Patrick Moore at Indian Point NRC scoping meeting

Courtesy: Greenspirit Strategies Ltd.

Robert Kennedy Jr. investor in Citizenre

It has come to GNB's attention that Robert Kennedy Jr. is largely invested in Citizenre, a company currently under fire for being nothing more than a photovoltaic pyramid scheme.

What Citizenre has done through lavish marketing and network of representatives, is enlist over 5000 people to become solar sales affiliates on their website, without ever selling a single solar panel to anyone.

This would be a beautiful thing if it were not for the fact, after a year of being online, solliciting investment capital, and building their affiliates network, they have yet to acquire and sell a single solar panel to anyone, anywhere in the country, and investors are getting antsy.

It's a wonderful dream, selling PVs to your neighbors, installing solar one house at a time. Problem is many independent solar dealers around the country are doing that already, establishing ground rules and territory, and Citizenre stands to upset the growth of these small companies, who are starting to make real headway into the first adopter market of affluent suburbs.

Citizenre has expressed plans to open a photovoltaic factory in New York state. But many fear this is just talk, as there has been no physical evidence of this taking place, considering the cheapest and best panels are coming from China. How do they propose to reverse the trend of outsourcing electronics manufacture to Asia?

For Kennedy Jr. to stand making a return on his investment with Citizenre, the company also needs to have a very good relationship with the utilities, who in New York are refusing to lift the netmetering cap, meaning nobody right now in the state can get money back for the electricity they send back into the grid. Sierra Club is fighting this limit in Albany. The Utility refuses to compensate for your meter running backwards, that's because they saw the writing on the wall... as PVs get cheaper, and easier to install, what the heck do we need the Utilities for? All we need is the grid. Something Barry Commoner predicted would happen in his book The Politics of Energy back in 1980.

So maybe the reason Robert is so silent about his opposition to the relicensing of Indian Point is because he doesn't want to tick off Entergy anymore than he has to, in light of the money he stands to make if Citizenre does succeed in penetrating the residential PV market in a substantial way. Green energy afterall now means solar, wind and nuclear in the minds of the brainwashed public!

Yesterday Robert was revealed as a co-signer on the NUKE FREE website as a co-signer opposing nuclear industry loan guarantees. Maybe it's time he also made his solar energy interest known, so folks can undertstand what he understands, that if Indian Point closes, it's going to mean a boom in solar electricity installation, whether Citizenre turns out to be for real or not. Except Robert wants somebody else to get his hands dirty, so he can come up smelling roses, in case Indian Point gets its new license. Politicians! All the same!

Right now to many journalists Citizenre is beginning to look more and more like a stock scam... so if Robert got himself wrapped up in this, he may not want it to become public knowledge. But we here at GNB are all about full disclosure and putting our cards on the table. So how about it Robert, what's YOUR grand master plan to shut down Indian Point? Or don't you care anymore, as long as you can make a profit from monopolizing residential solar installations in the state?

Scottish government rejects new nuclear

10 October 2007

http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=132&storyCode=2047434

Scottish ministers have rejected new nuclear power stations in their response to the UK consultation on nuclear power.

New plants were described as “dangerous and unnecessary” by the Scottish government, which previously opted out of the separate Westminster consultation pursuing deep disposal of nuclear waste.

Energy minister Jim Mather wants the money that could be spent on nuclear power reallocated to make Scotland, and the UK, world leaders in renewable technology.

The Scottish government can veto any new nuclear plants through its right to refuse consent for onshore power stations over 50MW under the Electricity Act 1989.

The Scottish submission to the UK government consultation says Scotland already produces more energy than it consumes, and new technologies are “far more secure” than relying on finite imported uranium resources.

The submission also says renewable generation produces less carbon emissions than nuclear power, and that having no new nuclear power removes the need for transportation and disposal of nuclear waste – and the potential terrorist threats involved.It says the costs of new nuclear power stations are likely to be significantly higher than UK government estimates.

Mather said: "We already have clean, green and reliable alternatives. Scotland has massive renewables potential, as well as significant opportunities for clean fossil fuel technologies and carbon storage. Harnessing that potential can meet our future energy demands several times over, while tackling climate change.

"Scotland already has the skills and leadership to pursue a clean, low-carbon approach. A vibrant and growing energy sector will make a significant contribution to Scotland's prosperity through investment and jobs."

Perversely, spending billions of pounds to develop nuclear power station could have a huge impact on the research and development of long-term clean energy alternatives. Instead, I want to see investment directed towards the development of green energy technologies in Scotland to give Scotland and the UK a world lead.”

Mather said it is important that future generations do not have to bear the burden of toxic radioactive waste.He went on to hit out at the UK government’s position, saying: "The UK government has already made its mind to develop new nuclear power stations without properly considering the alternatives, or even allowing the public to consider the alternatives as part of this consultation."

I believe that our position has the clear support of the majority of MSPs and public opinion. The UK government now needs to accept the weight of evidence and abandon its disastrously short-sighted and unwanted proposals."

The right to refuse consent for new nuclear plants was reinforced by the Scottish Parliament in March 2002, when a majority voted for a motion reiterating that Scottish ministers accountable to parliament keep the right to refuse nuclear power stations, now and in the future.

Nuclear Engineering International ©2007Published by Wilmington Media Ltd.

MUSE 2007 ~ NO NEW NUKES

NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340
Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477)
Fax: 301-270-4291
nirsnet@nirs.org
http://www.nirs.org

October 12, 2007

Dear Friends,

There are two major developments we want to tell you about regarding loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and the pending energy bill in Congress:

First, we’re happy to tell you that Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Keb Mo, Ben Harper and other artists have joined the effort to stop the loan guarantees in a major way. They’ve set up a new website, http://www.nukefree.org, and there you can sign a petition against the use of your tax dollars for new nuclear reactors. Please do so right now. They’ve also remade the classic Buffalo Springfield song, For What It’s Worth, and you can watch that on their website, on youtube, or from NIRS website, http://www.nirs.org.

Second, we have learned that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given up on the idea of setting up a House-Senate conference committee to formally address the differences in the House and Senate energy bills. Instead, a more informal process will be used. Both Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apparently want a final energy bill completed by November 1. That will be difficult to do in the little remaining time, and it means that some of the more controversial provisions in the two bills may be dropped entirely. We need to make the loan guarantees as controversial as possible.

So after you’ve signed the petition at http://www.nukefree.org, please call your Senators and Representative (Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121), and tell them: no taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power. Please call even if you’ve called before. Ask your friends and colleagues to call. This is the time to take action!

You should add that Congress should not cut itself out of the loan guarantee process—the Senate version of the bill would give full power to the Department of Energy to issue the guarantees, decide who gets them, and how much they should get. This is a job Congress has to stay on top of.

The Nuclear Energy Institute already has said it wants the nuclear industry to receive $50 billion in taxpayer guarantees over just the next two years. When that kind of money is at risk, Congress has to accept responsibility, not merely turn it over to the Energy Department.

Thanks for your help!

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org

Thank you to everyone who already has donated toward greater outreach for the statement on nuclear power and climate. We appreciate your help! It’s not too late, however: please consider donating now to help us spread the word and obtain thousands more signatures! You can contribute online at our secure site:
https://secure.campagne-online.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=2927&LangPref=en-CA

Contributors of $60 or more will receive a free copy of Bonnie Raitt’s CD, Souls Alike, as our, and her, way of saying

THANK YOU!

Petition Signees
Jackson Browne, Songwriter
Graham Nash, Musician/Activist
Bonnie Raitt, Musician/Activist
Keb' Mo’, Musician/Activist
Ozomatli, Musicians/Activists
Ben Harper, Musician/Activist
Harvey Wasserman, Author/Activist
Tom Campbell, The Guacamole Fund
Herbie Hancock, Musician/Activist
Patti Smith, Musician/Activist
David Crosby, Musician/Activist
Don Henley, Musician/Activist
Emily Saliers, Indigo Girls
Amy Ray, Indigo Girls
Pearl Jam, Musicians/Activists
R.E.M.
Bruce Hornsby, Musician
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Environmental Attorney
Pete Seeger, Songwriter
Maroon 5
Emily Robison, Musician
Natalie Maines, Musician
Winona LaDuke, Author/Activist
Ani DiFranco, Musician/Activist
Henry, JoJo and Ringo Garza, Los Lonely Boys
Melissa Etheridge, Musician/Activist
Dave Stewart, Musician/Cultural Engineer/Activist
Wynton Marsalis, Musician
David Fenton, CEO Fenton Communications
Shawn Colvin, Singer/Songwriter
Robert Cray, Musician
Dave Marsh, Author/Activist
Mudhoney, Musicians/Activists
System of a Down, Musicians/Activists
Nanci Griffith, Musician/Activist
Danny O’ Keefe, Musician/Activist
Cris Williamson, Musician/Activist
Dar Williams, Musician/Activist
David Lindley, Musician
Adam Gardner, Guitar/Vocals, Guster
Holly Near, Musician/Activist
Peter Coyote, Actor/Writer
Joel Rafael, Musician/Activist
Brett Dennen, Musician/Activist
Michelle Branch, Musician/Activist
Paul Hawken, Author/Activist
Kenny Ausubel, Founder and Co-President, Bioneers
Dan Shugar, President, Sunpower Corporation, Systems
Randy Hayes, Founder, Rainforest Action Network
Thomas Van Dyck, RBC SRI Wealth Mgmt
Larry Fahn, Former President Sierra Club
Conrad Mackerron, As You Sow Foundation
Environmental Working Group
Natural Resources Defense Council
Greenpeace USA
The Sierra Club
League of Conservation Voters
TrueMajority.com
The Vote Solar Initiative
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Working Assets Wireless
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Nuclear Energy Information Service, Chicago
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility
U.S.PIRG: Federation of State PIRGs
Friends of the Earth
Beyond Nuclear at NPRI
Southwest Information and Research Center
REVERB
Artists for a New South Africa

Green Nuclear Butterfly Up for a Blogger Choice Award!

Join Royce Penstinger and Remy Chevalier as they take on the entire nuclear industry. Watch them do battle with Entergy as they try to shut down the aging nuclear facility known as Indian Point that is leaking tritium and strontium into the Hudson River, killing men, women and children.

Please VOTE for US!

Ann Coulter, New Canaan's Hag Skag Embarrassment

Just in time for her newest BOOK RELEASE, Ann (Potty Mouth) Coulter is at it again with a inflammatory remark about the Jews. What does this have to do with Nuclear...who knows, I just know the woman is offensive, and a major embarrassment to New Canaan, to the United States, and to blondes all around the world. Surely she could find a nice red ant hill to sit on for a few days?

Here is a good montage of some of her worst moments. Seriously folks, STOP BUYING HER BOOKS.

Dr. Helen Caldicott Tours North Earth

October 14 - AFSC in Concord, NH

October 15 - Labyrinth Books in Connecticut

October 16 - Grand Rounds in Waterbury CT

October 17 - Event in Fredericton, New Brunswick NJ

more details forthcoming...

Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons

Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons
by Adrian Levy & Catherine Scott-Clark

608 pages
Book link to Amazon
Link at WalkerBooks

Release date: October 16, 2007

ISBN-10: 0802715540

The shocking, three-decade story of A. Q. Khan and Pakistan’s nuclear program, and the complicity of the United States in the spread of nuclear weaponry. On December 15, 1975, A. Q. Khan—a young Pakistani scientist working in Holland—stole top-secret blueprints for a revolutionary new process to arm a nuclear bomb. His original intention, and that of his government, was purely patriotic—to provide Pakistan a counter to India’s recently unveiled nuclear device. However, as Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark chillingly relate in their masterful investigation of Khan’s career over the past thirty years, over time that limited ambition mushroomed into the world’s largest clandestine network engaged in selling nuclear secrets—a mercenary and illicit program managed by the Pakistani military and made possible, in large part, by aid money from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, and by indiscriminate assistance from China.

Most unnerving, the authors reveal that the sales of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea, and Libya, so much in the news today, were made with the clear knowledge of the American government, for whom Pakistan has been a crucial buffer state and ally—first against the Soviet Union, now in the “war against terror.” Every successive American presidency, from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, has turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear activity—rewriting and destroying evidence provided by its intelligence agencies, lying to Congress and the American people about Pakistan’s intentions and capability, and facilitating, through shortsightedness and intent, the spread of the very weapons we vilify the “axis of evil” powers for having and fear terrorists will obtain. Deception puts our current standoffs with Iran and North Korea in a startling new perspective, and makes clear two things: that Pakistan, far from being an ally, is a rogue nation at the epicenter of world destabilization; and that the complicity of the United States has ushered in a new nuclear winter.

Based on hundreds of interviews in the United States, Pakistan, India, Israel, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Deception is a masterwork of reportage and dramatic storytelling by two of the world’s most resourceful investigative journalists. Urgently important, it should stimulate debate and command a reexamination of our national priorities.

About the Authors
Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark are internationally renowned and award-winning investigative journalists who worked as staff writers and foreign correspondents for the Sunday Times of London for seven years before joining the Guardian as senior correspondents. They are the authors of two highly acclaimed books, The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treasure, and The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade. They have reported from South Asia for more than a decade, and now live in London and in France. Authors website.

(Thanks to Penthouse magazine for the head's up on this new title)

Image of collapsed sheet metal Entergy would like to see disappear

(OK, so I cheat a bit... We've all seen that collapse cooling tower so often, I decided to throw in something a little different, yet still relevant. There's a law in Vermont where you can be naked in a public place, as long as you're not partaking in lude or offensive behavior. Just a few days ago PeTA took full advantage of that opportunity, perhaps inspired by Isabel Vinson making the cover of the Brattleboro Reformer a few months ago bearing all for the cause of shutting down Vermont Yankee. They organized their action right across the street from our friends at Save The Corporations. Store manager Ian Kiehle offered models Meggan Anderson and Ali Cayer some hemp clothing if they needed it... We here, at Green Nuclear Butterfly applaud PeTA for their efforts, and can't wait to organize a joint action... How about it PeTA? Animals are sick of radiation too! Click here for the video. RemyC.)

Sanders is right on VY
Reformer.com

Friday, October 5

The image of collapsed sheet metal, splintered wood and water cascading from a huge broken pipe is one that Entergy Nuclear would like to see disappear.

But that image, taken after the collapse of a 50-foot cooling tower at Vermont Yankee on Aug. 21, was blown up to poster size and displayed at Wednesday's hearing of the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Energy.

Entergy is trying to make the case to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the cooling tower collapse, and an emergency shutdown of the plant caused by a stuck steam valve on Aug. 30, have no bearing on Vermont Yankee's safety and should not be taken into account when the NRC considers extending the nuclear plant's license past 2012.

All one has to do is look at that image of water gushing onto a pile of debris, and Entergy's argument falls apart. That has not stopped Entergy from trying to convince everyone that the 35-year-old reactor is perfectly safe and should be allowed to run until at least 2032.

Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., showed NRC Chairman Dale Klein the image of the cooling tower collapse and asked, "If you were living in southern Vermont, or New Hampshire, or northern Massachusetts, would you have confidence in the NRC after this series of events?"

"I would hope they have confidence in the NRC," Klein said.

"They don't," replied Sanders. "How can you look at that photograph and say you're not concerned?"

Because of the very real feeling that the NRC functions as a rubber stamp for the nuclear industry, Sanders has introduced legislation that would give states the right to ask for independent safety assessments at all of the nation's nuclear reactors.

The NRC has dismissed this idea, saying that its oversight is superior to any independent safety assessment. Given the track record of the NRC and its well-documented laxity in enforcement of the rules, we would put our trust in an outsider's inspection.

While the NRC is apparently seeking more information about the cooling tower collapse, as well as the inspection records for the towers, we would bet that Entergy will receive a slap of the wrist, a moderate fine, a brief period of increased NRC oversight and permission to keep the reactor open for another 20 years.

Vermont Yankee has functioned safely for 35 years. Its employees have worked hard to keep it functioning safely. But there comes a point where aging machinery becomes too expensive to fix.

That's why Maine Yankee in Wiscasset, Maine, and Yankee Rowe in Rowe, Mass., both were shut down. The cost of upgrading and maintaining the reactors cost more than the value of the electricity they produced.

The economic equation for keeping Vermont Yankee open hasn't yet shifted in that direction. Entergy is making a nice profit running the reactor in Vernon. When the day comes that it is no longer profitable, they will shut it down.

The question we have is, what will be the circumstances that prompt it and who will be stuck with the bill? We frankly do not trust Entergy nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make decisions with the safety of this region in mind.

Is Vermont Yankee safe? Let's bring in people without ties to the NRC and Entergy to look at the plant objectively and give us an answer.