Saturday, June 16, 2007

Thoughts After A Full Day at Clearwater Festival

It's 10:21 PM, Saturday June 16th, 2007 and I have just spent the entire day at the Clearwater Festival over in Croton on The Hudson as a volunteer. We accomplished, it is hoped, some wonderful things. Not sure for how long, but planning on being back there again tomorrow beating the pavement for more signatures.

Our Petition for Rule Making which will be filed with the NRC next week now has over 50 signatures on it...a good start, though had hoped for far more. Our location could have been a lot better, and in the lessons learned department, I should have opted for my own booth as the Green Nuclear Butterfly. We also had around 70 people who have an interest in being interveners sign up to attend and as yet to be announced informational meeting on what that will entail on their part. Being honest, I am afraid being and intervener is more work, and requires a lot more dedication and time than most can, or are willing to muster.

Met some delightfully wonderful people manning the table, including a very interesting person by the name of Paul, but more on that conversation in a later post as I am bushed. Congressman John Hall stopped by the booth to say hello...I was for the most part polite, but unless the air is cleared, I have some very serious reservations at this point where he is concerned. Think he means well, but he's not really a fighter, and we are not going to win this fight being mush balls. We need some testosterone in this movement if we are going to close Indian Point, need LOTS of people who are not afraid of some serious old school civil disobedience. Had two different people associated with Clearwater today tell me that my research abilities and passion for the fight are admired, but that quite a few people consider me a loose cannon...well, maybe we need a few more loose cannons.

One thing is really bothering me...waging a intervenor war with Entergy and the NRC, win, lose or draw is going to take money, and quite a bit of it. Unless you can back up your claims and allegations with experts, you, simply stated, are DEAD IN THE WATER. We have 21 Million people that live within 50 miles of Indian Point...if even 10 percent of them donated just ONE DOLLAR each, we would have a magnificent chance of giving the other side a serious run for their money...I have suggested a $1.00 donation campaign for the IPSEC committee working on a comprehensive Petition to Intervene, and I am also sharing that idea here, but with my own organizations name on the idea. If you are reading this, surely you can afford one dollar towards the legal and expert testimony costs involved in this fight? Surely you have friends that would toss in one dollar? Is one dollar to much to ask for, to much to give towards a battle that is our only hope to see Entergy's Indian Point reactors decommissioned? Riverkeeper sent out a letter to its faithful asking for a donation of $500 dollars...great if they can get the money, and use it effectively. Personally, I believe it is the average work-a-day citizens that can win this fight, our one dollar donations that can build a legal machine capable of taking on Goliath and winning the war...so how about it, if you are reading this, can you spare one dollar? Can you post this message to your groups, email it out to your friends?

INDIAN POINT BATTLE IS ON
AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!!

HELP CLOSE INDIAN POINT FOR $1
Background:
Indian Point Nuclear Plant is located just 24-miles from New York City, 3 miles from West Point. It is the only nuclear plant in the country surrounded by 21 million people. There is no possible evacuation plan for the area. Indian Point is aging, corroding and leaking radioactive waste into the groundwater and the Hudson River.

Indian Point is also recognized to be one of the most attractive terrorist targets in the nation. (American flight 11 soared right by it minutes before smashing into the World Trade Center.)

Entergy, the owner/operator of Indian Point, now wants to squeeze every dollar of profit out of this aging plant and has filed an application to keep it operating 20 years beyond its expiration in 2013 for Indian Point 2 and 2015 for Indian Point 3. Instead of protecting the public health and safety, the NRC protects the profits of the nuclear industry.
CURRENT SITUATION
: Green Nuclear Butterfly is a grassroots alliance that is working on legal grounds which could prevent the granting of new licenses for Indian Point’s two deteriorating and dangerous nuclear reactors. We need your help because we only have a small window to challenge the license application and we need to be able to pay for, office expenses, expert witnesses and legal fees.
PLEASE JUST DONATE $1 (or whatever you can give) to help us win this battle.
Please memo your check "LEGAL FUND" and send it to Green Nuclear Butterfly c/o Sherwood Martinelli, 351 Dyckman Street, Peekskill, New York 10566.

Share this letter with/article with your friends and family, help us activate the populace. If every man, woman and child were to send us just one dollar, we have a real shot at successfully halting the relicensing of this facility.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Understanding the Lie Of The Nuclear Cycle

Friday, June 15, 2007

The Trail Of Blood...Part 1 of Understanding The Nuclear Cycle

So, the world wants to see a Nuclear Renaissance, believes that nuclear energy is the safe, vital, secure, and Green Energy Source that is going to save us from Global Warming, and give birth to the Hydrogen Economy. The young green hipsters and tricksters in the Green Fashion Industry believe it is so, after all, former Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore tells them so, just like Jesus in "The Bible Tells Us So" song shouted out by the religious right as they warn us about gays, and abortion...harsh, but then the five front runners in the Republican race to the Presidency have endorsed nuclear, opposed gays serving in the military, and except for one are against abortion and gay marriage.

When will we stop believing the 30 second sound bites fed to us on network TV, when will we take the time to educate ourselves before taking a position on any issue? In our convenience driven society where the need for energy rules the day, the citizens of Yuppieville, USA and their 20-30 something children are content to accept on face value the nuclear industry's huge propaganda campaign to sell them on nuclear energy...where is the disconnect, how can almost 70 percent of America oppose the Iraq War, support bringing our troops home, be against the use of depleted uranium, yet believe nuclear energy is safe, vital, secure and green. Don't you realize it's all the same damn thing? If you look at nuclear, if you look at the entire cycle, you have to accept that DOD (Department of Defense), DOE (Department of Energy) and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) are all a part of the same train. There is no commercial nuclear industry without its Siamese twin, the military nuclear industry, the two of them joined forever at the hip.

Congressman John Hall in and off the record conversation told one of my anti nuclear friends that wants to close down Indian Point, that we had no idea how tied into the Middle East nuclear power was/is...went on further to explain that his access to documents we could not see truly was opening his eyes, and that shutting down any of America's nuclear reactors was not going to be easy because of the situation in the Middle East, and he was not just speaking of the quagmire that is Iraq, though it was and is a part of it. You see, our Pentagon needs the commercial nuclear industry, and the infrastructure it takes to power it for its own evil purposes, including vast stockpiles of Depleted Uranium, which is used in numerous weaponry to make armor piercing ammunition's and war heads.
Going further, George Bush, our government, our military machine opposes Iran gaining the capability of enriching uranium for a very simple reason...with the capability of enriching said uranium for nuclear reactors, you gain as a part of the waste stream from said enrichment operations the byproduct of Depleted Uranium. Oh My God! Iran already has a vast supply of oil, they have already developed long range missiles capable of striking various western societies, and now they are on the brink of having Depleted Uranium. Such a reality might mean America has to negotiate with Iran as equals, heaven forbide. Let them get the BOMB, and we might even have a new super power to contend with, someone to take Russia's seat at the grown ups table.

That's one of the big problems with the nuclear cycle...there is no such thing as the peaceful atom, no matter how you try to dress it up. Additionally, anywhere nuclear goes in all of its various forms, death is soon to follow. From its earliest days, even pre-dating the Manhattan Project, the exploration and exploitation of uranium has brought with it horrid deaths, devastating cancers, birth defects and destruction on a level almost unimaginable. Problem is, you have governments, and various assorted private corporate interests trying to hide the ugly truth, trying to convince us that uranium and nuclear energy are safe.

Do some homework, explore the hundreds of millions of dollars the DOE has spent on attorneys to fight union workers claims that their illnesses and cancers were caused by their exposure to elevated work place radiation levels. Look just under the surface of the commercial nuclear industry, and you find a trail of death...it is no coincedence that every county within 100 miles of a nuclear facility has elevated cancer rates when compared with counties outside of that 100 mile circle. Look at both wars in the Middle East (Desert Storm, and the Iraq War), and you find our soldiers coming home with strange illnesses, illnesses caused by their overexposure to depleted uranium. Already in Iraq, mothers are giving birth to children with horrible deformities, deformities caused by that same exposure to Depleted Uranium, and where does that Depleted Uranium come from? The production cycle employed to produce fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.
McCain in a nationally televised debate on CNN boldly lied like no other man before him. Not only did he embrace nuclear as a CO2 free clean source of energy, but he claimed that the Nuclear Navy in over 50 years of operation had never had and accident...funny, I know of numerous examples of nuclear sea going vessels accidently ramming into other ships, and know of at least 37 times (up through 1983) when said nuclear vessels had MAJOR releases of radioactive materials into the environment, and I believe we have even had at last one nuclear sub sink. As a Senator, as a member of the military, he KNOWS the truth...do we want such a liar as our next president? Why can't he, the other candidates, our president, and even the nuclear industry come out and BE HONEST WITH THE PUBLIC? What is it that is really driving this insane push for a Nuclear Renaissance, what lunacy sees the world wanting to build 2200 new nuclear reactors when the first 437 aging reactors have been such a dismal failure, and killed so many innocent people?

There is no bigger myth within the nuclear energy than their claim that nuclear energy and commercial reactors are and environmentally friendly CO2 source of electricity. From the very beginning of the uranium fuel cycle, the massive creation of and dumping of CO2 into our environment begins, as well as a trail of far deadly contaminants. First, you have to get the uranium out of the ground...uranium mining is very equipment intensive, and the large pieces of equipment use MASSIVE amounts of fossil fuels. Further, it takes tons and tons of of ore containing trace amounts of uranium to get enough actual raw uranium to be of any use. This means said materials have to be carted to processing plants...again, said transportion of such vast quanities of these raw start up materials burn up vast amounts of carbon based fuels, adding to nuclear CO2 contributions to Global Warming.

Once the materials have been mined, they then must be milled, or crushed. These milling operations are usually fairly close to the mines. Once the materials are crushed, various impurities are removed (creating vast amounts of waste), and the end product of this segment of the processing creates what is known as yellowcake. This yellow cake is then packaged into 55 gallon drums, and is ready...TO BE SHIPPED AGAIN, thus using even more fossil fuels.
This yellow cake is about 70 percent pure, but still needs further processing to remain more impurities. A refining facility handles this purification, and then chemically transforms the yellow cake into uranium trioxide, which is now suitable for FURTHER PROCESSING. Think about much CO2 has been pumped into the environment already, and we are still not even close to being done with the process of having fuel that can actually be used to power a nuclear reactor.
Depending on the country, and enrichment means to be used, the uranium trioxide goes through even more processing at a conversion plant, where it is transformed into either uranium dioxide or uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for enriched light water reactor fuel. At this point, the materials are ready...TO BE SHIPPED AGAIN, this time to a fuel fabrication facility. Using Canada as one example...once they have created uranium hexafluride, said materials are sent for fuel fabrication to the United States, France, the U.K., Germany or the Netherlands. Sure is a whole lot of CO2 being created that the commercial nuclear industry does not want to admit too.

For over five decades, most fuel rods produced for commercial reactors were fabricated at the Gaseous Diffusion plants in Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky, with most of that production under the watchful eye of the DOE until 1992 when then President George Bush privatized the facilities and transferred oversight over to the NRC with the signing of the 1992 Energy Policy Act. This is where the nuclear industry's CO2 contributions to Global Warming really sky rocket.

Looking just at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants 50 years of operation, you realize the true folly that is nuclear energy. First, this plant is the largest under roof manufacturing facility ever built in its time. Sadly, it was built less than one mile from the Sciota River, less than 20 miles upstream from the Ohio River, and sits atop the largest underground aquifer in the United States of America...BRILLIANT SITING decision!

This plant was fueled by nine coal burning energy plants, and used enough electricity each and every day of operation to power all of Los Angeles county for a year. If you do the math, the Portsmouth Gasesous Diffusion Plant burned enough coal, used enough electricity to power all of Los Angeles county for six million, six hundred and sixty one thousand, two hundred and fifty days, or 18, 250 years! America is just over 200 years old folks! Imagine how much CO2 would not be in the atmosphere if it were not for those 9 coal burning power plants running 24 hours a day, all to supply America's nuclear reactors with fuel rods. Even scarier...these figures do not include the CO2 and energy consumptions for the Piketon, Kentucky plant.
Factor in the building of the nuclear facilities, and the vast amount of fossil fuels that will be burned in decommissioning, and it is obvious who the major contributor to Global Warming really is.
It would be nice if this was the end of nuclear entergy's CO2 contributions to the environment, but it is not. It would be nice if these CO2 emissions were the only contaminants and contributions to Global Warming that nuclear reactors created, but sadly, it is but the tip of the iceberg. The fuel rods as one example still have to be SHIPPED to the reactor sites. Again, additional fossil fuels being burned up, and we have not seen one watt of electrical energy produced as of yet.

Shared Post, Updating The Week

There is a WHOLE LOT going on, and I do apologize for the lack of new material that has gone up this week. To save time, sharing a post just put up over on our Indian Point Nuclear Dead Baby World Tour blog to save time and energy.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Dead Baby Tour Friday Night Update...


First, for those who have been visiting looking for NEW STUFF, we thank you for stopping by, and do apologize, but this has been a very busy week for both the Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour, and our sister site, the Green Nuclear Butterfly. First, some important news on our forward progress on this environmental direct action campaign:

1. Cathy Garger's doll arrived (very early in the AM), and she is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, so a very special thanks to her. The porcelain face is almost regal, and think once we stain the outfit with a good soak in tea leaves to her a bit of an aged look, she's ready to go. The doll is so elegant, that it is going to be the doll shipped over to Elena in the Ukraine with the hope that she will agree to take it with her on her next motorcycle trip through Chernobyl's fallout zone.

2. Yesterday morning, Remy Chevalier of Rock The Reactors, Susan from Rockland Fuse and myself representing GNB had a very intense meeting with the NRC...more will be written on that Sunday in our GNB Blog. Afterward, Remy and I stopped by our favorite bookstore, The Bruised Apple and after explaining the goals of this site, they were beyond generous in donating a slew of delightfully worn and weary dolls.

3. Buried three dolls in the mulch in my backyard gardens in the hopes of giving them a bit of a different soiled look, and took some incredible photographs that I hope to load onto my hard drive, again on Sunday.

4. Our sub-committee working on a petition to intervene in the Entergy Relicensing process met last night, and things are progressing nicely on that front.

5. Tomorrow will be GONE all day, as we'll be collecting signatures at the Clearwater Festival on a Petition For Rule making that will be filed next week with the NRC.

So again, do apologize for the lack of new content this week, but as you can see, we have been very busy, and things are moving forward on numerous fronts. With any luck, can do some serious article posting on these two blogs on Sunday, and am working on one dealing with one of the important issues of the friendly atom cycle, spent uranium, a deplorable byproduct of the uranium fuel process, which is used in the making of armor piercing ammunition.

Energy as the Basis of all Human Activity

Bataille’s Peak Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability
by Allan Stoekl
Penn State University
327S Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802 814.863.7499
$20.00 paper

An audacious exploration of Bataille’s philosophy of energy within current conservation debates.
As the price of oil climbs toward 100 dollars a barrel, our impending post-fossil fuel future appears to offer two alternatives: a bleak existence defined by scarcity and sacrifice or one in which humanity places its faith in technological solutions with unforeseen consequences. Are there other ways to imagine life in an era that will be characterized by resource depletion?
The French intellectual Georges Bataille saw energy as the basis of all human activity—the essence of the human—and he envisioned a society that, instead of renouncing profligate spending, would embrace a more radical type of energy expenditure: la dépense, or “spending without return.” In Bataille’s Peak, Allan Stoekl demonstrates how a close reading of Bataille—in the wake of Giordano Bruno and the Marquis de Sade—can help us rethink not only energy and consumption but also such related topics as the city, the body, eroticism, and religion. Through these cases, Stoekl identifies the differences between waste, which Bataille condemned, and expenditure, which he celebrated.
The challenge of living in the twenty-first century, Stoekl argues, will be to comprehend—without recourse to austerity and self-denial—the inevitable and necessary shift from a civilization founded on waste to one based on Bataillean expenditure.
Allan Stoekl is professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University. His interests include twentieth-century French intellectual history, contemporary literary theory, theories of energy, and the history of energy production and use. He is the author of Agonies of the Intellectual: Commitment, Subjectivity, and the Performative in the Twentieth-Century French Tradition and translator of Bataille’s Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927–1939.
280 pages November 2007
University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Publicist - Heather Skinner
612-627-1932

Thursday, June 14, 2007

NY Electrical Utilities Stalls Growth of Independent Electron Producers!

According to Melissa Everett, the Sustainable Hudson Valley organization rarely steps into the complex world of policy, but right now they are doing that.
The solar energy industry in Central Hudson’s territory – the mid-Hudson Valley – needs our support. Here’s the story. There has been a “cap” on the amount of solar-powered electricity that customers can sell back into the grid – so-called “net metering,” and that cap has been reached.
Sustainable Hudson Valley and the New York Solar Energy Industry Association have petitioned to the Public Service Commission for an increase to that cap, from 1.2 megawatts to 3.0 MW.
Right now, at a moment of fast-growing interest in solar, interested homeowners are being told that they simply cannot recover their investment by spinning their meter backwards – a big problem. Legislation is moving through the New York State Assembly to raise the net metering cap much more, so this situation is especially damaging and ironic.
Central Hudson – which received the “Utility of the Year” Award from NYSEIA for its responsible dealings with the renewable energy industry – has indicated that they will not oppose this administrative proceeding, but support is needed to make sure the matter moves smoothly through the regulatory process.
Melissa is sending out a copy of the letter sent to the PSC by Sustainable Hudson Valley. If you agree that this issue is timely and important, please take a moment – now – to contact Melissa and ask her what you can do to help.
Melissa Everett, Ph.D.
melissae@earthlink.net
Executive Director
Sustainable Hudson Valley
PO Box 4112
Kingston, NY 12401
845-331-2670
http://www.sustainhv.org

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Let's name a nuclear plant after Dalton McGuinty!

ILOVENUKES has launched an online petition to rename a nuclear power plant after Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Why? Because no one else has done as much to promote nuclear power in Canada - ever, and they want everyone to know. They want to honour his commitment by naming a nuclear plant after him. Sign the petition on their website asking Ontario Power Generation to rename the Darlington nuclear plant after Dalton.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Even Small Terrorist Nuclear Explosion Would Be BIG Success States Homeland Security Scientist

So, which of these buttons causes a scram?
Despite the false assurances of the NRC, our federal government is serious concerned about the real possibility of a successful terrorist explosion of even a TINY nuclear device within America's border. A Homeland Security scientist has stated that even a small explosion of such a device would be a HUGE SUCCESS within the terrorist community. The scientist is thinking something along the lines of a 100 ton explosion would be monumental, though a much smaller explosion that the nuclear bombs unleashed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

Even more disturbing in the article is Clyde Layne's contention that terrorist could easily figure out how to explode the weapon if they can get their hands on the materials...as in radioactive materials. A 100 ton bomb would be equal too, or greater than some of the largest traditional bombs ever exploded, and the knowledge to explode one is EASILY found on the internet.

So, with Homeland Security flat out admitting this reality, why is the NRC trying to mitigate the risks posed by poorly guarded and defended commercial reactor sites such as Entergy's failing Indian Point? Could it be MONEY? Even more puzzling...why hasn't any one discussed what would happen if one of these NUCLEAR DEVICES were to be exploded in front of the gates of Indian Point, or on the dock abot 300 yards from the reactors?

Even Tiny Nuclear Explosion Could Be Terrorist “Success,” Homeland Security Scientist Says


By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2007_6_12.html#4D3D67E9

MIAMI — A nuclear device assembled by terrorists is likely to have a “relatively low yield,” much smaller than the 10-kiloton weapon dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II, the chief nuclear scientist with the U.S. Homeland Security Department said yesterday (see GSN, May 11)

Nevertheless, even a small nuclear explosion would probably be viewed as a “success” by any nonstate actor, Clyde Layne said during the first day of a weeklong nuclear terrorism conference here.

“I would have to think that a 100-ton nuclear explosion would be a real success for al-Qaeda or whoever chose to attack us that way,” he said.

Such a blast would be on the order of some of the largest conventional explosions ever set off and might not even bear the huge, tell-tale mushroom cloud. It would nevertheless release the radiation associated with fission, said Layne, who works with the DHS intelligence office (see GSN, Feb. 23).

Producing fissile material, either the plutonium or highly enriched uranium that would fuel any improvised nuclear device, remains out of the reach of even a sophisticated terrorist group, he said. “Essentially the nonstate actors will need to buy or steal that material, and that is the main focus of our activities to combat nuclear terrorism.”

A terrorist group with enough plutonium or uranium for a weapon could acquire the scientific and mechanical know-how to build the bomb, Layne said.

“It is something that’s doable with reasonable machine shops and casting facilities,” Layne said. “It’s not trivial but, as the intelligence community has said, it’s not an insurmountable task.”

There is enough information on the Internet to piece together a workable nuclear weapon design, Layne said, describing the posted designs as “all over the map.”

“Some of them are ridiculous. Some of them have some things right,” he said.

Given the technical difficulties involved, however, a device crafted in a machine shop without the testing available to nuclear weapon states is likely to produce a much smaller detonation than even the first atomic weapons.

“A successful terrorist nuclear device might be relatively low yield. There’s no way to speculate what that yield would be,” Layne said. “There could even be instances where first responders are aware there’s been a very large explosion, but they didn’t see the whole mushroom cloud and devastation that you’d expect from a 10-kiloton device.”

Arriving at the scene, emergency personal would encounter radiation, but it is possible they would be unable to immediately determine if it was a nuclear explosion or a very large “dirty bomb” radiological dispersal device.

A number of terrorist groups have the capabilities to produce a crude radiological weapon, which would combine conventional explosives with radioactive material, Layne said. Given the relative ease of creating a dirty bomb, the fact that one has never been set off is slightly puzzling, he said.

“The RDD seems to be fairly simple, so why haven’t we seen some of these?” Layne said.

Police in Germany Blind Protestor At G8 Conference..PATHETIC

You don't like protesters, even if it is a peaceful protest...BLIND THEM using your water cannon as a lethal WEAPON. Wish I were making this up, but I am not, and it is not surprising seeing the dirty tricks and tactics that were used here in New York when Bushy Boy and the Republicans held their convention here in 2004. It is a pity when supposedly civilized nations like Germany and America revert back to the Gestapo Tactics to run rough shod over citizens. What's next, internment camps...OH never mind, we already have those built and ready for use here in America. What can you expect out of two countries run respectively by a conniving bitch and a ruthless dumb bastard? It's no wonder people are afraid to have a march on Entergy...who knows, their cards might FREAK and pull a Kent State on us.

Protester blinded by water cannon

Jun 11 2007

by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=protester-blinded-by-water-cannon&method=full&objectid=19276482&siteid=50061-name_page.html

A LIVERPOOL man was blinded in one eye by a police water cannon as he staged a protest at the G8 summit in Germany.

The 33-year-old from Aigburth spoke exclusively to the Daily Post of the horror and pain of being directly hit in the face with the powerful jets by officers he claimed were using the crowd control devices as weapons.

The protester, a member of Liverpool’s Social Forum, is suffering from shock and witnesses to the incident, which occurred at the protest in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm on Thursday, said they saw his eye come out of its socket.

Speaking last night from the Eye Unit at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, the victim, who wishes only to be called Matt, said a CAT scan had revealed he had sustained internal bleeding, extensive damage to his Iris and possible damage to his retina.

Doctors have now told the keen reader, cyclist and amateur photographer, that he will face future operations, cataracts, and glaucoma.

They told him that because of the internal bleeding it would be between six to eight weeks before they could assess the damage to his retina but warned that permanent harm had been caused and that he will never fully regain the vision in that eye.

Matt said: “I went to Germany to take part in a peaceful protest and to be honest at the start of the day there was a very jolly, almost carnival, atmosphere.

“There were three lines of police and all of a sudden things got more aggressive.

“There were a few baton charges so all the protesters just linked arms and stood firm. It was all still very peaceful.

“I have never seen water cannons before and all of a sudden there were eight or nine of them. The police made an announcement in German but none of us understood it and then we were fired at.

“I was knocked to the floor at first and then when I got up I was hit right in the face.

“The pain was incredible. My eye had come out and I just ran off holding it to find an ambulance.”

Matt was one of seven protesters and a German journalist who were taken to Rostock University Hospital with eye injuries.

He said one protester had also been knocked unconscious by the water cannons and another suffered a perforated ear drum.

Matt added: “They were using water cannons as weapons, which they are not supposed to do.

“Their actions were deliberate and vindictive and completely unnecessary.

“I went there to express my feelings peacefully as I am entitled to do. What they did to me was absolutely dis- graceful. Doctors can’t believe what they have done to me.

“The German activists we spoke to said they have never before seen the police use this type of water cannon or fire at people heads.”

Matt added that he was going to take advice about suing the German police and will campaign for a stop to water cannons being fired at protesters’ heads.

Indian Point Dead Baby Heads To Calvert Cliffs

This in from Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour...they have a doll heading to Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor community this upcoming Saturday, June 16th, 2007.

Monday, June 11, 2007
The Indian Point Nuclear Dead Baby World Tour is pleased to announce that one of our dolls will be visiting the Calvert Cliffs reactor area this coming Saturday, June 16th, 2007. Our heart felt thanks to Cathy Garger for making this possible. She spent a portion of last weekend out scouring the countryside, and found two dolls, one of which is in transit here to New York, and the second being taken to Calvert Cliffs. Cathy is a freelance writer, and anti-nuclear activist in her own right, with her primary issue being Depleted Uranium. To familiarize our readers with her work, we are providing links to two of her articles.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=148&num=23353&printer=1

http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=151&num=23826
This second article was picked up by the UN Observer, as well as International Report.

We are looking forward to her pictures, as well as her own article on how she became involved in this important issue.

New Alarm Testing Going On NOW

Indian Point is out and about testing their alarm system to day...got a bothersome pre-recorded telephone message about it yesterday. Anyway, as I type this, the dulcet drone of the alarm is humming in the background. I share this for one reason...you can BARELY HEAR IT! This is startling considering the fact that I have one of these alarms about ONE BLOCK away from my home. Sure they will have some excuse for the barely discernable level of noise coming from it.

By the way...Chernobyl had sirens too!

Helen Caldicott-Nuclear Not So Green

I know that nuclear is not green, have been trying to make people aware of that with this blog. For my efforts, I have been ridiculed, had hate blogs launched against me, and even received a few well intentioned death threats...how quaint. If there is good news in that, I am in good company, as Helen Caldicott has endured much the same, and yet was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I had to laugh when reading the article below when Helen Caldicott quipped after being questioned about the lack of recent death threats that she just was not talking loud enough.
She has a new book out, "Nuclear Is Not The Answer" that every citizen within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor needs to read. Actually, with the Bush administrations plans to put a nuclear reactor on every street corner, every American Should read this story.

Nuke power not so clean or green

By Elsa Wenzel

Jun 11 2007

Cold War-era nuclear fears have eased in recent decades, replaced by anxieties over global warming. Lately, in some circles, nuclear power has gained a new reputation as a pollution-free cure-all for a world starved for clean energy.

But the nuclear industry hasn't cleaned up its act, according to Helen Caldicott, who spearheaded the nuclear disarmament movement in the 1980s. (Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling nominated Caldicott for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.) Caldicott, a pediatrician by training, has devoted 35 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the health hazards of nuclear power.

Not only is atomic energy inefficient, but it adds to greenhouse gas emissions while releasing deadly radiation for countless generations, argues Caldicott. Her recent work is summed up by the title of her book Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer.

She is working with the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, which she founded, to convince Congress that solar and wind power instead can mitigate global warming.

Caldicott is known for courting controversy, whether by debating with world leaders, marching naked in the streets of San Francisco, or implying that Hershey sold radioactive chocolates containing milk produced near the Three Mile Island disaster. While she no longer receives death threats as she did in the 1980s, Caldicott told CNET that just proves that her voice hasn't been loud enough lately.

Counties Will Not Get Entergy Fines-Maybe Congressman Hall Should Introduce A Bill So They Do?

In their usual fashion, the NRC has issued a letter denying a request by the four counties, that have to absorb the costs of having Entergy forced upon us, which would have funneled the most recent $130,000 fine for non-working alarm systems down to the local level. They claim they have no authorization for such a move, that they are required to place the money in their own United States Treasury account. Seems to me, that Congressman John Hall needs to introduce a bill that would funnel all money collected in fines back into the local communities. The other option, the NRC should have their yearly federal tax payers budget reduced by the amount of fines collected from these violations.

NRC: Indian Point fines won't go to county coffers

By GREG CLARY
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: June 12, 2007)

WHITE PLAINS - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected Westchester County's request that Indian Point's $130,000 fine for failing to install emergency sirens on time be spread among the four counties within 10 miles of the nuclear reactors to defray emergency preparation costs.

"It's government 1, the people 0," said Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano. The NRC was "right to give Entergy a penalty on this, but the bottom line is, funnel that money to the counties whose taxpayers are paying for emergency services."

The federal nuclear regulators fined Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owner of Indian Point, for missing its April 15 deadline to install a new emergency alert system.The company has since vowed to have the sirens operating by August. In the mean time, residents of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties must rely on a decades-old set of 156 sirens with a spotty performance record in the past two years.

Indian Point's siren system is used to alert residents of an emergency atthe plant and to signal them to check their televisions or radios for further instructions.The 150 new sirens, which will have backup battery power and can be sounded through cell antennas or radio systems, eventually will replace the existing system.

In a letter dated Friday, Cynthia Carpenter, director of the NRC's Office of Enforcement, said the agency was required to deposit the fine money into the U.S. Treasury rather than send it to local governments." The NRC does not have the authority to redirect such funds for non appropriated programs," Carpenter wrote to Anthony Sutton, Westchester County's commissioner of emergency services. "As such, the NRC is unable to honor your request.

"NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency has no latitude on the issue because of the federal Miscellaneous Receipts Act, which controls how money paid to the U.S. government must be handled." The Miscellaneous Receipts Act is designed to guarantee that Congress retains control of the public purse," Sheehan said. "It would take legislation to allow us to do this, and there isn't anything pending."

Tolchin said that the county would talk to its congressional representatives, who had already voiced their support of local municipalities receiving the fine money. Entergy officials reiterated yesterday that the discussion of who ultimately gets the fine money doesn't involve them. Sutton pressed the NRC in his May 15 letter to follow precedent that has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to direct money elsewhere, but Sheehan said his agency's research showed that those transactions have not involved third parties.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Support The Vermont Yankee Seven on June 19th

For those of you who do not know the Vermont Yankee Seven, better known the Raging Grannies, as a quick introduction...they are a small dedicated group of women who had the courage to stand up against Entergy, who chained themselves together, thus successfully blocking the entrance to Entergy's ailing and failing Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor up in Vermont. They carried a banner reading, "No MoreTax Subsidies For Vermont Yankee." For their troubles, they are facing charges of trespass and disorderly conduct...if you asked me, they should be issued medals of honor, and a key to the city. They are scheduled for trial on June 19th, and can use all the public support they can get. Any chance we could get a group of us from Indian Point to head up, seeing as both communities are being raped by the same corporate monster in Entergy?
Our thanks to Hattie, and the folks at Nukebusters for this important update on this issue.

Seven Women in Court for Vermont Yankee Action

Marcia Gagliardi
haley.antique@verizon.net

June 19th in Windham County Court, Brattleboro, Vermont, is the court date for seven women in the SHUT IT DOWN affinity group who were each charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct for their April 25 chaining action at Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vermont. They carried a banner reading No More Tax Subsidies For Vermont Yankee.

We would love as many people as possible to join us in court. We will meet in the court parking lot at 7:30 AM and be in the courtroom by 8:00 AM. The women are: Julia Bonafine of Shrewsbury, Vermont, Frances Crowe, Paki Wieland, and Ellen Graves of Northampton;Dorthee of Wendell; Hattie Nestel and Marcia Gagliardi of Athol.

If questions, contact
Hattie at Hattieshalom@verizon.net or telephone
978-249-6224 or
Marcia At haleyantique@verizon.net or telephone
978-249-9400.

News Story On Protest...notice Entergy's hostility even towards the PRESS who were warned to vacate the property or be arrested...those TURDS!

Seven arrested in anti-nuke protest at Vermont Yankee
http://burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20070426/NEWS/70426013/0/NEWS05

Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007
The Associated Press

VERNON — Seven anti-nuclear activists were arrested after chaining themselves to a fence at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant during a protest in which police also threatened to arrest members of the media.

The protesters, who call themselves the Raging Grannies, want the plant shut down and have engaged in dozens of similar actions since December 2005.

In those incidents, reporters and photographers were allowed to speak to the women and take pictures during their arrests.

But on Wednesday, Police Chief Kevin Turnely told members of the media they would be arrested if they didn’t immediately leave the property, which is owned by Entergy. Entergy spokesman Rob Williams said the order wasn’t given by the plant’s owners, but that in such protests, journalists must abide by trespassing laws just as protesters do.

Arrested and cited for trespassing and disorderly conduct were:
--Julia Bonafine, 38, of Shrewsbury.
--Frances Crowe, 88, of Northampton, Mass.
--Paki Wieland, 63, of Northampton, Mass.
--Ellen Graves, 66, of West Springfield, Mass.
--Hattie Nestel, 68, of Athol, Mass.
—Marcia Gagliardi, 59, of Athol, Mass.
—a 78-year-old Wendell, Mass., woman who goes by the name Dorthee.

Since 2005, members of the group have protested regularly at Entergy’s corporate offices and at the gate of the power plant in Vernon. State’s Attorney Dan Davis has balked at prosecuting them, saying he doesn’t want them using the justice system as a platform for attention.