here, how many residents around Indian Point know that Entergy and the Emergency Response people only have adequate space in case of an evacuation to protect TWENTY PERCENT OF US?

2. Sheltering in place-When questioned about this option, Indian Point employees admitted there were two likely reasons for sheltering in place. A) Traffic made movement impossible, and B) inclement weather, such as a heavy winter snow storm, and frigid temperatures.

Now, if you read their little booklet, if we are ordered to be sheltered in place, in the middle of a frigid winter night in a snow storm because of a nuclear incident at Entergy's Indian Point reactors, they have a set of instructions for us to follow.

1. Don't go outside-now there's a NO BRAINER! Hey MA, let's go watch the mushroom cloud hovering over the reactors.

2. Keep all windows and doors shut-another one of those DUH instructions. No, we thought we would throw open our doors and windows on a cold winter night to let in a bit of the radioactive fall out.

3. Turn off your furnace. Let me repeat that...turn off your furnace.

4. Close all fireplace and woodstove flues and dampers.

Now, risk assessment is all about modeling various scenerios. For some odd reasons, Entergy, Indian Point, NRC, DOE, FEMA, Emergency Management and every other agency of our government seem bent on stacking the deck in a fashion that suits their own purposes, and when you push them, they STRIKE OUT AT YOU, and claim you have a certain duty to make your own decisions...fair enough if they would honestly answer our questions.

A frigid winter night, no heat to speak of, 15-20 inches of snow on the ground, nuclear fall out as far as the eye can see (OH...we are in our basements), and Entergy has rung their non-working alarm systems, and listening in our handy dandy transiter radios because the electric has gone down, we have been ordered to be sheltered in place. Thinking on this, I called an assortment of agencies and various companies officials at Entergy and posed a simple question. In such a scenerio, how long could we safely be sheltered in place in such conditions before the effects of hypothermia began setting in? The closest thing to an answer I got was the suggestion that maybe I should go out and buy ten goose down comforters to burl into. The rest of what I got was EVASION.

First, being in contracting/landscaping I made some phone calls, did a bit of research into home heat loss. Without going into a lot of jargon about BTU's and inside/outside temperature differentials, not to mention factoring in the square footage of door and window openings, in such conditions, the average home would become VERY COLD in a matter of HOURS. In as little as four hours, some homes could be at the exact same temperature as the outside environment. Now, how long do you think our elderly will survive in a significant event with no heat...why does the NRC REFUSE TO ANSWER A BASIC QUESTION?

At every step of the way, ENTERGY, the NRC make it clear that human health, our environment, commonsense all take a BACK SEAT TO PROFITS. Cost benefit analysis in short makes humans expendable, makes our community's expendable, makes our children expendable, makes GRANDMA AND GRANDPA expendable. We do not need a nuclear reactor in our community, do not need a neighbor who sees us and our children as expendable.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Open Letter-Greenpeace, Where Are You in This Fight For Our Communities?

Below is an open letter to the Executive Director of Greenpeace. Support this just and noble cause by signing on to the positions in the letter by leaving a comment on this post. If you would like your own elected officials CCed a copy of this letter, please let us know, and they will be added to the CC list. You can also have a more formalized response from your own organization included with this letter by emailing roycepenstinger@aol.com The deadline for signing on to this open letter is January 31st, 2007.



John Passacantando
Executive Director
Greenpeace
702 H Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20001

Dear John:

With all due respect to yourself, and to the work of Greenpeace, we are writing this open letter to you, to ask the question, "Where is Greenpeace in the fight to stop the wrongful relicensing of antiquated and aging nuclear facilities?" As longtime clean energy advocates, we ask this question because as a nation, America is but a handful of reactors away from the proverbial tipping point of pursuing the dangerous path being laid out by the DOE's Nuclear 2010/GNEP.

For some time now, the battle cry of the environmental movement, of Greenpeace, has been to think globally but act locally. Unfortunately, at this stage, this fight cannot be won locally. The fight to stop the relicensing of dangerous reactors such as Entergy's Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, and reactors 2 and 3 at the Indian Point site will require national involvement in a big way from Greenpeace, from the National Wildlife Federation, even the Sierra Club. There is no more, cannot be any more backing up and waiting for a better time to make our stand...the time is now, the fight will be won or lost during this the 110th Congress...the nuclear industry knows it, and one would assume that Greenpeace knows it. Sadly, other than token efforts and position papers, Greenpeace as the marquee player and pace setter within the Green movement seems to be largely absent from the battle as one local host community after another is mowed down by the NRC. That, however, doesn’t have to be the case.

I, and members of my community, would like to work in concert with Greenpeace before it is too late. With this in mind, we would like to know what Greenpeace is doing to push Congress to pass a bill demanding a full and complete safety and security assessment of every reactor in the United States. Is Greenpeace openly and publicly opposing the nuclear industry's wrong sighted plan known as "Nuclear Power 2010" that would help create a renaissance of the nuclear industry, and the sighting of as many as 400 fuzzy science reactors world wide with as many as 50 of them sited and built here in America? Where is Greenpeace in confronting Congressmen/women and Senators who pretend to be on our side, yet refuse to introduce safety and security assessment laws for the entire nuclear industry?

The time of sitting on the sidelines because the win is not assured has to end, and the national and international organizations led by Greenpeace need to step forward, and lead the fight, as the line has been drawn in the sand, and we fight now, or fold up our tents and go home. Small grassroots organizations and individuals such as myself and my, "Green Nuclear Butterfly" cannot win this fight locally; we are but cannon fodder without your help in this fight.

We must work as one team and go to Congress to demand that a national bill be passed in this 110th Congress that accomplishes the following: a) order a security and safety assessment (identical to the one done for Maine Yankee) at every nuclear reactor in the United States; b) implement a moratorium on all NRC relicensing activities and efforts until such time as every assessment has been completed; c) establish a ‘Blue Ribbon Committee’ that includes a member of a grassroots organization from every reactor host community in America to review the information and data from said assessments, and d) submit for consideration to the Congress a ‘Nuclear Industry Blue Ribbon Commission Report’ complete with recommendations for said Congress to adopt into law.

The moratorium would remain in full effect until such time as every recommendation of this commission was enacted into law. In this fashion, we have the national debate on Nuclear Reactors with all the cards honestly laid out on the table. As a part of this process, there should be informational meetings, and at least one public hearing for the purpose of taking citizen testimony in every community hosting a nuclear reactor, and or other facility related to or producing source materials for these reactors.

I, and the undersigned organizations, respectfully request a response from Greenpeace on these matters as quickly as possible. We need leadership and commitment from Greenpeace while we still have a chance to win this war.


Respectfully,



Green Nuclear Butterfly

CO-Signers Of Note

Michel Lee, Esq.
Chairman
Council on Intelligent Energy
& Conservation Policy

White Plains, New York 10602

Mitzi Bowman, Coordinator
Don't Waste Connecticut
Member of Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone
www.mothballmillstone.org
(203)389-2067
upthesun@cshore.com

Sherwood Martinelli, Peekskill, NY
roycepenstinger@aol.com

Remy G. Chevalier
www.rockthereactors.com

Evan Mulholland, South Royalton, Vt.
evanmulholland@yahoo.com

Gary Sachs, Brattleboro, Vt.

Keith Harmon Snow
413-626-3800
www.allthingspass.com

Sally Shaw
Gill, Massachusetts

Claire Chang
Citizens Awareness Network
www.nukebusters.org

Bryan Shaw
Westminster West Vermont.

RJ Haskins
Brattleboro Vermont

Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes
P.O. Box 331
Monroe, MI 48161
Michael J. Keegan

Don't Waste Michigan
6677 Summerview
Holland, MI 49424
Alice Hirt

Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two
P.O. Box 463
Monroe, MI 48161
Keith Gunter

Wendy Brawer
New York, NY

George Crocker
North American Water Office
Lake Elmo, MN

Bruce Meland
Electrifying Times
Bend, OR

Matthew Shapiro
Citizens Environmental Coalition
Albany, NY

John Schaeffer
Real Goods
Hopland, CA

Harvey Wasserman
Author of Solartopia

Patty de Llosa
Author of The Practice of Presence

Connie Hogarth
Center for Social Action

Doug Moss
Publisher
E The Environmental Magazine

Scott Sklar
The Stella Group, Ltd.

David Bedell
Secretary
Fairfield County CT Green Party

Richard Duffee
CT Representative
US Green Party International Committee

Bruce K. Gagnon
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power

Paul H. Gavin, PhD, retired
pgavin@adelphia.net

Eleanor I.Gavin, RN, Retired
elliegavin@adelphia.net

Marilyn Elie
Westchester Citizens Awareness Network

Priscilla Feral
President
Friends of Animals
777 Post Road
Darien, CT 06820

CC List

Congressman John Hall
Congressman Maurice Hinchey
Congresswoman Nita Lowey
Governor Eliot Spitzer

Strontium-90 Fish Fry Anyone? Entergy's Indian Point Reactors will Kill Us Yet!

Please Don't Put Us In The HUDSON RIVER...We Don't Want to Be NUCLEAR GREEN!
First, we get the report from the NRC on the Tooth fairy connection to Strontium-90...for those of you that are not familiar with this, it seems that children around Nuclear Power Plants are being found with strontium-90 in their teeth. NRC's response as usual, was to claim it was NOT their licensees, that any such cases could ONLY BE BLAMED on fallout from Nuclear Bomb testing, or Chernobyl. 29 year half life, it's a STRETCH, but then that is what the NRC always counts on...OH, that and using 9/11 as excuse for denying stakeholders the right to know just what our real risk, is living in the shadow of a failing nuclear reactor, LET ALONE TWO as we have here at Indian Point.

Then The Journal News informed us that Strontium-90 had in fact been found at and around Indian Point, but we had NOTHING to fear from this cancer causing agent, as the levels were VERY LOW. You can put that assurance in your money box right next to the one that reasons any elevated levels of radioactivity leeching into the Hudson are SAFE because of the river is diluting the materials...EXCUSE ME?

WHOOPS....hold the phone folks. Breaking news was yet to come when we found out that the Strontium-90 levels were 7 times higher than Entergy originally stated. Not twice as high, not three times as high, but SEVEN. Now, this is or should be alarming news, but GOD FORBID NRC ORDER AN EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN OF THE FACILITY until they (Entergy) can come into compliance and stop the leak in the fuel pools...No, that would not be practical now would it? Have to keep that cash cow running, screw public health and the host community, this is ABOUT MONEY. Instead, we were told it was the labs fault, and that there could be a problem with the elevated tests! BUT OF COURSE. NRC is letting Entergy wait till the spring rains for the next tests...after all, we want those wells properly WASHED OUT NOW, don't we?

Fear not folks, Congressman John Hall, Governor Eliot Spitzer and Maurice Hinchey are just waiting to get all their ducks in a row on Indian Point, want to make sure the timing is right before they submit another bill to be killed in Sub Committee. Meanwhile, let's have a Strontium 90 Fish Fry with the latest fish caught and tested down river from Indian Point. YES, they found Strontium 90 in 25 percent of the samples caught DOWN RIVER from the decrepit leaking, ready to blow nuclear reactors at the Indian Point site...One would think such news would have seen our fearless government officials calling a hastily organized PRESS CONFERENCE, BUT NO! They must have contacted the NRC and felt safe in the assurances that the test results were probably WHACKED...the solution...let's CATCH MORE FISH. BRILLIANT, absolutely brilliant.

Maybe if a few of us start crapping out green glowing radioactive poop someone will take this whole thing seriously? Thank God we have Greg Clary trying to keep Entergy Honest...more than we can say for ANDY SPANO.

Hudson River fish found to contain radioactive isotope
By GREG CLARY

BUCHANAN - In what could be the region's next environmental controversy or simply just a laboratory mistake, fish in the Hudson River have been found to contain traces of strontium 90.

The radioactive isotope was discovered leaking almost a year ago at the Indian Point nuclear plants, and tests on 12 fish show four with detectible amounts, according to a memo obtained by The Journal News.

The tests were conducted for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns the plants, after researchers pulled the fish from the river during the summer - six from the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge area, and the rest from around Indian Point.

"Certainly it's of concern that the strontium was found in 25 percent of the sampling," said C.J. Miller, spokeswoman for Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef. "The origin of that is something that we need to determine. If indeed it is coming from the plant itself, then that needs to be remedied immediately."

The company has spent millions to find and stop the leaks, but so far have only been able to capture much of the radiated water without successfully plugging the sources.

No other radioactive isotopes were found in the fish, federal regulators said.

Three of the upriver fish had strontium levels ranging as high as 24.5 picocuries per kilogram, while one taken from near the plant showed 18.8 picocuries per kilogram, according to results first released late last week.

Picocuries measure radioactivity level in the tiniest amounts, and though the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't set safe minimums for fish, Westchester County officials said the mean detectable level is 10 picocuries per kilogram.

Strontium has a half-life of nearly 29 years and was banned in the United States after weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s left large amounts in the atmosphere.

Health officials warned at the time that it competed with calcium in human bodies, especially in growing children, and could affect bone development.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Did McCain Wash His Investments Before Claiming To Be Green?

McCain Wants The White House At All Costs...Kind of Like Bush Did.
Was over on the Greenpeace site reading their press releases when I came across their initial review of the McCain/Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007...just the title is humorous in a sad kind of a way, considering that John Mc Cain is very PRO NUCLEAR, but then no surprise from a man who has had a penchant for owning GE stock. This little tidbit of information coupled with is trip to London compliments of the Blackstone Group got me to wondering, so I did a bit more digging into John McCain, SUPER GREEN environmentalist who wants to be the next president of the United States (doubtful with his support of Bush's SURGE)

Seems that John McCain was VERY BUSY in March of 2005 making his personal investment portfolio (estimated to be between $25-38 MILLION) earth friendly and GREEN. You see, he divested himself of a serious CHUNK of GE stock...you know, the same GE that is wanting to race around the world building NUCLEAR REACTORS. He also divested himself of serious holdings in BP (Brittish Petroleum) Chevron, and of course the oil company we ALL LOVE TO HATE, Exxon! MY MY...quiet the investments for a man who now wants to present himself as MR LET's FIX GLOBAL WARMING.

Let's leave our readers with this thought...Mr. McCain has done a fine job of tying up most of the major supporters that made George Bush president...one of the KEY group of Bush Supporters interestingly enough was the NUCLEAR INDUSTRY.

GREENPEACE STATEMENT ON McCAIN-LIEBERMAN CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION INTRODUCED TODAY
Responding to the introduction of The Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007, introduced by Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Lieberman (D-CT) today, Greenpeace issued the following statement from John Coequyt, Greenpeace energy policy analyst:
January 12, 2007
WASHINGTON — “While this shows that the center of gravity in Congress is shifting toward significant long-term reductions in global warming pollution, the target reductions fall very short of what scientists tell us is actually necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. Regrettably, the Senators have also included subsidies for nuclear energy which is inherently dangerous and provides no real solution to global warming.

"Scientists warn that we must make significant reductions in global warming pollution within the next ten years to address the most severe climate impacts and the average build time of a nuclear power plant generally takes ten to twenty. Providing subsidies to the nuclear industry in the form of loan-guarantees that the Congressional Budget Office states have a greater than 50 percent chance of being defaulted on, is therefore not only ineffectual, but foolish and wasteful.
To read rest of story....

Rod Adams Whines Again...Tries to Defend Nuclear

Well, seems that our dear Mr. Rod Adams, nuclear industry shill is busting a gut at my response to him here on the blog yesterday...I awoke this morning to find yet another diatribe from him wherein he DEFENDS the record of nuclear industry after first qualifying that producing electric is a dangerous business. He very carefully crafted a set of RED HERRING arguments to prove perhaps to himself that nuclear is safe, or at least safer than other means of energy production such as coal and gas...NOT EXACTLY.

The nuclear industry (both civilian and military) since the beginning have hidden their own accidents, and their own death counts. It was standard operating procedure for both the DOD and DOE to doctor documents, and to spend millions, actually hundreds of millions for attorneys to defend them against any employee that tried to make a claim that blamed their illness on their exposures to radioactive materials in the work place. They justified this practice under the guise that nuclear was necessary for National Defense...in short, humans were simply put, expendable.

We for instance will NEVER know the true deaths caused by, associated with the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, as many of those that were deserving of our nations compassion and financial help never received it. Even now, many former employees of that facility are in a race against their own deaths to get the benefits they are deserving of. That does not count off site deaths that some attribute to the greatly increased CANCER risks associated with living next to a nuclear facility that teams of hired guns try to mitigate...IE, look up what the NRC has to say about strontium-90, a known by product of nuclear reactors...they admit a cancer leak, but associate any elevated risks not to reactors, but instead blame it on old nuclear bomb testing, and Chernobyl.

The Portsmouth plant running at full tilt required NINE electric companies to supply them their electricity...the facility used enough coal generated electricity in just one day to power Los Angeles County for a full year. Even now, the Piketon Plant in Kentucky used one half of one percent of the total electricity generated in America to produce enriched uranium.

The industry further insulates itself from it's own horrid record by having almost all of it's research and develop paid for and completed by the federal government, or universities associated with them. Those are not OUR DEATHS, that work was done by DOE, or MIT, or Lawrence Livermore. They hide their statistics in other ways...if someone who used to work at a nuclear plant has a very rare form of cancer known to be associated with working around all things nuclear conveniently dies of a secondary health issues because of their weakened condition (say a heart attack), the industry celebrates, as that is one less death in their column.

Even now, if people bother doing their research, it is obvious how the nuclear industry and DOE intend to deal with most of the waste streams from nuclear power. They will wave a magic wand, claim a new found technology makes these waste streams future potential use resources, and through reclassification....BINGO, waste problem is gone for away, and the spent fuel rods will sit where they lay until we have a major accident. In short, our government, and those in the industry WANT NUCLEAR AT ALL COSTS, and the humans and communities forced to host these facilities are expendable if God Forbid we see a serious incident at a nuclear facility.

ROD ADAMS COMMENT:

Rod Adams has left a new comment on your post "Rod Adams, Nuclear Entrepreneur Contests Green Nuc...":

Porgie Tirebiter, Royce Penstinger and Pinto Bean: Your edits of my comment left out some important information. 1. Name of Business deleted, Inc. was founded in September 1993. We have been at this for quite some time and did not just recently jump into a business because we thought it was a good way to make a quick buck. 2. While there have certainly been a few incidents in nuclear heated steam plants, there have been a much larger number in coal, oil and gas fired steam plants. I recognize that steam is deadly, but also recognize that producing electricity is never without risk. Nukes simply have a better overall safety record and that is partially because the penalty for maintenance failures is so high.

See, for example: http://www.steamcycle.com/safety_issues_pdf.htm
Just in case you do not follow links - the document provides some rather depressing statistics - "Over a ten- year period (1992 – 2001), there was a combined total of 23,338 accidents, including 127 fatalities and 720 injuries, reported for all power boilers, water and steam heating boilers, and unfired pressure vessels."

The four workers in Japan that you mentioned are much more famous on the web than any of the 127 fatalities mentioned above - it takes some dedicated searching to find any news stories at all about fossil fuel related steam plant deaths. Perhaps that is because they are too common to be considered "news" or perhaps that is because there are plenty of economic reasons for fighting nuclear power developments. BTW - I have learned my lesson about how you treat comments, so I will make a copy of this comment for future reference so that I know exactly which of my words you decide to edit.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Alec Baldwin Hosts Clinic to Close Oyster Creek

On December 8th, 2006, actor Alec Baldwin hosted the Clinic Symposium on the Campaign to Close Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant at The Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic in Newark, New Jersey.

The campaign wants to block the 20-year renewal of the plant’s operating license. Baldwin said he wanted to take a public stand against Oyster Creek because New Jersey Governor Corzine, if pushed, has the potential to weigh in heavily against the renewal.

Video of the symposium is available.
It can be accessed via the hugg website.

Rod Adams, Nuclear Entrepreneur Contests Green Nuclear Butterfly Views

This NEW GENERATION Nuclear Reactor KILLED FOUR PEOPLE.
Nuclear Entrepreneur Rod Adams weighs in...now, I at least give Rod Adams credit for identifying himself. I did not post his comment in the comments section for two reasons.
1. I was not interested in his remarks at end of comments that became a drum beating commercial for the pro-nuke forces, and the industry over seeing them. You can read enough of that on his blog. But then, it only makes sense that a man, and his company, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc hoping to make millions in nuclear power is going to tout the supposed benefits of an industry he is involved in, and wants to do business with. This is especially true when said gentleman and his cohorts stand to lose $100's of thousands in their own investment seed money if the Nuclear Power 2010 juggernaut gets side tracked or derailed...interesting that this former Navy man had the intuitive sense to JUMP IN when he did...especially considering the fact that the NEI's top gun is a former Navy Admiral himself.

2. Most people don't see/read the comments, so thought I would post the meat of Rod Adams remarks right out on the front page...my commentary on his words will be in red. First John Wheeler, now Rod Adams...both of whom publish pro-nuke news podcasts...tell you, someone is watching us here on the Green Nuclear Butterfly, so suppose in that we should feel honored!

Rod Adams has left a new comment on your post.

Your analogy between a nuclear reactor and a steam boiler has a few missing pieces. I am guessing here that Rod Adams missed the part of my post that said a nuclear reactor was a very large boiler on steroids. Obviously, not every internal part of the beast was detailed, as I was making an analogy.

1. The portion of most nuclear power plants that most resembles the "boiler" component of a fossil fuel plant is a steam generator. That is the place where the actual stresses of steam formation take place in a pressurized water reactor. The industry recognizes that these components have a limited lifetime, that is why almost all of the older plants have replaced their steam generators with new ones in order to extend the plant life. These are not patched up, rusty monoliths like you describe, they are completely new (and improved) components that have been subjected to rigorous testing and inspection. Adam doth protest too much. Perhaps he would like to refute the fact that many nuclear reactors, if not all of them have had significant weld repairs inside the reactors themselves? Perhaps he would like to refute the fact that some of this welding is so dangerous that they cannot even send humans in to do said welding...they instead send in fuzzy science robotic welders, and hope for the best.

2. Inspection, welding and repair work are certainly necessary in order to keep nuclear powered steam plants operating - the "balance of plant" portion of a nuclear power plant is just a steam plant and needs the same care and attention as any other steam plant. That is the nature of power generation - it takes large systems full of energetic fluid that works to weaken the system boundaries. Just a STEAM PLANT...Rod Adams own words folks...tell me here Mr. Adams, just a steam plant like the one in Japan's nuclear reactor that KILLED FOUR WORKERS in 2004? That one, in the supposedly safe, secure and vital energy industry you love?

Four dead in Japanese nuclear plant accident

A non-radioactive steam leak killed four people and injured seven in the worst accident at a Japanese nuclear power plant ever. Another worker was reportedly in a critical condition.

No radiation was involved in yesterday's leak and there was no need to evacuate the area around the plant in Mihama, a city 320 kilometres west of Tokyo, officials said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed to launch a thorough investigation into the accident, which follows a string of safety problems and attempted cover-ups at nuclear power plants in Japan.

Yesterday's accident was caused by a lack of cooling water in the reactor's turbine, said Kimihito Kawabata, a spokesman for plant operator Kansai Electric Power. The steam was believed to be about 270 degrees.

Four workers died after suffering severe burns, said Takanori Amimoto, at the nearby Fukui prefecture government office. He did not know how serious were the conditions of those who were injured.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Opening The Can of Worms-Nuclear Lies Uncovered Part 1

Some people, including members of our Congress will refuse to believe anything unless you can give them absolute proof of your accusations...problem is, a whole lot of the documents one could use to prove their case have quietly been being removed from the Internet under the guise of National Security. After all, some things (money and the nuclear industry) are more important than our civil rights, and surely we all trust those at the top to do what is best for the masses right? We all know that the nuclear industry (Entergy, NuStart) and our government (George Bush) have our best interests at heart.

The Green Nuclear Butterfly has alleged in previous posts that the fix is in, that the powers that be have devised a plan where by A) every nuclear reactor will be, must be re licensed, and B) Nuclear will be presented to the American public as the one and only safe, green alternative to our unfettered and unchecked consumption of fossil fuels. In short, we the people in the greatest democracy in the world shall not be given a voice or a real choice in the matter of giving nuclear a rebirth, a second chance to continue their crimes against humanity.

Problem is, the nuclear industry, the NRC and DOE, even our elected officials have left too many footprints that tell the story, prove the allegations...where is a good attorney when you need one to file a RICO case? Can hear some of my readers now as they guffaw, write me off as a far left lunatic ANTI NUKE maniac...am I? Let's start exposing the truth, let's take the lid off that proverbial can of worms that is the ugly truth of the nuclear industry, the ugly truth of collusion between said industry, the DOE, NRC and our government. We'll start with one excerpt from one document, a document prepared jointly by these various groups as a team, a document that lays out the vision of the Nuclear Power 2010 plan, the document that spells out the need to keep EVERY SINGLE REACTOR up and running for as long as possible to protect Nuclear's market share at 1998 levels.

Though some in the nuclear industry will not like the comparison, a nuclear reactor is basically a very large boiler on steroids. This is an important analogy, one that many people can relate to. As boilers get older, as they age and begin the process of breaking down, they require more and more repairs. At first, it's just a valve, a gauge, and then bigger repairs such as pumps, and even the boiler itself. The boilers themselves begin developing cracks, start becoming brittle, and a host of welders have kept many of these boilers limping along for years past their useful life cycle. A plate is welded on to cover a crack here, or a fissure there, and a once beautiful streamline cylinder starts resembling something else, is now a montage of steel pieced together like your grandmother's guilt handed down to daughter and then to you.

With this analogy firmly planted in your minds, lets examine a steam boiler, the three basic issues that could lead to a failure of said boiler, even and EXPLOSION.

1. Those resulting from over-exposure...there's an interesting choice of words. You see, the long and the short of boilers, is that they have a limited life span, as the chemical changes, the shrinkage and expansion that akes place within the boiler under tremendous pressure cause chemical changes to occur at the sub atomic and molecular level that change the boiler itself, begin a brittling and crazing of the material so that what was built becomes something else.

2. Those caused by a weakening of the structure itself. So, the boiler industry itself admits to boilers weakening over a period of time. Yet, the nuclear industry and the NRC would have us believe no such degradation of the structural strength and stability occurs in a nuclear reactor which in its simplest terms is a very large boiler.

3. Damages that occur from incorrect use of the combustibles needed to fire the boiler...in short, HUMAN ERROR. It's interesting, if you look at the NRC's regulations, they have adopted policies and rules that always give humans credit for reacting PERFECTLY to each and every single problem they might face during a nuclear incident...is that really realistic? Is the NRC protecting human health and safety or their licensees with that kind of a approach to their modeling of scenerios inside a reactor facility?

Now, lets CRANK IT UP A NOTCH (as TV chef Emeril Lagasse would say) and explore what is a worst case scenerio with a boiler...a STEAM EXPLOSION...and yes, these do and have happened. Rather than bore you with my own words on this type of event, let's simply cut and paste from WIKIPEDIA a very interesting paragraph that spells out the event very well.

Steam explosion (also called a littoral explosion, or fuel-coolant interaction, FCI) is a violent boiling or flashing of water into steam, occurring when water is either superheated, or rapidly heated by fine hot debris produced within it. Pressure vessels that operate at above atmospheric pressure can also provide the proper conditions for a steam explosion. The water changes from a liquid to a gas with extreme speed, increasing dramatically in volume. A steam explosion sprays steam and boiling-hot water and the hot medium that heated it in all directions (if not otherwise confined, e.g. by the walls of a container), creating a danger of scalding and burning. Steam explosions are not normally chemical explosions, although a number of substances will react chemically with steam (for example, zirconium reacts with steam to give off hydrogen, which burns violently in air) so that chemical explosions and fires often follow. Some steam explosions appear to be special kinds of Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion, and rely on release of stored superheat. But many large-scale events (eg 'Foundry Accidents') show evidence of an energy-release front propagating through the material (see description of FCI below), where the forces created fragment and mix the hot phase into the cold volatile one; the rapid heat transfer at the front sustains the propagation.

Not sure how many of my readers remember Paul Harvey, but as he was always found of saying, "and now for the rest of the story."

The nuclear industry will want to deny this comparison of mine. The NRC will deny the comparisons, and paint me out as an anti nuclear zealot. They will assure you that my hyposthesis is BUNK, not at all based in science, and that Nuclear Reactors are safe, secure and vital. Well, this old farm boy has always relied on commonsense and is not one to level charges willy nilly...one needs proof, has to have if you will the proverbial smoking gun for the analogy to make any sense. Realizing this, this blogger wanted something that the public would believe, take SERIOUSLY...a tall order one would think.

What if a document prepared by the GREATEST MINDS in the nuclear industry basically admitted to this analogy, in writing stated that nuclear reactors went through the same problems of aging that boilers go through, admitted that a once shining perfect cyclinder was becoming a montage of welded together pieces just like grandmother's quilt? What if such a document had been prepared and signed off on by not only the greatest of minds, but by such revered organizations as MIT, DOE, NRC, even the Idaho National Laboratory? Would that get the public's attention, get them to realize we as a nation need to carefully re examine the nuclear industry efforts to believe nuclear is GREEN, and deserves a second chance?

Such a document exists, it is available in PLAIN SIGHT for those willing to take the time to search it out...it is just one of many documents this blogger has been gathering together, and sending out to others in the ANTI NUKE grassroots who are trying to close down aging, dangerous reactors in their communities across America. For purposes of this article, one small section of this document is shared, a few paragraphs that show my analogy is frighteningly RIGHT ON TARGET, that these nuclear reactors are reaching, have reached a point where their life spans are being dangerously extended through a series of ongoing repairs, through the use of a NEVER ENDING patchwork of new welds and patches as the nuclear industry tries to keep their CASH COW ON LIFE SUPPORT.

THE SMOKING GUN COPIED DIRECTLY FROM A GOVERNMENT/INDUSTRY DOCUMENT

WELDING AND JOINING

Reliable welding and joining procedures are necessary for joining metals, ceramics, and dissimilar materials in general. This need pertains both to the construction of future reactor systems and for the on-line repair or refurbishment of aging existing ones.

Particular concerns include the welding repair of irradiated steels and corrosion resistant alloys, development of crack resistant filler metals for nickel based alloys and reliable joining of ceramic composites. Advancing new welding processes and developing new welding procedures can help prevent expensive power outages attributed to weld-related problems. Some of the recent areas for welding research in the nuclear power industry were highlighted in the EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) Journal [1]. The following paragraphs are largely based on quotations from this article.

Weld failures are unavoidable and are a common cause of down time in fossil and nuclear energy plants. Day in and day out, metal parts are exposed to cycles of extreme temperatures and pressures, radiation, corrosion, and other factors that take their toll in the form of cracks, splits, ruptures, embrittlement, and pitting. As the U. S. power industry nurses its aging facilities where more than half of its nuclear plants are over 15 years old, welding is going to become an even hotter topic. Better welds can extend the lifetime of older components by decades and can save the industry billions of dollars. (Interesting that they are more concerned about saving the nuclear industry money than they are about safety.) A good weld extends plant life, enhances safety and reliability, and cuts down on operation and maintenance costs. These benefits are especially important in nuclear plants, where a day of forced outage costs $300,000 to $750,000.

New welding technologies such as laser welding, underwater welding and temperbead repair welding make possible the ability to weld parts on-site, and sometimes in-situ, which greatly reduce the cost of weld repairs. In today's competitive business environment, in which it may be cheaper to maintain an old plant than build a new one, welding is a crucial aspect of plant management. It represents 10% of new construction costs and 20% of maintenance costs. In some cases welding may provide the only economically viable approach for avoiding a permanent plant shutdown.