Thursday, July 26, 2007

Druggies At Entergy! Maybe It Is Time THEY ALL BE TESTED

Well well, so much for Entergy's brilliant laid out pre-hiring screening process. Seems that are Nuclear Reactor Worker at Vermont Yankee has been fired after testing positive for REEFER! The first clue for Steets and Entergy was catching said employee sniffing spent fuel fumes while singing Helter Skelter! Where there is one bad apple, there are sure to be others, and it seems wise that NRC A) order immediate drug testing of all Entergy employees, and B) hand down some very harsh fines. Gives a whole different spin to aging management in Indian Point's license renewal application. Guess they are trying to manage a group of old washed up drug addicts?

Vt. Yankee employee fails drug test
July 21, 2007

By Susan Smallheer
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
Herald Staff BRATTLEBORO

A licensed control room operator at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant was fired this week after he tested positive for marijuana.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the operator was given a random drug test on Sunday and when the results came back on Wednesday, the operator was immediately fired.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the testing was part of Entergy Nuclear's "fitness for duty" testing program and he declined to say the level of the marijuana in the person's bloodstream.

Sheehan said that as soon as a worker tests positive for drugs, it must act and notify the NRC.

"We will be following up and making a determination on whether enforcement action is necessary," Sheehan said.

Entergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams said that a review of that person's work history is underway.

Entergy spokesman Larry Smith said that he didn't know how high the former employee tested, saying that it was a personnel matter.

He also refused to say how long the person was employed at the plant, and exactly where he or she worked.

He said that it was a random drug test, which is accomplished by giving a blood sample. He said that alcohol levels are tested by urinanalysis.

"I was tested just last week," Smith said, noting that the random testing was conducted by a special program at Entergy Nuclear, and that employees on average are tested twice a year.

He said that there is also "for cause" testing, that would be triggered if an employee suspected another employee of impaired behavior.

Smith said he believed that this wasn't the first time that an employee was fired for testing positive for drug use.

He said that licensed control room operators work in both the reactor in Vernon, and also the plant's training facility in Brattleboro, located at Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee's corporate headquarters.

"We take this seriously," said Entergy spokesman Robert Williams.

He said the fitness-for-duty program is designed to protect the public health and safety, and he said that the testing proved "that it works."

He said that the company has an employee assistance program with counseling and referral services.

"We are committed to safety and a review of the employee's previous work is under way," he said.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

"The World Without Us-A Worthwhile Read

Gazing through our visitor links this evening, was lead to the following book review, which I share here...Weisman's bittersweet excerpt on Indian Point and the world's 441 nuclear reactor brought tears to my own eyes.
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001775.php

The World Without Us

Postpeople hypothesizing

worldwithoutus.JPG

The world is a feat of engineering. Beyond nature's glorious design, as this book recounts, our hands and minds have worked to shape, build, plant and populate as much of this planet as, well, humanly possible. With meticulous history and imaginative speculation, Weisman deconstructs progress across time and space. From concrete jungles in the West to ancient underground cities in Turkey to Chernobyl's Zone of Alienation, he both challenges and emphasizes the permanence of all our creation(s). The echoes of human impact, he concludes, will fade quickly in some arenas, but perpetuate radically in others. Remarkable, disheartening and inspiring, the book illustrates that we've inherited an immense, complicated and beautiful world from ancestors who were both ingenious and ignorant. Ultimately, how we choose to think, invent, and act will be what differentiates us from them.

-- Steven Leckart

The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
2007, 336 pages
$15
Available from Amazon

[It's worth taking a look at the Multimedia page on the book's web site for some intriguing time lapse artist renderings -- sl]

Sample excerpts:

Among the myriad species loosed on the world by humans that have surged beyond control, eucalyptus joins ailanthus and kudzu as encroachers that will bedevil the land long after we've departed. To power steam locomotives, the British often replaced slow-maturing tropical hardwood forests with fast-growing eucalyptus from their Australian Crown colonies. The aromatic eucalyptus oils that we use to make cough medicine and to disinfect household surfaces kill germs because in larger doses they're toxins, meant to chase off competitive plants. Few insects will live around eucalyptus, and with little to eat, few birds nest among them. Lusty drinkers, eucalypti go wherever there's water, such as along shamba irrigation ditches, where they've formed tall hedgegrows. Without people, they'll aim to colonize deserted fields, and they'll have a head start on the native seeds blowing down the mountain. In the end, it may take a great natural African lumberjack, the elephant, to blaze a trail back to Mount Kenya and expel the last British spirits from the land for good.

If humans were to go tomorrow, enough wild predators currently remain to out-compete or gobble most of our domestic animals, though a few feral exceptions have proved impressively resilient. The escaped wild horses and burros of the American Great Basin and Sonoran Desert essentially have replaced equine species lost at the end of the Pleistocene. Dingoes, which polished off Australia's last marsupial carnivores, have been that country's top predator for so long that many down under don't realize that these canines were originally companions to Southeast Asian traders. With no large predators around other than descendants of pet dogs, cows and pigs will probably own Hawaii. Elsewhere, dogs may even help livestock survive: sheep ranchers in Tierra del Fuego often swear that the shepherding instinct is do deeply bred in their kelpie dogs that their own absence would be immaterial.

Ruins of high-rises echo the love song of the frogs breeding in Manhattan's reconstituted streams, now stocked with alewives and mussels dropped by seagulls. Herring and shad have returned to the Hudson, though they spent some generations adjusting to radioactivity trickling out of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, 35 miles north of Times Square, after its reinforced concrete succumbed. Missing, however, are nearly all fauna adapted to us. The seemingly invincible cockroach, a tropical import, long ago froze in unheated apartment buildings. Without garbage, rats starved or became lunch for the raptors nesting in burnt-out skyscrapers. Rising water, tides, and salt corrosion have replaced the engineered shoreline, circling New York's five boroughs with estuaries and small beaches. With no dredging, Central Park's ponds and reservoir have been reincarnated as marshes. Without natural grazers - unless horses used by hansom cabs and by park policeman managed to go feral and breed - Central Park's grass is gone… Long before, the wild predators finished off the last descendants of pet dogs, but a wily population of feral house cats persists, feeding on starlings. With bridges finally down, tunnels flooded, and Manhattan truly an island again, moose and bears swim a widened Harlem river to feast on the berries that the Lenape once picked. Amid the rubble of Manhattan financial institutions that literally collapsed for good, a few bank vaults stand; the money within, however worthless, is mildewed but safe. Not so the artwork stored in museum vaults, built more for climate control than strength. Without electricity, protection ceases; eventually museum roofs spring leaks, usually starting with their skylights, and their basements fill with standing water. Subjected to wild swings in humidity and temperature, everything in storage rooms is prey to mold, bacteria, and the voracious larvae of a notorious museum scourge, the black carpet beetle. As they spread to other floors, fungi discolor and dissolve the paintings in the Metropolitan beyond recognition. Ceramics, however, are doing fine, since they're chemically similar to fossils. Unless something falls on them first, they await reburial for the next archaeologist to dig them up. Corrosion has thickened the patina on bronze statues, but hasn't affected their shapes. "That's why we know about the Bronze Age," notes Manhattan art conservator Barbara Appelbaum. Even if the Statue of Liberty ends up at the bottom of the harbor, Appelbaum says, its form will remain intact indefinitely, albeit somewhat chemically altered and possibly encased in barnacles.

If everyone on Earth disappeared, 441 nuclear plants, several with multiple reactors, would briefly run on autopilot until, one by one, they overheated. As refueling schedules are usually staggered so that some reactors generate while others are down, possibly half would burn, and the rest would melt. Either way, the spilling of radioactivity into the air, and into nearby bodies of water, would be formidable, and it would last, in the case of enriched uranium, into geologic time. Those melted cores that flow to the reactor floors would not, as some believe, bore through the Earth and out to the other side, emerging in China like poisonous volcanoes. As the radioactive lava melds with the surrounding steel and concrete, it would finally cool - if that's the term for a lump of slag that would remain mortally hot thereafter. That is unfortunate, because deep self-interment would be a blessing to whatever life remained on the surface. Instead, what briefly was an exquisitely machined technological array would have congealed into a deadly, dull metallic blob: a tombstone to the intellect that created it - and, for the thousands of years thereafter, to innocent nonhuman victims that approached too closely.

The long-term prognosis for plastic, [Dr. Anthony] Andrady told assembled marine scientists, is exactly that: long-term. It's no surprise that plastics have made an enduring mess in the oceans, he explained. Their elasticity, versatility (they can either sink or float), near invisibility in water, durability, and superior strength were exactly why net and fishing line manufacturers had abandoned natural fibers for synthetics such as nylon and polyethylene. In time, the former disintegrates; the latter, even when torn and lost, continue "ghost fishing." As a result, virtually every marine species, including whales, is in danger of being snared by great tangles of nylon loose in the oceans.

In the mid-20th century, the length of commercialized wheat stalks shortened nearly by half even as the number of grains they bore multiplied. They were engineered crops, developing during the so-called Green Revolution to eliminate world hunger. Their phenomenal yields fed millions who otherwise might not have eaten, and thus contributed to expanding the populations of countries like India and Mexico. Designed through forced crossbreeding and random mixes of amino acids - tricks that preceded gene splicing - their success and survival depend on calibrated cocktails of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides to protect these laboratory-bred life-forms from perils that lurk outside, in reality. In a world without people, none will last in the wild… The fields where they are destined to die out, which are now most of the grain fields in the world, will be left deeply scourged by nitrogen and sulfur, and will remain badly leached and acidic until new soil is built. That will require decades of acid-tolerant trees rooting and growing, then hundreds of years more of leaf litter and decaying wood broken down and excreted as humus by microbes that can tolerate the thin legacy of industrial agriculture. Beneath these soils, and periodically disinterred by ambitious root systems, will lie three centuries' worth of various metals and an alphabet soup of POPs, substances truly new under the sun and soil. Some engineered compounds like PAHs, too heavy to blow away to the Arctic, may end up molecularly bound in soil pores too tiny for digesting microbes to enter, and remain there forever.

The Time Clock Is Ticking On Indian Point Relicensing

Feeling here like someone has just sucker punched me in the gut...despite serious lies and problems in Entergy's license renewal application, the NRC will be announcing in the Federal Registry next week that they are ACCEPTING said license renewal application for review and action. As much as I and others who have been and will continue working to stop said relicensing would like to get sick about now, we do not have the time. We now have basically 60 days from early next week in which to have our Petition To Intervene filed, and our request for a hearing submitted to the NRC.

Fighting a license renewal application is going to take money, and not talking here about a few thousand dollars...conservatively, win, lose or draw, myself and others within our coalition need to raise between $150,000-$200,000 to have any chance at all in this fight. Expert fees and assistance alone are going to be very expensive. Attorney fees in this area can range from $250-$500 per hour if this case has to go to the Second District court, which it will. Just look at Andrew Spano's case...the bill so far is $80,000 and growing with each and every passing day.

As of tomorrow, we will be retaining our own expert for this fight...somehow, we will figure out a way to cover the retainer, but we need the help of the grassroots Anti-Nuclear movement. The Greenpeace and Green Party message boards on Care2 combined have over 50,000 members on them. There is the IPSEC list serve, and other areas where this post can be shared. If each person reading this article were to make a small contribution to the cause, and then forward the article to their friends, we can raise the money needed to fight this fight.

For the cost of a Starbuck's coffee and a danish, you could make a $5 or $10 donation, and if enough of us toss in a sawbuck or two, raising the needed funds is an attainable goal. Ask yourselves, is closing a plant that is leaking tritium and strontium into the Hudson River worth a small donation of $10? Is closing a nuclear reactor sitting atop and earthquake fault worth a donation of $10? If you answered yes, please help us in our cause, in our hour of need by taking the following actions:

1. Copy and paste this article into as many message boards, list serves, and emails as you can to help us spread the word.

2. Send your donation to:

FUSE USA

c/o Sherwood Martinelli
351 Dyckman Street
Peekskill, New York 10566

NRC's Official Letter Making The Announcement

No. 07-091 July 25, 2007

NRC ANNOUNCES OPPORTUNITY TO REQUEST HEARING ON APPLICATION TO
RENEW OPERATING LICENSE FOR INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced the opportunity to request a hearing on an application to renew the operating licenses for the Indian Point nuclear power plant, Units 2 and 3, for an additional 20 years.

The Indian Point plant has two pressurized water reactors located in the town of Buchanan, N.Y., about 24 miles north of New York City. The plant owner, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., submitted the renewal application April 30. The current operating licenses for Indian Point expire on Sept. 28, 2013, for Unit 2 and Dec. 12, 2015, for Unit 3. Indian Point Unit 1 was shut down in 1974.

The NRC staff has determined that the application contains sufficient information for the agency to formally "docket," or file, the application and begin its technical review. Docketing the application does not preclude requesting additional information as the review proceeds; nor does it indicate whether the Commission will renew the licenses.

During the docketing review, NRC staff informed Entergy that the current licensing basis for Unit 2 was not fully represented and that the application did not include information on the gas turbines currently credited as an alternative power supply in case of "station blackout," or loss of all alternating current (AC) power. Entergy subsequently committed to installing a diesel generator for Unit 2 and having it operational by April 30, 2008.

The NRC also received letters from the New York State Attorney General, Riverkeeper, and Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE), asserting that Entergy’s license renewal application was incomplete or inaccurate. Although the NRC has determined that the application contains sufficient information to docket the application, the staff will consider these comments as appropriate during the technical review process.

The Indian Point application for license renewal is posted at

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/indian-point.html

An NRC review schedule for Indian Point will also be posted soon. Because of the pending installation of the diesel generator for Unit 2, the NRC staff anticipates the review will take 27 months if no hearing is granted, and 35 months with a hearing. Meeting this schedule will depend on Entergy’s

prompt submission of all requested and necessary information. License renewal reviews typically take 22 months with no hearing, or 30 months with a hearing.

A notice of opportunity to request a hearing will be published soon in the

Federal Register

. The deadline for requesting a hearing is 60 days after publication of the notice. Petitions may be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected by the license renewal and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding. Background information regarding the hearing process was disseminated by NRC staff to members of the public during a public information session conducted near Indian Point on June 27.

A request for hearing and a petition for leave to intervene must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, Attention:

Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. Requests may also be submitted by facsimile to (301) 415-1101 or e-mail to

HEARINGDOCKET@nrc.gov. A copy should also be submitted to the NRC Office of General Counsel, by facsimile to (301) 415-3725 or e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov

Information about the license renewal process can be found on the NRC Web site at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html

More Bad News For Nuclear Renaissance Leaking Out of Tokyo electric Power


Interesting Article, with several crucial pieces of new information:

1. The Tokyo Electric Power Company confirmed today that 2,000 tons of water flooded the basement of the building that houses the facility's No. 1 reactor.

This is the first time this piece of information came out, and why put it in tons? Could it be, that TEPCO is hoping not to have to admit publicly that the basement of the building housing reactor number one got flooded with almost half a million gallons of water?

2. An estimated 1.2 cubic meters of radioactive water flowed into the sea, but the company said it is still not certain about the total amount of water that flowed from the pool.

Curious here...how can they claim a release of 1.2 cubic meters of radioactive water into the sea, while claiming they have no idea how much irradiated water leaked from the pool? Especially since their own report admits their low spent pool water sensors went off for all seven spent fuel pools.

3. TEPCO says that during the incident, radioactive material was twice vented into the air.

Seeing as one of these leaks went undetected for three days, shouldn't we be told HOW MUCH leaked into the air? Shouldn't the citizens of Japan be told this?

4. TEPCO has started on repairs of minor damage at the plant, and the company will soon prepare a plan for the detailed check of safety-significant equipment such as the reactor internals, said the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. A detailed inspection of the reactors will be conducted based on that plan.

I am a betting man here, and guessing there is a reason no reactor internal investigations have been done yet...TEPCO wants to let the uproar die down first, then after people have settled down, release the bad news findings a bit at a time so that it does not grab world wide headlines.

5. Minister Amari acknowledged today that the government failed to carefully examine fault lines near nuclear power plants, and said a stricter review system is needed, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Any one care to bet that the NRC could state the same fact about Indian Point, Diablo Canyon and other reactors near seismic faults here in America?

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Six Arrested at Vermont Yankee

On Sunday at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, six people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. More than 50 people showed up to witness and support the people who got arrested. The event was organized by the Citizens Awareness Network (http://www.nukebusters.org), which is planning future protests.

New York City Steam Pipe Explosion Should Be Indian Point Wake Up Call


We all remember last weeks monumentally frightening steam pipe explosion in New York City, and the instant fears of another 9/11. Mayor Bloomberg was quick to rush to the airwaves with the message it was not a terrorist attack, but a simple infrastructure failure. In the aftermath, we have learned it was the simple failure of a steam pipe recently inspected by Con Ed. You know, one of the companies, much like Entergy that owned and mismanaged Indian Point for a period of time.

Eye witnesses stated the massive explosion felt like a volcano going off, and the hole created was large enough to swallow a tow truck, as debris, including concrete and asbestos rained down upon those unfortunate enough to be close to this instant hell on earth as hot scalding steam raced towards the heavens. Numerous people were injured, two seriously, and one person was killed instantly.

The best analogy for this accident, is that one fear was allayed, while another was created for those with reasonable minds. The explosion, the failure of infrastructure was not another terrorist attack on New York City. The new fear though, is Indian Point has a lot of aged, failing steam pipes buried underground at the Indian Point nuclear reactor site that is leaking tritium and strontium 90 into the Hudson River, just a scant 24 miles up the river from New York.

Entergy has a license renewal application pending with the NRC for these ancient nuclear relics, wants permission to continue operating Indian Point for another 24 years in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance. The only real issue that the NRC allows citizens to discuss regarding this application, is the adequacy of Entergy's Aging Management Plan...which in short, amounts to a series of inspections, very similar to the one Con Edison performed on New York's exploding steam pipe in downtown Manhattan just before it exploded. Even more disturbing, is many of the pipes that run under Indian Point are BURIED in concrete, with no way of accessing them for inspection. Much the same reality exists with many of the failing weld joints hidden deep within the bowels of the reactors themselves, Entergy staff at best is playing guess work as they listen to ever changing ultrasonic sounds. Known issues of equipment failure, violations of NRC regulations are swept under the carpet time and again as the NRC grants exemptions to their regulations meant to protect human health and the environment with the issuance of generic findings.

Mayor Bloomberg's assurances of "just failing infrastructure" carry with them a potentially dire and disturbing warning. Obviously, a similar event, a matching steam pipe explosion at the poorly run and mismanaged Indian Point would bring with it far more catastrophic repercussions than last weeks explosion in New York City. After all, we already know of numerous leaks at the Entergy owned reactor site that cannot be pinpointed, found and repaired. We also are very well aware that Indian Point, much like the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant owned by TEPCO sits atop an earthquake fault line. Couple these known and serious issues with known cracks in the reactor domes, and rusting steel liners, one has to wonder what the NRC is thinking in even considering the relicense of such a trouble plagued reactor site sitting smack dab in the middle of 21 million people.

Both Entergy and the NRC attempt to placate the citizens of the host community here in the four county area (Westchester, Orange, Rockland and Dutchess) with false assurances of strict oversight, and a sound evacuation plan should a significant nuclear incident or terrorist attack affect the Indian Point facility. These false promises at best are a cruel hoax on our community, and on every community playing host to these ancient nuclear relics. At this years Annual Assessment Meeting for the Indian Point facility, Sam Collins of the NRC grudgingly admitted to the audience that in the case of a fast moving event and/or terrorist attack at Entergy's failing reactor site, the evacuation plan would not work, and instead citizens would be sheltered in place until it was safe to evacuate. The DeWitt report commissioned by then Governor Pataki has already proven the evacuation plan is fundamentally flawed, so sheltering was and is the only possible option for our citizens.

Sheltering in place amounts to having citizens hiding in their basements with a small cache of basic survival supplies, such as water and pre-packaged food stuffs, and a radio that works on battery power. The NRC suggests having enough supplies to last for three days, but our government's State Department web site has a completely different criteria, suggesting citizens could be sheltered in place for three weeks or more in the case of a serious nuclear incident. Far more disturbing, is information found on the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) website regarding sheltering in place. According to their internal study on sheltering, citizens hiding in a wood frame or brick home in a concrete basement would only be afforded a 40 percent level of protection during a nuclear incident...no basement, and this level of protection drops to a dismal 10 percent. How many citizens live in trailer parks similar to the one located on Route 9 just a few miles from Indian Point?

Just a simple infrastructure failure...America's 104 aged and failing reactors are reaching the end of their originally designed 40 year life span. Many of the companies that manufactured parts for these relics are long gone, replacement parts, like hens teeth hard to find. The NRC has admitted they have little knowledge of the aging effects of reactors being bombarded by radioactive particulates, yet in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance want to play Russian Roulette with the safety and health of 67 host communities here in America. That bursting steam pipe in downtown New York must be a wake up call for the citizens of New York. With the lives of 21 million people at stake, we cannot risk having Indian Point operating in our midst for another 20 years. Hear the warning, heed the call and get plugged in too the actions aimed at stopping the license renewal application. Only through citizen involvement and outrage can we get Washington, DC and the NRC to listen, only through citizen action can we see Entergy's application denied.

Monday, July 23, 2007

TEPCO Has Deceptive Way With Words


Tokyo Electric Power Co.Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station (Niigata Prefecture) initial incident admissions after earthquake decimates reactor facility.

To see a TEPCO status report click here.

Peekskill Should Premiere New Simpson Movie

First, congratulations to Springfield Vermont! Now if only Peekskill had been named Springfield we too could host a Simpson's Premiere...with the failing Indian Point reactors spoiling our sky line, and the scenic view of the Hudson, what a better place? In the meantime, don't forget that later this week the film hits the streets, and with it, all anti nuclear activists are encouraged to do the same.


Vermont to Host Premiere of 'Simpsons' Movie

Listen to this story...



Illustration of Springfield sign

Springfield, Vermont has won the honor of hosting the premiere of The Simpsons Movie, which opens later this month. http://www.simpsonsmovie.com

Talk of the Nation, July 11, 2007 · Fourteen towns that share the name of The Simpsons' fictitious setting, "Springfield," competed for the honor of hosting the premiere of The Simpsons' Movie. Tim Kavanagh, whose video entry won for his Vermont hometown, discusses the impact of the big win.

Tim Kavanagh, director, co-writer and actor in Springfield, Vermont's award-winning video

Blog of the Nation

Related NPR Stories

News From Down Under...Australia To Join GNEP!

Australia's citizens need to wake up to the fact that the NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) the NRC, DOE and George W. Bush are trying to rape them, and Australia as a nation. Seems their Prime Minister, in and attempt to line his own pockets with riches is sucking the dick of the devil, and is dragging Australia down the road to hell by joining forces with DOE in their misquided GNEP plan.

http://www.nuclearfreeaustralia.com.au/blog

Jakarta Anti Nuclear Protest

There was a large anti nuclear protest in Jakarta where the government wants to place a nuclear reactor ON AN EARTHQUAKE FAULT. Seems Indonesia wants to move ahead with a very controversial plan to build its first nuclear reactor. The government claims that the Mount Muria has been chosen for the nuclear power plant because, based on feasibility study results, the location is the "safest area" in terms of the volcanic and tectonic activities and tsunami disaster. Has it occurred to Indonesia, that some areas of the world (if not all areas of the world) are simply unacceptable locations for a nuclear reactor?

Thousands protest Indonesia's proposed nuclear power plant

Jakarta - Thousands of people rallied in a Central Java district town on Monday, opposing the Indonesian government's controversial plans to build its first nuclear power plant on the country's earthquake-prone island. Dozens of policemen and riot-squads stood guard but no reports of violence took place and the protestors dispersed peacefully, reported detik.com online news portal.

It was the latest protest rally by locals against the controversial nuclear plant. Early last month, thousands of people staged protest rally in three different districts in the province, including in Jepara district, opposing the proposed plant.

Indonesia is moving ahead with controversial plans to build its first nuclear power plant, which if completed on schedule in 2017 would put the country in Southeast Asia's nuclear-energy vanguard.

The plant would be built on Gunung Muria, on the densely populated and earthquake-prone Central Java about 400 kilometres east of Jakarta, with a capacity of 4,000 megawatts by 2025. According to the initial schedule, construction tenders for the 1.6-billion-dollar facility, may be called as early as this year.

Locals and other anti-nuclear activists accused the government only conveying information to the public on the benefits of the plant, without explaining the potential dangers.

Indonesian environmentalists have long criticized the proposed nuclear plant, saying there are cheaper, safer ways to generate power since the country has more environmentally sound sources, including geothermal and natural gas.

Despite warnings of geologic instability, the National Nuclear Power Agency is adamant that constructing the first nuclear plant should go ahead on the foothills of Mount Muria.

Government officials have consistently brushed aside complaints about the region's unstable tectonics and the project's high costs, contending that the country can ill-afford to forgo atomic energy.

Java accounts for more than 60 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people who inhabit the 17,000 islands that comprise the sprawling archipelago nation.

But government officials have insisted that the Mount Muria has been chosen for the nuclear power plant because, based on feasibility study results, the location is the "safest area" in terms of the volcanic and tectonic activities and tsunami disaster.

Mount Muria has been dormant for more than 3,000 years, the officials claim, noting that nuclear technology has already been extensively applied in Indonesia, especially for agriculture, animal husbandry, health, water resources and industry.

NEI's Trish Conrad...Wrong Side of Lots of Issues

Email Trish Your Anti Nuke Sentiments: trishconrad@hotmail.com
Just who is Trish Conrad, and what politcal connections from her days in Oregon brought this rabid, frothing at the mouth Pro-Life advocate to Washington, DC to work for the NEI?
After she lost her friend (Andi Parhamovich) needlessly in Iraq (she should not have been there in the first place), one would think Trish would have a real grasp on government and industry lies, especially where nuclear and the DOD is concerned. But then, perhaps with her unreasoned support of Catholic positions on abortion, illegals, and assisted suicide, one should not be surprised that a very right wing radical religious zealot Republican (all internet traces suggest this) would and could support nuclear energy's rape of America, and specifically America's lower and middle class communities.
She's listed on the NEI Blog as a contributor, and her profile on Blogger lists her as the publisher of http://trish-talk.blogspot.com which is a rather stilted and poorly composed blog if ever one existed. She is quoted extensively in various press articles, referred to as and NEI Spokeswoman.
I have a call in to see if she is the same Trish Conrad that used to be the Director of Communications for Oregon House Speaker Mark Simmons...if she is, that raises some rather serious questions, both about her, and NEI...more on that as my research continues to unfold. Do we have someone here that has traded in her government position and contacts for a chance to CASH in with a large Non-Profit nuclear industry group?

Siberia attack leaves one anti-nuclear protester dead

Madness Takes Its Toll
grist@grist.org

Siberia attack leaves one anti-nuclear protester dead, others injured

A pre-dawn attack on an anti-nuclear protest camp in Siberia this weekend left one person dead and several others seriously injured. Twenty suspects have been detained for the crime, in which attackers wearing dark clothes and masks brandished metal pipes, chanted nationalist slogans, attempted to set tents on fire, and beat the crap out of as many of the 21 encamped environmentalists -- most of whom were sleeping -- as they could get their hands on.

Authorities say they don't believe the protest itself -- which is focused on nuclear-waste processing at the state-owned Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant and inspired by concerns that Russia plans to process spent nuclear fuel from abroad -- was the motive for the hatefest. Instead, they say, it may have been as simple as an argument or theft. "Investigators are inclined to believe that the attack was motivated by hooliganism with the aim of stealing property," said a local police spokesperson. Oh, those wacky hooligans. What'll they do next?

More:
Guardian - Pravda - Forbes

Statement from Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense on NIRS website.

Anti Nuclear Protest At NEI Licensing Forum 2007

Attention all Anti Nuclear activists. We have a tremendous opportunity this year if we begin organizing now. Seems that the NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) has been arranging special licensing forums where back room deals are made, and the NRC hands out CHEAT SHEETS to reactor licensees, explaining how to avoid various pitfalls, explaining how they can get license amendments through the regulatory process. We need to invite ourselves to this event, and in large numbers!
If you are interested in being part of a massive Anti Nuclear event, please send and email with your interest to uraniumhotspot@aol.com and as details and informational meetings are organized, we will keep you abreast of the news. In the meantime, I would encourage each of you reading this to SWAMP the Westin Arlington Gateway with room reservation requests...tell them you are going to be attending the NEI Licensing Forum Event on October 15-16, 2007.
The Important Details, direct from NEI's website:
NEI Licensing Forum 2007

NEI Licensing Forum 2007
The Westin Arlington Gateway
Arlington, Va 22203
October 15-16 2007

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

The Licensing Forum is the annual meeting of the U.S. nuclear industry’s licensing community, which is composed of licensing specialists from nuclear utilities, nuclear steam system suppliers, owners’ groups, regional utility groups, nuclear service contractors, EPRI and INPO. NRC line managers, project managers and technical reviewers participate in the forum, presenting their views on a wide range of licensing issues. This year’s two-day meeting is the 7th annual Licensing Forum. It is intended for management, supervisory, and staff personnel involved in the day-to-day licensing interface with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It gives licensees and NRC staff a chance to discuss the efficiency and effectiveness of a number of important licensing processes, such as, license amendment requests, requests for additional information, topical reports, and generic issue resolution. Forum attendees discuss how NRC and Industry can communicate about issue-resolution action plans, priorities, and schedules. Each Licensing Forum lays the groundwork for future meetings and workshops to develop common definitions and expectations aimed at improving the overall licensing process.

REGISTRATION MATERIALS

Registration Form
NRC Registration Form

CONTACT INFORMATION

Program Manager
Mike Schoppman
Email: mas@nei.org
Phone: 202.739.8011

Logistics Contact
Ken Morton
Email: kwm@nei.org
Phone: 202.739.8014

Registrar
Linda Wells
Email: registrar@nei.org
Phone: 202.739. 8039

HOTEL INFORMATION

The Westin Arlington Gateway
801 North Glebe Road
Arlington, Va. 22203

The hotel cutoff at The Westin Arlington Gateway is Friday, September 21. Rooms at the Westin are available at a discounted rate of $199 until that date. After September 21, the room rate will be at the discretion of the hotel. Please call 888.627.7076 to make a reservation.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION

  • Registration and continental breakfast will begin Monday and Tuesday at 7.30 a.m.
  • Conference sessions will be held at the following times:
    Monday, 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
    Tuesday, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
  • NEI will host a luncheon on Monday and Tuesday, noon-1 p.m.
  • NEI will host a welcoming reception on Monday, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
  • Business casual attire is appropriate for the forum.

TRAVEL INFORMATION

Reagan National Airport (DCA) is a 5 miles to the Westin Arlington.

Taxis will cost approximately $20 one-way from DCA.

Parking is $20 per day at the Westin.

Super Shuttle is an alternate transportation. 800.258.3826

Metro Ballston metro station (orange line) is three blocks away from The Westin Arlington Gateway. If taking from DCA, take the blue line to Rosslyn metro station. Then board the Vienna orange line and get off in Ballston.

Car Rental Discount

  • Hertz Rent A Car is offering NEI a meeting discount. To make your reservation, call Hertz at 800.654.3131 and refer to discount number 189851.
  • Budget Rent A Car also is offering NEI a meeting discount. To make your reservation, call Budget at 800.527.0700 and refer to the NEI discount number BCD S192751, or reserve a car online at http://www.budget.com/budgetWeb/home/home.ex

Also, start making plans for 2008 Anti Nuclear Events...Chicago could be a great place for a protest May 5-7, 2008.

Nuclear Energy Assembly

NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly is the annual conference of the nuclear technologies industry. The conference draws hundreds of senior executives and policymakers from around the world. Join us May 5-7, 2008, in Chicago!
Contacts
Program:
Lisa Steward
202.739.8006
lis@nei.org

Logistics:
Ken Morton
202.739.8014
kwm@nei.org

Registration:
Linda Wells
202.739.8039
ljw@nei.org

More Proof That Japan Just Dodged Chernobyl Last Monday

As someone living less than three miles from the trouble plagued, mismanaged and leaking facility owned by Entergy, and known as Indian Point, I am startled at the frightening similarity between Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant and the three aging and dilapidated reactors that sit on the shore of the Hudson River here in New York. Living in the shadow of these behemoth relics of a failed nuclear industry, and having spent some time in Japan back in the 90's, I have kept a close eye on the aftermath of the TEPCO accident as it unfolds, and just as I had predicted, as information trickles 0ut, Japan and the world came much closer to a world wide disaster than was first known, and is now being admitted. Pure blind luck, not nuclear industry expertise saved us from what would/could have been a catastrophic event far worse than Hiroshima or Chernobyl.
Here in America, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant story is not getting the coverage it deserves as the media cooperates with our government, the NRC, NEI, DOE and the nuclear industry in mitigating the damage that has been done to George W. Bush's plans for a Nuclear Renaissance with 200 new reactors being built along the waters edge here in America. These high money players in the nuclear industry want the story buried, and our press seems more than ready to oblige...after all, Patrick Moore, Christine Todd Whitman, CASEnergy and the NEI have bought and sold their souls, convinced them that Nuclear Energy is the vital, safe, secure green energy that will save us from Global Warming. Now that the emperor has been shown to have no clothes, now that the naked ugliness that is nuclear energy has been exposed, they are pretending not to see, hoping the story will just go away.
Problem is, the story should not, and so far is not going away, but continues to get worse as news story find their way out of Japan, and onto the world wide web. Like Indian Point, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant sits atop and earthquake fault line, and like Indian Point, both Japan's regulatory agency (NISA), and the plant owners chose to ignore that reality from the very beginning, even before construction had begun. Here in Westchester county, the Indian Point site failed five out of six citing criteria, yet the NRC ignored that truth and allowed the reactors to be built. False assurances were handed out like DumDum lollipops, and the host community was assured the facilities were/are safe, that the odds of a large earthquake doing significant damage to the reactors was so small as to be almost nil...we now have quantitative proof that promise was a lie, a red herring trotted out to cloud the real risks involved in constructing and operating nuclear reactors sitting atop earthquake faults.
A look at various Japanese press sites this morning outline more problems as the investigation into TEPCO's cover up of the incident continues. Most alarming on this morning's list, is the fact that six of the transformers were damaged in the quake. Niigata prefectural government officials who inspected the plant have been quoted when asked about the transformer fire that it was, "simply by chance" that a fire broke out only at the transformer of the No. 3 reactor. It took TEPCO over two hours to extenquish the transformer fire for reactor number 3. What could/would have happened if all six damaged transformers had erupted into flames? As we contemplate that question, it should be noted here, that it has come to the light of day, that ten of the eleven companies owning nuclear reactors in Japan do not have the necessary equipment and staff on hand to fight a fire at their nuclear facilities. This information only saw the light of day as a result of the investigation now going on in Japan in the aftermath of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant debacle. Officials have been quoted as saying, "the companies did not have firefighting squads on duty around the clock and would have to summon such personnel if a fire broke out at night or during a holiday period. "
Pro Nuclear Bloggers like Rod Adams, the NEI Blog, and We Trust Lee spent the better part of last week doing damage control, trying to play with the radioactive release numbers to make the leaks seem insignificant. Meanwhile, a TEPCO official has been quoted regarding the leaks, and stated, "A considerably large amount of water" must have spilled out", the TEPCO official said. Further, we now know that irradiated water leaked out of ALL SEVEN spent fuel pools at the crippled Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant site, and that company officials are refusing to quantify just how much radioactively contaminated water actually LEAKED OUT of these pools. A TEPCO official was quoted as saying, "We never assumed that water could flow out of the pool."
There is a very scary thought...earthquakes SHAKE the ground, and much like a bucket being shaken about, significant amounts of water will SLOSH out, but this NEVER occurred to company officials, never occurred to the regulators (NISA and the IAEA)? TEPCO attempts to mitigate this disturbing news by saying none of the leaked water in the other six pools contaminated the non-radioactive side of those buildings...uhhh, is it me, or does that contamination of the nuclear side of the building still have to be remediated, or are workers going to be forced to accept the additional exposure risks going forward if these reactors ever go back online?
Japan, and TEPCO have now reluctantly agreed to allow the UN (IAEA) to send and inspection team to the devastated plant site, not because it is the right thing to do, but because they want to stem negative World Wide Press coverage of the accident, fearing the negative stories, and the comparisons to Chernobyl could negatively impact their tourist industry. Funny what a difference a few days makes. Last week the government rejected the IAEA's offer of assistance in inspecting the plant, claiming the damage was so serious that the people concerned are too busy repairing it.
We are talking a huge cover up here...already the government of Japan is saying the plant will eventually reopen. Early plans see TEPCO going in, and BEEFING up the foundation, which is four stories underground. This sounds eerily similar to the never ending quilt of failing weld joints that are holding Indian Point's reactor cores in place...God Forbid a quake should hit our area, as these embrittled domes would shatter like a thermos dropped on a concrete floor, the radioactive plumes rapidly visiting death upon the populace of our area. Some would come such a statement alarmist in nature...is it? The NRC over the years has issued over 1500 Generic Findings that EXCUSE their licensees from rules and regulations meant to keep us safe. Cost benefit analysis now places company profits ahead of citizen safety, and protection of our environment, and if nuclear reactor owners cannot meet certain regulatory guidelines, the NRC simply suspends them in the name of National Security and Interest.
The horrific accident at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant should be the world's wake up call that nuclear cannot, must not play a key role in resolving Global Warming, proof that the risks are far too great. GNEP is a fatally flawed nuclear energy strategy that would see America playing host to the entire world's nuclear waste streams. The NRC has callously ignored reality, placed public safety at risk by rubber stamping every licensee renewal application that has come before it. However, we have and opportunity to stop George W. Bush's Nuclear 2010 wagon from racing further down the road to hell, but it requires citizens of every nation getting involved. The line in the proverbial sand is Entergy's Indian Point reactors in Westchester county, New York.
Entergy's Indian Point facility NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUILT, much like the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The Indian Point facility has been nothing but trouble since day one. Mismanagement, cover up and lies have been the norm through all of its various owners, and like the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, Indian Point sits atop a MAJOR earthquake fault line, and failed to meet five of the six siting criteria required at the time the plant was built. Couple this with leaking fuel pools, cracks in the reactor domes, failing spray nozzles, underground electrical cable problems, a non working evacuation plan, tritium and strontium 90 leaking into the Hudson River and the obvious lack of meaningful and effective security, and the fact that NRC is contemplating Energy's license renewal application is pure insanity. The good news if any, is that we have a chance to stop this injustice.
Politicians, and calls for and ISA will not shut down Indian Point, nor keep the NRC from rubber stamping Entergy's license renewal application like they always do. Massive public outcry and anger though will stop the relicense of the facility. With 21 million people living within a 50 mile radius of the plant, we have the numbers...but, people must get involved in the process, people must start organizing protests, and demanding accountablity from our government, and from our politicians. Hilliary Clinton pretends too be worried about Indian Point, but then goes out on the campaign trail and tells citizens in South Carolina that nuclear MUST BE ON THE TABLE as and option in addressing Global Warming...sorry babes, but you should not be allowed to claim both sides in this important debate. A few hundred protestors targeting her district offices on a regular basis would hold her feet to the fire, force her to DEMAND the closing of Indian Point.
Congressman John Hall talked a good game when he ran against incumbent Congress woman Sue Kelly, but he's become rather cool on the subject of Indian Point since being elected. If you look at John Hall's roots, he has the contacts (Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne) in the music industry to bring significant attention to this issue, can put the International Spotlight on Indian Point with a carefully orchestrated concert, by calling his grassroots supporters into the streets to march too, and onto the grounds of Indian Point. Sadly though, his campaign rhetoric was just that, and now that he is in office he is more concerned about staying in office than doing right by the people he is sworn to protect. That has got to change, and it will only change when public outcry demands that he take real action on this important issue. Decades ago he filled Madison Square Gardens, yet today as a Congressman in Washington, DC he is content with issuing meaningless press releases to our local papers.
The call for a world wide Nuclear Renaissance comes from America, the GNEP plan the tap root that must be eradicated. We can end this failed energy strategy by targeting sites such as Indian Point, we can stop nuclear proliferation by fighting Indian Point's license renewal application with everything we have. We need Greenpeace to send their boats up the Hudson River, we need the Sierra Club to take a stand. Indian Point is the battle we have to win, Entergy the nuclear licensee to go after. To be successful, we need anti nuclear groups from around the world to step in and lend us a helping hand, because the next nuclear bullet is coming, and we might not be so lucky as to dodge it when it hits.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

NEI's (Nuclear Energy Institute) Eric McErlain Is A Hockey Fan?

Attention Anti Nuclear Bloggers...seems that NEI Blogs blogger and chief also writes for AOL's NHL Fanhouse. I'd suggest you all run over and give him a WARM WELCOME. So you can get a style for his writing style and hockey knowledge, have posted one of his articles with my reply to him here for your amusement.

Yashin on a Rocket to Russia

Apparently not satisfied with a number of low-ball offers to stay in the NHL, several outlets are reporting that center and former New York Islanders captain Alexei Yashin is leaving North America to sign a one-year contract to play for Locomotiv in the Russian Super League. Financial terms were not disclosed.

It's been a tough few months for Yashin. Even before the Islanders bought him out of his absurd contract following the end of the season, they more or less made it clear that he'd be stripped of the captaincy in order to convince free agent Ryan Smyth to stay on Long Island.

Then came having to suffer the indignity of having Isles GM Garth Snow give Yashin a vote of confidence, rapidly followed by the actual buyout, one that implicitly laid the blame for the team's woes over the past few seasons on Yashin's doorstep.

Then again, I'm not sure what sort of reception Yashin and his agents thought he would get. With $4 million per year already in his pocket from his Islanders buyout, what team in the world would be looking to overpay for a center entering his mid-30s after several years of declining production and a well-established reputation for soft play?

Still, one burning question remains before Yashin abandons his mansion on Long Island: Is he taking Carol Alt back to Russia with him? The aging investment bankers of Manhattan would like to know.

Thanks to Paul Kukla for the initial report.
Royce Penstinger's Reply/Comment:

1. Gee Eric, imagine my surprise finding you here on AOL's NHL Fanhouse. Had no idea that such a rabid Pro Nuclear hack drawing a paycheck from the nuclear lobbyist over at NEI(Nuclear Energy Institute)would also have and interest in what Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders was/is up too. Tell me, do you think he supports Entergy's failing Indian Point nuclear reactors that are leaking tritium and strontium 90 into the Hudson River remaining open? Is he supportive of this trouble plagued plant being relicensed for 20 more years? Do you think there is a chance New York's close proximity to Indian Point is playing a part in his decision to jump to the Russian Super Leaque?

NEI's Eric McErlain Should EAT His Blathering Words

Eric McErlain from the Pro-Nuclear Blog heavily supported by NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) was quick last week to spew forth falsehoods and half truths in a feeble attempt to mitigate the Three Mile Island like reactor incident in Japan. In one of his repugnant and ill-informed posts he went on the attack against both myself, and the Daily Kos. Apparently in Eric's radioactively clogged thoughts, the Green Nuclear Butterfly was/is hysterical, and the Daily Kos egregious in the way we have been presenting the TEPCO reactor accident. I decided to respond to the simpletons over on the NEI Blog here, since most times they opt to keep my replys over there from ever seeing the light of day...think some would call that CENSORSHIP?
Anyway, to hear Eric telling it, the TEPCO accident, and the various and assorted leaks at the nuclear facility were/are no big deal. The United States Congress this year approved a budget for the NRC of under One Billion dollars...the Neikei News today estimates costs to TEPCO in recovering from this accident will EXCEED $1.7 Billion dollars by next March. Will be interesting to see what kind of a spin he trys to put on that fact in the NEI blog. Even more interesting will be watching him try to claim that the TEPCO events are not having a very negative effect on his beloved hopes for a Nuclear Renaissance.
By the way, NEI's new web presence is pretty pathetic considering all the money they have, and even worse...they have made a huge cache of the documents available on their old site dissappear. Since Eric is a highly PAID blogger for NEI, one would hope he had nothing to do with the design and presentation of NEI's pathetic new web presentation...if on the other hand he did, maybe AOL and the NHL should take a closer look at who presents their image to the general public over at the NHL Fanhouse. Of course, it is nice to know that being PRO NUCLEAR is really nothing more than a pay check to Eric...wonder how many other lackey's making a Pro-Nuclear pitch are just like him?
Eric McErlain’s Experience

Lead Blogger, NHL Fanhouse
AOL Sports
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Sports industry)
March 2007 — Present (5 months)
Lead blogger on a team of six writers contributing NHL coverage to the AOL Fanhouse, the Web's most popular sports blog in terms of traffic. Personally recruited team members and coordinate coverage with editors at AOL Sports. Also produce handheld video segments for Fanhouse TV.

Program Manager, Web Communications
Nuclear Energy Institute
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Think Tanks industry)
April 2006 — Present (1 year 4 months)
Responsible for content management across all of NEI's Web properties including public Web site, member Web site and the Blog, NEI Nuclear Notes. Currently re-designing public site, with member site re-design and migration on tap for 2007. Also head NEI's online outreach activities via Blogs and Podcasts. Been teaching the Nuclear Energy industry how to blog since 2005.

NHL Columnist
NBC Sports.com
(Public Company; Myself Only; Online Media industry)
October 2006 — June 2007 (9 months)
Write weekly column on the NHL from the perspective of the online community.

Senior Writer
Nuclear Energy Institute
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
June 2004 — April 2006 (1 year 11 months)

Manager, Executive Communications
GXS
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Software industry)
October 2002 — May 2004 (1 year 8 months)
Director of executive communications and employee communications programs.

Director, Editorial Services
PSINet
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
1998 — 2001 (3 years)

Senior Manager
MCI
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
1996 — 1998 (2 years)

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Japan Quake, Nuclear Energy and the Daily Kos

As you might imagine, I've been monitoring a lot of stories from around the Web about the situation in Japan. And as you might surmise, while an incident like this is always a cause for concern, it's not a cause for hysteria -- unless of course we're talking about the usual suspects.

Will TEPCO Follow Entergy Example, Stick Japanese Citizens With Disaster's Repair Bill?

TEPCO and Japan just dodged a Chernobyl bullet this past Monday when a 6.8 on the Richter scale earthquake came far to close to destroying SEVEN reactors on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant site. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) spent most of last week trying to down play the significance of the event, and insist that the public was in NO IMMEDIATE DANGER. Based on the political spin of these PRO-NUCLEAR groups, and TEPCO itself, suppose the first question we all need to ask ourselves, is when was the last time you saw a insignificant incident carry with it a bill of $1.7 BILLION dollars? You can bet that price tag will continue to go higher as days and weeks turn into months, and possibly years.
Looking back on Hurricane Katrina here in America, the second question that came to mind, "Will TEPCO follow Entergy's nefarious and repugnant example, and try to stick the citizens of Japan with the clean up and repair bill? After Hurricane Katrina, many lower and middle class families suffered, and found themselves homeless, Entergy used the Federal Bankruptcy Courts to basically hold New Orleans hostage. Eventually, they were successful in forcing government to come up with grant money to the tune of almost $300 million, even though the parent company that year recorded almost $500 million in profits. How many families could have been made whole, had homes rebuilt if it were not for Entergy's rape of the system. Will the citizens of Japan find themselves held hostage in a similar fashion as the TEPCO tragedy unfolds in the coming months?
Reading about the expected costs from this Three Mile Island like event, considering the fact that NEI, the NRC and even the IAEA have classified this as and insignificant event, the citizens of America should be truly alarmed with the Price Anderson Act which protects nuclear reactor owners from financial liability in the case of a significant nuclear event or terrorist attack on and American Reactor. Nuclear Industry damages are capped at ten billion dollars in such a horrid scenario, with our government stating Congress can authorize money to cover any financial shortfalls in making a community whole. A significant nuclear incident, or 9/11 like terrorist attack on a reactor such as Indian Point would see damages instantly soar into the hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.
Federal law protects NRC licensees, and it is impossible for citizens to buy nuclear accident insurance. Two years later New Orleans calls for Federal Government assistance fall on deaf ears, and the tab there is far less than the tab would be after a nuclear accident. Do any of us really see government making a nuclear reactor host community WHOLE once a nuclear reactor has imploded, contaminating the land for tens if not hundreds of miles around it for hundreds if not thousands of years...forget NRC's false assurances that such and event cannot happen, and instead look at the nuclear fallout patterns in the aftermath of Chernobyl. Congress msut repeal the Price Anderson Act, as the time has come to END the handouts to this failing industry.
$1.7 Billion dollars is a lot of money for a small nuclear incident. Here in New York where two planes took down the twin towers we have 21 million people living within 50 miles of Indian Point. Entergy's Indian Point sits adjacent the Hudson River on a KNOWN earthquake fault, and is only 24 miles up river from New York City. Congressman John Hall's call for an ISA will not stop the wrongful relicensing of Indian Point. Only citizen outrage will accomplish that reality. 50,000 or 100,000 people marching on the plant would force the NRC to hear our voices. Congressman John Hall, Congressman Maurice Hinchey, Senators Schumer and Hilliary, and Governor Spitzer overnight could put that many people in front of these troubled and failing reactors...problem is, they do not have the political balls, nor desire to do that. For them it is a numbers game, and the numbers are all about them keeping their jobs, rather than about human health and safety. If they want to keep playing games, then the job falls to us as citizens to organize and make our voices heard.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa should be a WAKE UP CALL to all GREEN CITIZENS of America that a Nuclear Renaissance is not the answer to Global Warming. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa should be a wake up call to the citizens of America that we need to demand an end to the Price Anderson Act that protects the nuclear industry and its profits at the expense of our nation, and every host community in America. The NRC may want to rubber stamp Entergy's license renewal application for Indian Point, but we as citizens have the numbers to stop them, even if it means a massive sit in at the failing Entergy owned site on the Hudson River.
One thought in closing...the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactor site alone has over 20,000 barrels of low level waste stored on site, 400 of which tipped over and spilled in this incident. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site is new as reactor sites go, and yet they have over 2,800 barrels of low level radioactive waste stored on site for each of the seven reactors. With some 440 nuclear reactors operating currently in the world, that means we have conservatively one million, two hundred and thirty two thousand barrels of low level radioactive waste just sitting around waiting for another accident to happen...any one care to tell us where the nuclear industry is going to store all this long lived radioactive waste that GROWS with each passing day?

Important TEPCO Scandal Links Courtesy of Japanese Citizen

Mari Takenouchi wrote:

Dear all,
Here are webpages on the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) scandal reported in English edition of Asahi newspaper. This is not solely an issue of TEPCO, but an international issue with a tremendous magnitude especially for countries which possess BWRs (Boiling Water Reactors). Please disseminate this as widely as possible to avert any nuclear disaster.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Mari Takenouchi Freelance translator, a concerned citizen from Japan
mari999@jk9.so-net.ne.jp
TEL: 81-90-4002-3959
FAX: 81-473-41-2023

ENGLISH Cutting corners: At TEPCO, saving costs took priority over repairing cracked equipment.
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002090400458.html
``The workers took such action because of the possible negative effects on power supply during the asset-inflated bubble economy.'' NOBUYA MINAMI TEPCO president The question facing workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) in 1996 was simple: Do we spend billions of yen to repair a tiny crack in ...

ENGLISH New law hopes to avert nuke disaster
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002090400443.html
It now takes up to two years to inspect a suspicious nuclear power plant.
The government wants to make it easier to inspect nuclear plants after receiving tips reactor operators are engaged in dangerous practices.
According to sources, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industries

3 home > ENGLISH
TEPCO heads to roll; inspections start
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002090300326.html
The president says there is no excuse for the cover-ups. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) president and chairman said Monday they will resign over a long series of cover-ups that has forced emergency inspections of cracks around the company's nuclear reactors. President Nobuya Minami, 66, will ...

4 home > ENGLISH
Utility OKs on early probe http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002090200397.html
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) decided to temporarily shut down its nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture for early inspections amid public outrage that cracked equipment surrounds one of the reactor cores. The regular inspection at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was originally scheduled for Sept. 24 ...

5 home > ENGLISH
TEPCO chiefs likely to quit over scandal
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002090200396.html
The president and chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) will likely resign and give up their industry group posts over the scandal involving a long-time cover-up of problem spots in nuclear power plants. TEPCO President Nobuya Minami said he will take responsibility for the falsified records ...

6 home > ENGLISH
Japan faces ODA suit from Sumatra
http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2002090400410.html
The 3,980 plaintiffs want 20 billion yen for being displaced by a government-funded dam project. In an apparent precedented move, the government faces a 20-billion-yen compensation lawsuit for forcing thousands of Indonesians off their land to make way for a dam project funded by official develop ...

7 home > ENGLISH
EDITORIAL: TEPCO execs on way out
http://www.asahi.com/english/op-ed/K2002090400442.html
Habit of hiding problems must be eradicated. Deceit and wrongdoing have been exposed at company after company-in the Snow Brand group, Nippon Meat Packers and Mitsui & Co.-all big companies in their respective fields.
Nobuya Minami, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), will resig...

8 home > ENGLISH
Internal rivalries simmered as TEPCO hid defects
http://www.asahi.com/english/business/K2002090400436.html
Observers say the utility's nuclear power division acted like a company unto itself. In trying to cover up defects at its nuclear power plants, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) unwittingly exposed deep organizational flaws at the root of the company's latest scandal. The company from which Nobuya ...

9 home > ENGLISH
TEPCO execs linked to cover-up as 100 investigated from within
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002090200285.html
The scandal embroiling Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) likely involves up to 100 employees, including senior executives, according to sources close to public and in-house investigations. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency will start a three-day on-the-spot probe today at TEPCO's three nuclea ...

10 home > ENGLISH
ANALYSIS: In nuke industry, saving cash means losing public trust
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002083100210.html
A cost-saving atmosphere prevails at TEPCO. In pursuit of economic efficiency, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) apparently cut corners where it counted most. A major factor behind the cover-up of problem spots at three nuclear plants operated by TEPCO appears to be the atmosphere created by compan ...

--
Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign;
321 Barr Ave., Linwood, NJ 08221;
609-601-8583 or 609-601-8537;
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UNPLUG SALEM WEBSITE: http://www.unplugsalem.org/
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http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org
The Coalition for Peace and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action.

TEPCO Dodges Chernobyl In Japan, Now Wants Cover Up...IAEA Coming To Town

So, it is official...Japan, which just missed (by shear luck) an accident as big, if not bigger than Chernobyl, but in some ways on a par with Three Mile Island, is allowing TEPCO to start the GREAT COVER UP. It was made official today, that the IAEA is coming to town to do the FAKE INSPECTION of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Facility, after which, various officials and dignitaries from the IAEA, the Japanese Federal Government (prime minister), and of course the president of TEPCO will trot out to the news cameras and announce ALL IS WELL, and that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Plant presents no immediate danger to human health or the environment. The NRC will claim to have read the inspection report, and Neil Sheehan will announce to the American Press that all is well, and the time to restart the seven trouble plagued reactors is at hand. Sam Collins will be by his side to falsely claim that the TEPCO inspection should now alleviate any worries the citizens of Westchester County have about Entergy's failing Indian Point reactors that also sit on, or very close to a fault line. Life will be back to normal, and the IAEA will have saved NEI's dearly beloved Nuclear Renaissance.

Sadly, in the world of 30 second sound bites, and the 24 hour news cycle, there is a very good chance the nuclear industry will get away with this nefarious ruse, will sweep structural integrity issues under the radioactive carpet, and go back to business as usual. The citizens of Japan will go back to living their lives unaware their risk of a second nuclear holocaust has just been greatly increased, the radioactive fallout but one MAJOR earthquake away. Only after a major accident kills more people than died at Hiroshima will the real truth be known, will the cover up find the light of day.

NISA (Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry will convey the government decision to the Vienna-based U.N. agency Monday asking that the IAEA begin the inspections as soon as possible...because, after all, money is more important than safety, and even before the inspection has started, even before a serious estimate of the damages and safety risks is known, Japan's prime minister is already admitting that the plant will not stay shut forever, even if it does sit on a fault line. If that bit of news does not whisper of a cover up in the making, nothing does. If the inspection and findings are going to be completely open and transparent, how can officials in Japan already be hinting to the news media that the plant will reopened at some future date and time?

Does not take a rocket scientist to do some basic math, and quickly come to the conclusion that a Nuclear Renaissance demands the truth of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Facility accident be buried, that the seven troubled reactors be put back online as soon as possible. Seven nuclear reactors taken permanently off line, scientific proof that reactors such as Indian Point are subject to destruction if a major earthquake hits would be more than enough to see Wall Street close its wallets to the nuclear industry, and the IAEA, NRC, DOE and the NEI all know this, as does the Prime Minister of Japan...in short, doing the right thing takes a second seat too the financial realities in the energy sector.

Numerous bloggers, and some news sources have readily admitted that Japan dodged a bullet this time round. Many communities here in America have accused the NRC of playing Russian Roulette with public health and safety as they rubber stamp the license renewal applications of America's aging fleet of failing reactors. At some point, probably sooner than later that bullet is going to hit its target, some community will forever be a radiative wasteland far worse than Chernobyl, far worse than even Hiroshima. The world needs the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Facility accident to be a wake up call that nuclear is not safe, it is not green, and it is not the answer to Global Warming...question is, will the press let that happen, or will they allow themselves and their news organizations to be bought off for 35 pieces of silver?