Co-Sign Green Nuclear Butterfly's Open Letter To Bill Maher

Dear Bill:

As a fan of yours for decades, have to admit my deep sadness at hearing you endorse nukes as a part of the solution for Global Warming. The only conclusion/excuse I can come to, is that you have bought into the industry's $100's of million dollar propaganda campaign, without doing due diligence when it comes to doing your research on the topic. Just a few points for your consideration:

1. America's aging fleet of 103 reactors are not safe. Failing/breaking welds even in the reactor cores themselves, leaking spent fuel pools at most sites top the list.
2. Many reactors now have unknown/un-traceable leaks that are leaking tritium into the environment, where it is slowly finding its way into our drinking water supplies. Some reactors (such as Indian Point) are also leaking strontium 90, a known cancer precursor that finds its way into the human skeletal system.
3. The evacuation plans in the case of a major incident at a nuclear incident will not work, and without building adequate sheltering facilities, the concept of sheltering us in place in our homes will not work...this is especially true in the Northeast if the incident occurs during the winter months.
4. The Achilles Heel of American reactors in the case of a terrorist attack are the water intake systems, which in almost every attack could be severely compromised without having to go through plant security.
(http://greennuclearbutterfly.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-vulnerable-is-indian-point-are-we.html )
5. The licensing renewal application process has been rigged, as the DOE, NERAC, NRC and the nuclear industry decided back in the late 90's that the only way forward to a nuclear renaissance, was to keep everyone of our current reactors operating at full capacity through 2050 while the new generation (AP1000) reactors were being brought online...with all due respect, our government should not pave the way into a nuclear tomorrow by playing Russian Roulette with host communities health and safety.
6. Why has the NRC refused to do studies that measure the contributions to global warming that water discharge from nuclear reactors play? As one example, Indian Point daily discharges 2.4 BILLION gallons of 100 degree water into the Hudson River.

Lastly, if nuclear reactors are so safe, why can't we get insurance coverage for our losses in the case of a major incident, while the Price Anderson Act shields reactor owners from financial liability? It is my sincere hope, that you will do more research into this issue, and reverse your position on supporting the nuclear industry's rancid agenda...we do not need yet another Patrick Moore playing the part of Judas in this important fight.


Sherwood Martinelli
AKA Royce Penstinger-publisher of Green Nuclear Butterfly

Co-Signers

Susan Corbett
Conservation Chair,
SC Sierra Club

Bill Maher Gets a Tongue Lashing!!!

From:
Susan Corbett
jscorbett@mindspring.com

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Last night, on his weekly show, Bill Maher said we are going to need nukes to fight global warming. I can't believe I heard him say this, he is normally right on about almost every issue near and dear to progressive hearts. I hope people will flood him with emails voicing our concerns that a lead figure of progressive thought in the entertainment world would espouse such a un-progressive opinion, and he needs to do more research. Thankfully, he was talking to Laurie David and Sheryl Crow, and they both said NO we don't need nukes! Awesome!

Here is Bill's fan email address:
billmaherfanmail@safesearching.com

Susan Corbett
Conservation Chair
SC Sierra Club

BREAKING NEWS ALERT-Entergy Denied Siren Testing Extension

Just in from the NRC-Entergy's extension to fix the non-working sirens HAS BEEN DENIED. We have an opening here folks to push for shut down until the siren issue is resolved...obviously, if they wanted a extension of time through August, they have more serious problems than they are letting on about. Shutting down both reactors for a few months could cost Entergy 100's of millions in revenue....we need to pull out all the stops on this one.

Radioactive Energy Drinks Joins The Fight to Shut Down Indian Point!!!

www.radioactiveenergy.com

Rock The Reactors and Green Nuclear Butterfly are proud to announce our first anti-nuclear beverage sponsor!

Radioactive Energy won the 2006 Screaming Energy Drink Coolest Packaging Awards!!!

Not yet available on the East Coast, our two websites will soon be sampling cans of Radioactive Energy at events we attend.

The cans glow in the dark. Don't be caught at a trendy party with a non-glow-in-the-dark can, or they're all going to laugh at you.

Stay tuned for more info... we're hosting a Radioactive Energy taste party as soon as the case arrives.

Demand Closure of Indian Point Until Siren System Functions

As was predicted, Entergy is submitting a letter to the NRC asking again for more time to get the Siren System up and running. We need to call, write letters, fax and send email to the NRC opposing this request, and demanding the reactors be shut down until such time as the siren system has recieved its passing grade.

CONTACTS
Region I (Philadelphia):
610-337-5330
Diane Screnci, Neil A. Sheehan

Online Email Form

Entergy asks NRC for siren activation start up delay

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/IP_sirens-13Apr07.html

One of the new sirens
Buchanan – Entergy, the company that owns the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan, Friday will ask the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an extension on the timetable it needs to have its new emergency warning siren system up and running.

It was supposed to be turned on this weekend in the 10-mile warning radius around the plants; however, the last of three test sounds Thursday ended with poor results including the failure of all of the sirens in Putnam County, said Entergy spokesman James Steets.

“It seems that we are having trouble with the radio communications aspects where the microwaves and transmission through the topography there just isn’t getting to a receiver and sorting out the data, which would then activate the sirens,” he said. “Our contractor is working diligently on that.”

Senator Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, said the failure of over 30 sirens is “extremely troubling.” She said the failures are “deeply alarming,” particularly in light of a fire and shutdown of the Indian Point Unit 3 facility last week.

As a result of the poor test results, Entergy will formally apply for an extension from the NRC on placing the new system into service. This is the second extension being sought. In January, Entergy sought and was granted an extension until April 15.

Steets said the work to resolve the problems could take two weeks; however, a specific timetable is unclear at this time.

The company said it will also address during the requested extension a concern raised by FEMA relating to the volume of the sirens.

If Incident Occurs At Indian Point, Are your Children REALLY Safe Sheltered At Or By The School?

We all know the drill...in case of a nuclear incident, don't try to get to your school children, FEMA and the school board will protect them during the fallout. Will they? Just how safe are your children during a significant nuclear incident/terrorist attack at Indian Point, and will they have been moved far enough out of harms way before it is too late?

TMI Alert wants kids' centers moved away
Friday, April 13, 2007
BY GARRY LENTON
Of The Patriot-News
www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1176423931149410.xml&coll=1

Some school buildings that would serve as pickup centers for children evacuated in a nuclear emergency are not far enough from the danger zone, a watchdog group has charged.

Three Mile Island Alert has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to adopt rules that would require evacuation centers for children to be at least 15 to 20 miles from the nuclear plant.

The NRC requires that evacuation centers be at least five miles outside the evacuation area -- usually defined as 10 miles from a plant. There is no such requirement for school evacuations, the petition said.

Stop GNEP, Stop The Nuclear Renaissance...Submit Your Comments Now

There are two main components of the nuclear industry's plans for a renaissance, 1) the NRC doing a fine job of rubber stamping the license renewal applications of all 103 of America's aging reactors, and 2) creation and implementation of GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Program) which with the stroke of a pen reclassifies reactor waste as potential future use resources under the false promise of eventual recycling of the wastes at failing reactors such as Entergy's Indian Point.

Well, thanks to an extension of the comment period, we still have time to submit our comments on the GNEP plan, and I have placed the information below...it cannot be stressed how important our comments are in this process, so let's have our voice heard this time around.

Urge the Administration to Abandon Dangerous New Nuclear Plan
http://ucsaction.org/campaign/3_23_07_new_nuclear_plan

The Bush administration’s controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) would resume U.S. commercial reprocessing—the extraction of weapons-usable plutonium from spent fuel from nuclear power reactors—for the first time in more than 30 years. U.S. reprocessing would make it easier for terrorists to obtain nuclear weapons materials, encourage other countries to begin reprocessing programs, and seriously undermine U.S. efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy (DOE) is conducting an environmental assessment of the GNEP proposal. Write the DOE today and ask them to abandon the program due to its serious security risks and enormous taxpayer costs.

Please make your letter personal by adding in your own thoughts and concerns. Every letter makes a difference, but customized letters have the greatest effect!

The deadline for comments has been extended to June 4, 2007.

What's At Stake?
Urge the Administration to Abandon Dangerous New Nuclear Plan

The Bush administration is requesting a Fiscal Year 2008 budget of $405 million for its major new nuclear energy initiative, the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), which involves “reprocessing” the used (or “spent”) fuel from nuclear power reactors. Reprocessing separates plutonium and uranium from other nuclear waste contained in spent nuclear fuel. The separated plutonium can be used to fuel reactors, but also to make nuclear weapons. See the UCS Fact Sheet on reprocessing.

Currently, the Department of Energy (DOE) is conducting a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) of GNEP. The PEIS looks at potential consequences of the facilities that would be built under GNEP, including the reprocessing plant and an experimental new type of nuclear reactor.

As part of this stage of the assessment, the public is invited to submit comments on the scope of the PEIS, as well as concerns or questions about the program, by April 4, 2007.

The DOE will consider these comments, as well as others received at a series of public hearings held across the country, as it prepares a Draft PEIS. That draft is scheduled to be released this summer, at which point there will be an opportunity to comment on it.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is calling for the impact statement to include an assessment of the effects of GNEP on the spread of nuclear weapons, materials, and technologies. Since the administration announced GNEP, several countries have proposed similar or related initiatives, undermining one of the stated goals of the program: stopping the spread of nuclear technology.

The DOE has also refused to provide a comprehensive budget for the proposed program. A 1996 study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that a full-scale U.S. reprocessing program could cost $100 billion. A budget assessment should be included in the PEIS.

Meanwhile, UCS and other groups will be urging Congress—as they consider its annual spending bills (e.g. Appropriations)—to eliminate and cut the $405 million in GNEP funding proposed this fiscal year.

Hillary Pretends Again To Be On Our Side

As I am sure by now everyone knows, Entergy's Indian Point siren system failed miserably, and it is looking very iffy that they can meet the Sunday (April 15th) deadline...If they cannot meet the deadline, the solution is simple. Moth ball reactors 2 and 3 until they can. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and do not operate the facility without a warning system that passes muster.

Sadly, we know that is not going to happen. Instead, we'll have Entergy Northeast writing yet another letter asking for yet another extension of time, and the NRC rubber stampers gladly will grant their REASONABLE (cough, cough) request.

Hillary Clinton who has embraced nuclear industry as a solution to global warming, is out issuing empty press releases, so that we here in her home state think she's on our side, decrying the situation, but FALLING FAR SHORT of calling for plant shut down until the warning system has passed muster...any one want to bet that A) Hillary and Bill have a real shelter at their Chappaqua compound, or B) a helicopter would pick them up and whisk them out of harms way in case of a nuclear event at Indian Point. No wonder she has no problems playing both sides of the nuclear coin depending on what audience she is playing to on a given day. Bet the farm that she will be a no show at the yearly Indian Point Assessment Review later this month.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON REGARDING ENTERGY REQUEST FOR DELAY ON INDIAN POINT SAFETY SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

“It is completely unacceptable that Entergy will not have the new siren system into place by the prescribed deadline. The failure of over thirty emergency sirens during today’s test is extremely troubling. These failures are deeply alarming, particularly in light of last week’s fire and shutdown at Indian Point Unit 3. This is merely one in a long litany of concerns related to safety system failures at Indian Point. If Entergy fails to meet the April 15 deadline, then the NRC should take whatever action is necessary to ensure public safety.”

In July of 2005 Senator Clinton authored legislation included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 requiring backup power for Indian Point’s emergency notification system and complete installation of new emergency notification sirens in the areas around Indian Point. In February 2006 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an order to implement the Senator’s legislation. In January, Entergy was granted an extension until April 15, 2007.

Mark Your Calendars! Annual Indian Point Assessment Meeting April 26th, 2007

Mark your calendars folks...the annual Indian Point Assessment Meeting takes place this April 26th from 2:30-9:30, with the public review slated from 6:30-9:30 in the evening...usual dog and pony show format in the evening, NRC and Entergy go first, and the public is left with the dregs at the end of the evening.

Should groups like Riverkeeper, IPSEC and Clearwater take actions?

1. Protestors out in front of building.

2. People handing out Pro-Closure literature?

3. Demand our own literature table inside the meeting area?

4. Civil Acts of disobedience during the meeting?

5. Stack the meeting in the same fashion Entergy now does?

The NRC will hold a meeting with Entergy, the licensee for the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, on Thursday, April 26, 2007, at Colonial Terrace, 119 Oregon Road, Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567.

There will be an information session from 2:30 pm to 9:30 pm, with NRC personnel available to answer questions. The annual assessment meeting is scheduled from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. The NRC requested the annual assessment meeting with Entergy to discuss the NRC's assessment of the safety performance of the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units for calendar year 2006.

Summer Rayne Speaks Out on Nukes... The day we've ALL been waiting for... the sun will come out...

Summer Rayne Oakes, currently featured posing with a Tango in the May not-so-green issue of Vanity Fair, the same electric car Georges Clooney drives around Los Angeles, writes on her blog:

"If as much of the $73 billion dollars in R&D subsidies for nuclear power that the federal government has spent in the last 60 years was put towards clean, benign, renewable technologies, we’d be in a much better position in protecting our health and our planet. I’m looking forward to lobbying and working with my political representatives in envisioning a smarter path in this critical time of action."

Might this mean Summer has a call in to Congressman John Hall?

Thanks to Green Apple Guide author Ben Jervey, we also heard from Bill McKibben this morning, a keynote speaker on April 14th down in Battery Park for the Step It Up Sea of People rally, where the NoNukes concert was held back in 1980.

"If you want to hand me $2 billion to build a nuclear reactor, I can show you two billion things to do with it that would get you a lot more carbon bang for the buck, mostly to do with conservation. Spend that money going around your state and refitting every industrial motor to make it three times as efficient. Go stuff insulation in every old house in your state. Take your $2 billion and go to Wal-mart and buy compact florescent bulbs, and mail them at random to everybody in the phone book, and you'd get more bang for your buck than building a nuclear power plant."

I need to remind Bill that florescent bulbs were "so... ten years ago" and horribly toxic to the environment in both manufacture and disposal, much more so than incandescent, and that the SOLUTION today are LEDs, solid state... tunable, recyclable, while getting the same lumens for 6% of the juice of CFBs.

The ONLY reason Utilities and Wal-Mart are NOW "pushing" CFBs is to take attention away from LEDs... because they "know" the minute the price of LEDs drop... and they quickly will, because the manufacturing process is a lot simpler, mainstreamed... the Utilities are plum out of luck... Major cities have already been switching ALL their traffic lights over to LEDs... to a savings of not only electricity, but massive electrical bills.

LEDs... PVs... solid state batteries... it's ALL the same electronic engineering chemistry... it's all nano next-gen "now"... not in ten or twenty years... we're talking the retrofit of the WHOLE planet... to have "zero" footprint... with electronic devices that have their toxicity easily controlled cradle to cradle (3M... McDonough) That's the rEVolution they are trying to steer away from mainstream attention... they don't want someone to come along and put it all together... they don't want the marriage of polymer and electronics... they don't want a green empire to spell the end of electricity as a commodity... nobody will want to buy the milk if they can get the cow for free... the cow in this instance is the sun.

How Vulnerable Is Indian Point? Are We One Rocket Away From Chernobyl On Hudson?

Could Your Child Find The Water Intakes On This Diagram? If They Can, So Can A Terrorist!

Every time there is an incident at Entergy's failing, leaking, brittling reactors, such as Vermont Yankee or Indian Point 2 and 3 we know the party line of the NRC and its licensee, can almost recite it blind folded. There was no off site release of radioactive materials, and the general public was never at any immediate risk. First evil cruelty on the part of the NRC and its licensee is that little line of IMMEDIATE RISK. Unless metal scrapnel from the explosion at Indian Point had flown off site and struck someone dead, there is no immediate risk or danger...now, poisonous chemical fumes floating off site in a gentle breeze and being breathed in might cause someone some latent negative health effects or risks, but they don't want to discuss that. The claim of no immediate danger or risk somehow absolves them.

They want the host community to falsely believe there is no risk to living in the ten mile radius of death around a nuclear reactor, want you to buy into their lie of Nuclear Energy as a safe, vital and secure Green Energy that is going to save you and the world from Global Warming. They will even try to convince, that in the case of a major incident, you have NOTHING AT ALL TO WORRY ABOUT if you just shut your doors and windows, and SHELTER IN PLACE for a few hours or days. Kids in school, not a problem, they have it all planned out, the kids can duct tape plastic on the windows, eat no bake cookies and hide under their desks to ride out the radioactive fallout! Before you buy into that lie, might want to check out Condi Rice's State Department site...they speak of sheltering that could last a couple of weeks.

During the 2003 BLACKOUT, 21 nuclear reactors, all dependent on offsite power for safety operations, were immediately shut down in the US and Canada. Even more troubling, five nuclear power stations in New York and Wisconsin admitted that over half of their emergency sirens WERE NOT WORKING due to the outage! Any one want to place a bet that Indian Point was on that list? In severe weather, when off site electric goes down, NRC has a fist full of examples of onsite back up generators failing, including a case in a South Carolina nuclear power plant, where all four diesel generators were found inoperable due to a common mode failure.

Which begs the question, how safe are we if there is a terrorist attack at Indian Point, and how easily could they cause a core melt down? Three recent events at Indian Point show us that the reactors are in DEEP TROUBLE if the water intakes are some how impinged. First, Entergy makes it very easy to figure out the location of these intakes, as site maps smiliar to the one above are liberally posted all over the internet...show the map to an eight read old, and they can identify the location of said water intakes, so how hard would it be for a terrorist to put two and two together and come up with four?

Can here the pro nuke naysayers now accusing me of being and over imaginative freak who has smoked too much bud again...but ask yourselves this question. If a Penthouse Pet of The Month can drive a Prius almost up to the rivers edge and stare out across the Hudson River at Indian Point's reactor domes, what is to keep a band of determined terrorists from driving up to the same spot and drawing a bead on the plants 2 and 3 intake valves? With no water, the control room staff cannot save any of us.

You can ignore the truth right in front of your eyes, pretend that you and your children aare safe, or you can join the crusade to shut down and decommission these reactors before it is to late.

Betcee Checking Out The Reactor Domes!

Entergy Is Not State Farm

As hard as they try to pretend the part of State Farm, Entergy is not and well never be your good neighbor. In their latest bogus attempt at being Mr. Goodfellow, seems they have announced plans to provide funds for summer youth resources in Brattleboro, Vermont. The premise it seems is to get youth and families involved in FUN, HEALTY summer activities.

We here at the Green Nuclear Butterfly can see the memo making game suggestions:
1. Ring Around The Reactor
2. Enriched Uranium Pellet Toss
3. Spent Fuel Pool Wading

For a tie breaker, they can always pull out the ever popular greased Fuel Rod Climbing event, or for the very daring at heart, reactor core diving.

Brattleboro needs to tell Entergy they can keep their radioactively contaminated blood money.

Summer resources for youth receive funding from Entergy
Reformer.com
www.reformer.com/ci_5639568

Wednesday, April 11
BRATTLEBORO -- Youth Services announces the debut of Summer Resources for Healthy Youth and Families, a four-part initiative sponsored by Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee to help youth and their families located healthy and productive summer activities.

These resources include the Summer Events Calendar, the Summer Camp Fair, a Summer Jobs Bulletin, and the HEY! Help Empower Youth Resource Guide.

The Summer Events Calendar links younger youth to camps and summer programs through a Reformer insert that appeared on Saturday, with additional copies delivered to schools, libraries, and other locations across the county that families frequent, including Youth Services web page.

NRC too Busy Surfing Porn To Worry About Public Health and Safety?

Official Indian Point Pin Up Girl?

For months now, rumors have been flying around the internet that Entergy's Indian Point workers had adopted Penthouse's "March Pet of The Month" (Betcee May) as their official pin up girl with her image making appearances in various lockers, and even the employee break room. It made for a titillating, even juicy bit of gossip, but seems there may be some truth to it after all.

Cruising the internet today looking for nuclear industry dirt, I came across the NRC Office Of Inspector General's Report to Congress. Seems the NRC's computers were being used by staff, contractor employees, and GUARDS to cruise internet porn sites! Read for yourselves, and then wonder when something critical will be missed in mid drool by NRC, reactor staff, or a guard who is bored in the middle of the night. Perhaps the time has come to rename the NRC, "Pervs R Us"?

Office of the Inspector General Semiannual Report to Congress (NUREG-1415, Vol. 16, No. 1)

Misuse of NRC Computers To Access Pornographic Material

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/nuregs/staff/sr1415/v16n1/#case_summaries

OIG completed a proactive review for fiscal years 2001 through 2003 to identify the potential misuse of information technology resources by NRC employees and contractors. This review centered on the network activity passing through the NRC’s primary conduit to the Internet and identified NRC computers requesting and receiving materials from Web sites containing sexually explicit materials. The preliminary information was confirmed using computer forensic methods and resulted in 30 investigations of NRC employees and contractors.

As a result of the investigations, OIG found that 22 NRC employees and 7 contractor employees were routinely accessing sexually explicit Internet sites from their assigned NRC computers. Each of the subjects of these investigations confessed to their activities and, furthermore, each indicated they were aware of the NRC’s policies against accessing such materials. Responsive action taken by NRC toward its employees ranged from a 21-day suspension to job termination.

Additionally, OIG discovered that the NRC contract guard force was misusing their Internet access on computers provided by the NRC in violation of specific provisions within their contract with the NRC. The NRC is currently negotiating with the contract guard force and a contractor providing computer services to deduct the value of the hours lost to these unapproved and non-contract related activities which has been estimated at over $17,000. (Addresses Management Challenge #3)

Upcoming News Story in The Reformer

Commercially Available Family Shelter

Today I was interviewed by Brattleboro Vermont's paper, "The Reformer" on the Petition For Rule Making filed yesterday with the NRC. The article link will be posted here as soon as we have it, and a special thanks goes out to reporter, BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff for being on top of this important story.

For Reformer readers visiting our site, first welcome. Hidden in and around our almost 200 articles is some really great stuff, and it is my hope you will be a regular visitor, and share our link with all your friends and family, as a movement is built one person at a time. For your convenience, below are two links, the first to my petition for rule making, and the second to an article encouraging you and your friends to file your own.

Petition For Rule Making (without reference cites)

File Your Own Petition

One World Nuclear Order

Comments from Sara Shannon, co-founder of Mother's Alert, author of Technologies Curse: Diet for the Atomic Age (with Ernest J. Sternglass) and Good Health in a Toxic World: Complete Guide to Fighting Free Radicals.

This is the plan, to say that climate change is caused by carbon emissions... and nuclear has no carbon emissions. So we have to go to more nuclear for power.

This is now as plain as day... a whole plan... and tranparently obvious, once one opens the mind to see... probably in the works for years.

France has their reprocessing plant... the fallout from this goes over East to the Alps, goes down into Lake Leman when the ice melts, and some say is responsible for very high rates of cancer around Geneva.

The reprocessing plant in England, Sellafield, across the water from Dublin, releases effluent into the water, it is absorbed by the seaweed, and this seaweed is used on croplands, and Dublin has Very high rates of cancer....

Everything is very grave as it is, and to consider building MORE Nuke plants is so insane it is impossible to comprehend WHAT sort of thinking and goal is behind it.

I heard someone say yesterday, don't know if its true, he heard on the news that there are plans to impose a "climate change tax" on Americans, that this tax would go partly to fund more nuclear power plants... !!!

About Europe again, it seems, as far as we can comprehend from what is stated, that a few weeks ago, there was a decision to allocate for the future that 20% of energy should be from "Green" energy, that is from alternative energies.

And then the revised list of "green" alternative energies included nuclear power! Very quietly stated.

The basis being that nuclear power does NOT release carbon dioxide emissions, which has been determined to be the CAUSE of climate change...

All this done very smoothly. And seemingly valid. Except, that it is not valid... in any sense.

Going back to the topic of the waste from nuclear power production. WHERE are we going to put it?

There is not now or nor will there be in the future any way to manage long term storage... Only can be managed with double talk.

IF we had the money already spent on exploring Yucca Mountain as a rad waste repository, we could have built wind and solar enough for the whole country !!!

There are choices being made, and they are not made with consideration of the health of present and future humans...

The oxygen level is going down; trees themselves absorb radiaoctive elements and are released when you have a fire in your fireplace.

Our bones contain strontium 90 which radiates into the bone marrow, an essential aspect of the immune system.

The common sense admonition to "make every decision with consideration of the seventh generation" has been shred in the paper shredder.

What to do at this point?

Nuclear Energy...Vital, Safe, Secure? Not Exactly-Stories NRC, DOE, GNEP and NEI Don't Want Americans Reading

As the Green Nuclear Butterfly fast approaches the important mile market of 200 posts, thought I would share with our readers a montage of articles that the nuclear industry and our federal government work very hard at keeping out of our news streams. God forbid we destroy the GNEP/NuStart myth that nuclear energy is vital, safe and secure.

Nuclear plant managers let radioactive particles flow into sea
LOUISE HOSIE
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=199942007
NUCLEAR plant operators yesterday admitted illegally dumping radioactive waste and releasing nuclear fuel particles into the sea more than 40 years ago.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) pleaded guilty to four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.

The breaches happened at the Dounreay site in Caithness.

Managers admitted a single charge of disposing of radioactive waste at a landfill site at the Scottish plant between 1963 and 1975.

They also pleaded guilty to three charges of allowing nuclear fuel particles to be released through drains into the Pentland Firth. This took place between 1963 and 1984.

The charges were brought against UKAEA after it was reported to the procurator-fiscal following an investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

Wick Sheriff Court heard yesterday that fuel fragments which were supposed to be put in a storage shaft had been placed in 46,000 cubic metres of landfill.

The error came to light in July 1999 during work at the site.

Fiscal Alasdair MacDonald said six radioactive particles were removed from the landfill and two from the coast.

He added that such solid radioactive waste could only have legally been disposed of in a low-level pit.

Between December 1963 and December 1984, nuclear particles entered the sea from a drain at the site.

Widow fights for justice 25 years after suicide of her RAF husband
Makes one wonder what the real truth is in the Indian Point Lessard murder and suicide earlier this year.
Gethin Chamberlain

IT TOOK Eric Denson three attempts before he managed to kill himself, aged 44. In truth, Squadron Leader Denson had been as good as dead since the Royal Airforce made him fly his Canberra aircraft through a nuclear mushroom cloud 18 years earlier. It was simply a matter of time.

Within hours of landing on Christmas Island, he had started vomiting; soon he had developed skin and stomach problems. It was in his head, however, that the real damage was done. Sqdn Ldr Denson was a changed man, trapped inside his own mind and prey to bouts of depression which would haunt him for the rest of his truncated life.

"The noise was deafening, like 1000 horses thundering towards you" ~ KEN McGINLEY

Now his widow, Shirley, wants the Ministry of Defence to admit that what happened that day over a tiny coral atoll in the Indian Ocean led directly to her husband’s death.

How Dounreay's nuclear dream turned sour
JAMES DOHERTY
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1262682002

IT IS going to cost more than £4 billion in an operation lasting 60 years to decommission Dounreay. The land around the site at Caithness could remain out of bounds for more than 300 years.

But more pressing is the persistent threat to the health of local people and workers, who have been exposed to a catalogue of near disasters since work started on the experimental reactor in March 1955.

The plant was seen as a Godsend at a time when the north needed jobs and the dangers of the nuclear age were played down in favour of the potential benefits.

Chernobyl Shell Close To Collapse
TOM PARFIT IN MOSCOW
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=462902003

THE concrete shell surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is in danger of collapsing, Russia’s atomic energy minister claimed yesterday.

Alexander Rumyantsev told a Russian newspaper he feared the damaged reactor might leak radiation.

"The collapse of the current sarcophagus is a real danger," he said in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "We can’t brush this aside."

Russia’s NTV network stressed "the second Chernobyl disaster would be no less in scale than the first one". If the protective shell crumbled "radioactive dust would go into the air, pushing the cancer rate up".

The warnings came as the 17th anniversary of the nuclear disaster approaches. On 26 April, 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear complex in northern Ukraine exploded and caught fire, spewing a radioactive cloud that drifted across Europe.

Nuclear Fuel Train Derails
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=685082004

A TRAIN carrying radioactive waste derailed in a naval dockyard, it emerged today. An investigation has been launched after the train pulling a container of nuclear submarine fuel derailed in Devonport, Plymouth, on Monday. The container remained on the tracks.

Security lapses at nuclear plants spark terror fears
JAMES KIRKUP POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=176262005

A LITANY of security failures at British nuclear sites has been revealed by government investigators, raising fears of a terrorist attack. The incidents, which even included a burglary, were uncovered by the Office for Civil Nuclear Safety (OCNS), an arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The watchdog’s reports are not normally published, but have come to light because of the Freedom of Information Act.

During the 12 months ending April 2004, the agency recorded more than 40 security breaches, including eight incidents it classified as "failures of security leading to unacceptable or undesirable consequences".

Serious UK nuclear leak 'went unnoticed for nine months'
Remind anyone of Indian Point?
MICHAEL BLACKLEY
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=589332005

TENS of thousands of litres of highly radioactive liquid has been leaking unnoticed at the UK's nuclear reprocessing plant for nine months, it was revealed yesterday.

The leak is being described as the worst nuclear accident in Britain for 13 years and could threaten the future of the Thorp plant, at Sellafield in Cumbria, where the leak was discovered on 19 April.

The International Atomic Energy Authority has admitted that it would classify the accident as "serious".

It was only discovered that liquid was leaking last month, but by that time 83,000 litres of radioactive fuel, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, had already been accidentally discharged.

British Nuclear Group, which runs the plant, said workers had failed to respond to indicators that would have warned since last August that there was a leak. The company has ordered an urgent review to check that there are not any other potential leaks, and is also warning against staff complacency.

Leak raises nuclear power doubts
GERRI PEEV POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=647332005

A LEAK of nuclear fluid at the Sellafield plant has cast uncertainty over the future direction of nuclear power, a senior Cabinet minister has said.

The disclosure comes as Sellafield's managing director, Barry Snelson, yesterday admitted that the leak of 83,000 litres of spent radioactive fuel at the site's Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) could close that part of the Cumbria complex for up to eight months.

Fake nuclear disaster at barracks tests emergency crews' response
JANE BRADLEY
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1938442005

MORE than 1000 emergency service workers took part in an exercise today simulating a full-scale nuclear emergency in Edinburgh.

The biggest exercise of its kind ever staged in the Capital saw crews dealing with the imaginary aftermath of an engine falling from a plane as it took off from Edinburgh Airport.

In the scenario played out in Exercise Senator, the falling engine hits a convoy carrying nuclear weapons on the A720 dual carriageway - and then a fuel tanker crashes into the convoy.

Nuclear Experiment Held Beneath US Desert
ETHAN MCNERN
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=290602006

SCIENTISTS from the US and Britain performed an underground nuclear experiment, short of a nuclear blast, in Nevada, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.

It involved detonating explosives around radioactive material in a vault about 1,000 feet below ground at a remote part of the desert testing range 85 miles north-west of Las Vegas.

No radioactivity was released, said Nancy Tufano, the spokeswoman for Bechtel Nevada, a contractor at the nuclear security administration in Las Vegas.

Report reveals nuclear plant picture scares
As in terrorist making plans?
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=651742006

PEOPLE taking photographs outside Torness Power Station made up two of 18 security incidents reported at the Dunbar nuclear plant in the last three years.

Details released by the Office for Civil Nuclear Security today revealed there have been two incidents that involved individuals taking photographs from outside the nuclear plant and two incidents relating to security guard staffing levels since March, 2003.

Atomic issues worry Sweden
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1126762006

SWEDISH nuclear authorities called an emergency meeting today after shutting down two reactors at a plant in the south-east of the country.

The Oskarshamn plant, about 150 miles south of Stockholm, shut the reactors late yesterday after the company running the plant reported that "safety there could not be guaranteed."

The decision followed a safety scare last week at another Swedish nuclear plant in Forsmark.

Deal reached on atomic clear-up
Gives us an idea of what to expect after nuclear incident at Indian Point.
ETHAN MCNERN
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1491852006

SPAIN and the US have reached an agreement to clean up radioactivity in the Spanish farming village of Palomares, on Spain's south-east tip, 40 years after two US atomic bombs fell in the area after a mid-air collision.

The agreement to clean the area was reached at a meeting mid-September between the US Department of Energy and Spain's CIEMAT, the national Centre for Energy and Environment Investigation, the leading Madrid daily El Pais reported.

Chernobyl deaths 'up to 66,000'
Vital, Safe, Secure
CHRISTOPHER CLAIRE
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=610542006

THE long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster have been severely underestimated with a new study estimating that the nuclear explosion could eventually cause up to 66,000 deaths from cancer - 15 times more than the formal figures released last September.

Nearly 20 years after the world's worst industrial accident, the report suggests the impact of the 1986 nuclear disaster on the UK and the rest of the world may never be fully realised.

The Other Report on Chernobyl, otherwise known as Torch, comes ahead of this Wednesday's anniversary. It was co-written by Dr Ian Fairlie and Dr David Sumner.

Probe after reporter plants fake bomb on nuclear train
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1061462006

AN investigation was under way today after a newspaper reporter planted a fake bomb on a train carrying nuclear waste.

The journalist from the Daily Mirror claimed he had wandered up to the unattended wagons at a north west London depot.

And the paper claimed a terrorist could have blown up the waste, sparking a vast toxic cloud that would have killed hundreds.

What price now for nuclear policy?
PETER MACMAHON SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT EDITOR
(pmcmahon@scotsman.com)
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1535632006

Hunterston B plant to close for repairs amid fears over cracks
Jack McConnell's nuclear strategy suffers serious blow
British Energy sees £800m wiped off shares
Key quote "It is OK for Mr McConnell and others to say that you can run these stations for ten years more, but when there are safety concerns, they have to be shut down and looked at." - Professor Roger Crofts

Story in full JACK McConnell's hopes that he could rely on the extension of the lives of Scotland's ageing nuclear reactors - and avoid sanctioning the building of new nuclear power stations - suffered a major setback last night.

Serious cracks were found in boiler pipes at the Hinkley Point plant in Somerset, dealing a blow to the First Minister's plan to step up investment in renewable energy while the lives of existing nuclear plants were extended.

British Energy, which produces a fifth of UK electricity, was forced to admit the existence of the faults, which were uncovered after similar problems were revealed at the station's sister plant at Hunterston, Ayrshire, earlier this year.

It was also forced to announce it was investigating "a significant leak" in an underground cast-iron pipe in the cooling-water systems at its nuclear station at Hartlepool.

Asked about any risks to public safety, a spokesman said the boiler tubes were cracked and not leaking, and that water leaking from the pipes in Hartlepool was "non nuclear".

Radioactive waste thrown into skip and buried on landfill site
ANDREW PICKEN
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=251122006

RADIOACTIVE waste from Torness Power Station was thrown out with ordinary rubbish in a skip and sent to a Lothian dump.

A report into the blunder, released to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, revealed that workers at the nuclear plant failed even to check if the waste was radioactive before throwing it out.

It was then taken to a landfill site in Dunbar to be buried alongside normal household waste.

In a report into the incident in August 2003, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said there was a "fundamental lack of control" at the station and ordered an immediate safety review.

Time For Aging Reactor Communities To Use The 10 CFR Rules To Take Back The Regulatory Process From Nuclear Industry

This afternoon I used the NRC's Rules and Regulations to file a citizens Formal Petition For Rule Making (found here) in the hopes of righting the wrongs of the NRC's rubber stamping of all nuclear industry license renewal applications. With the score Nuclear Industry 50, and Host Communities 0, it is obvious that the nuclear industry now owns the regulatory framework, and it is our job to TAKE IT BACK. Properly Organized, the citizens who are opposed to these unsafe, aging and brittled reactors can use 10 CFR 2.206, 2.802 and 2.202 as a tool to level the playing field, and force the NRC to give us a fair, open, honest license renewal process that looks at all reactor safety and security issues, instead of only those issues the licensees want us to have a voice in.

My petition could be flatly rejected by the NRC, or they could give it a cursory look, run it through the process so it looks good, then ignoring public comments reject it...which is what I expect. ( Though 1,000's of public comments when it is released in the Federal Registry would make it a bit more difficult on them.)

However, the beauty of the Petition For Rule Making, is that any stakeholder (which in the case of nuclear energy is every human being residing in America) can file one. So, as Arlo Guthrie used to say sing in his infamous, "Alice's Restaurant", can you imagine if ten people a day filed a Petition For Rule Making with the NRC...they would think it was an organization. And could you imagine 100 people a day filing a Formal Petition For Rule Making with the NRC? (It's almost as simple as writing an email!) They would think it was a movement, and that is JUST WHAT I AM PROPOSING! A take back the regulatory process, and return NRC to a position of honesty and integrity MOVEMENT, and all your organization against wrongful relicensing needs to do to join, is to host a Petition For Rule Making party in a home or coffee shop in your own host community.

If only 100 people in 100 host communities filed their very own Petition For Rule Making, that would give the NRC over 10,000 bites at the apple to DO THE RIGHT THING when it comes to protecting human health and safety! Could you imagine what would happen if all reactor host communities embraced this strategy and got 1,000, or 10,000 citizens to file their own petitions for rule making?

Nothing any of us has done so far is working! The biggest win we have had is out in California with the Diablo court victory. Problem is, Neil Sheehan has already been quoted three different times stating he will ignore those court findings in the other 49 states! The NRC is intent at relicensing these reactors, no matter what a host communities objections or fears are, even if they are legitimate! Which means we need to CHANGE THE WAY THE GAME IS BEING PLAYED. 10 CFR's Rules For Rule Making that we have to start using in a very big way...the survival of our communities may depend on it, as the NRC is far to willing to play Russian Roulette with our lives if it will help them realize their dream of a Nuclear Renaissance.

Write Governor Spitzer NOW! Action Alert From Susan Shapiro!

This just in from the desk of Susan Shapiro, and well worth SHARING! It's time to put the ACT in ACTIVIST people! This is now FOUR INCIDENTS in a matter of months, and that DOES NOT INCLUDE various violations of the 10 CFR Rules and Regulations that the NRC did not cite Indian Point for...that's right, many of Indian Points violations are NEVER CITED, NEVER FINED UNDER THE NRC'S GREEN LIGHT SYSTEM.

If you are outraged as I am that Indian Point can continue to threaten our region write Spitzer to live up to his campagin promise. Ask him to use the full power of his office to demand a comprehensive ISA (Independent Safety Assessment) and stop relicensing,

Below is a sample letter.


Dear Governor Spitzer:

Saturday morning's explosion and fire in the transformer yard at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, and subsequent shutdown of unit 3, is urther evidence the need for an Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) of these plants prior to relicensing.

Entergy and the NRC can no longer expect people to believe their repeated claims that everything is safe and secure at the Indian Point site. The public is understandably shaken by the multitude of problems and shutdowns that occur, and they deserve an ISA. This is the third incident this week alone. Earlier in the week a steam generator problem resulted in the manual shutdown of IP3, and 123 out of 150 of the new warning sirens failed their test.

Please use the full power of your office to demand a comprehensive ISA and stop relicensing,

Nita Lowey's comprehensive study of National Research Council for the Department of Energy released last June found that the energy can be replaced if "political, regulatory, financial and institutional" obstacles are removed. As you well know funding for renewable will not come on line, until it is known that Indian Point's day are numbered. . It is time for you to lead the political, regulatory, financial and institutional interests to replace the energy with sustainable renewables and efficiency

Indian Point is a problem-plagued plant. It is the only plant in the country that has ongoing leaks of both Strontium 90 and Cesium 137 into the groundwater and the Hudson River, in violation of New York State law, that all groundwater must be potable. Yet, New York State is not even levying fines against Entergy. As reported by the National Academy of Science. Strontium 90 and Cesium 137 are known carcinogens, even at low levels. The

Entergy has not identified all leak sources or remediated the leaks yet the company plans to file for 20-year extensions of their operating licenses. The NRC will rubber stamp this extension application, without considering the ongoing leaks and impossible evacuation plan, or conducting an Independent Safety Assessment.

During your campaign you said you would close Indian Point, now that your are the Governor I am calling on you to protect the citizens of New York State and the Hudson Valley, by using your EXECUTIVE POWERS to call for a comprehensive ISA and stop relicensing.

Susan Shapiro
Rockland F.U.S.E.
(845) 371-2100