Sleepin' On The Job!

RiverKeeper Behind Times...Raises Paste and Cut Issue

Greetings Readers:

First, do apologize for having been out of site, and out of mind for well over a week here, but afraid that the flu bug took a serious bite out of me...still not up and running 100 percent, but am slowly getting back in action. Since we missed our deadline for the BAA's (Baboon Ass Awards) we will be posting those this coming Monday...the day my own beloved Ohio State plays for the National Championship.

The big news out on the street yesterday and today is the filing of a Petition to halt the licensing process until there is an investigation of the NRC's cut and paste licensing process. Well GEE, correct me if I am wrong, but both FUSE USA and Green Nuclear Butterfly brought this issue to the light of day LAST SUMMER, pointed out, and provided proof that numerous LRA and SER's contained identical language? So nice to know that Riverkeeper invited us to SIGN ON to said petition...NOT. Guess they want every one thinking it was their BRILLIANT research that uncovered this? Be honest folks, they had to wait for the IG's report, Sherwood Martinelli discovered it ALL ON HIS OWN before the IG's findings were announced.

Meanwhile, on another front, we have it from GOOD SOURCES, that the NRC is being awfully quiet about FUSE USA's latest round of filings, and that they are desparately looking for a way to TOSS THEM out of the mix. God forbid they have access to some of the crap that is going to come out in the hearing process! Who knows what they might do with such sensitive information...LIKE MAKE IT PUBLIC!

Friday
January 4, 2008

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/IP_Rvkpr-04Jan08.html

Copyright © 2008 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc.
This story may not be reproduced in any form without express written consent.

Citizens groups file petition to halt NRC relicensing review

Tarrytown – The Riverkeeper organization Thursday joined regional and national nuclear watchdog groups in petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend current license renewal proceedings for the Indian Point, Oyster Creek, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants until what it calls “an objective and independent investigation” is conducted into the current license renewal process.

The petition is in response to an NRC Regulatory Commission Office of the Inspector General audit in September 2007 which found the NRC staff failed to verify the authenticity of technical safety information in over 97 percent of the renewal applications audited by OIG; and NRC staff reviewers routinely ‘cut and pasted’ whole sections of the renewal application text into their own safety reviews, rather than write their own evaluations.

Most recently, Entergy Nuclear Northeast submitted its application for a 20-year license extension of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan. Riverkeeper and New York State have petitioned to intervene in the relicensing proceedings, raising a number of issues ranging from safety and security to environmental impacts.

“For years, Riverkeeper has been gravely concerned about the NRC’s lackluster approach to regulating the nuclear industry,” notes Lisa Rainwater, Riverkeeper’s Policy Director. “The results of the NRC Inspector General’s internal investigation confirm what Riverkeeper and other nuclear watchdog groups have been saying all along--the NRC is rubberstamping license renewal applications and failing to verify that these plants will be run safely during a twenty-year license extension. This cavalier approach to public safety must end.”

Riverkeeper’s announcement and claims “are more fear-mongering and name calling by Riverkeeper,” said Paul Steidler, director of Communications for the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance. “At the end of the day the NRC has an excellent track record. In more than 50 years of operation no worker or member of the public has ever died because of radiological missteps at a commercial U.S. nuclear power plant. If Riverkeeper has specific scientific or engineering concerns about Indian Point or any other plant, they should bring these to the attention of the NRC first, and save fear mongering press releases for later.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. founder of Riverkeeper, NOT!

New York Post

Page Six
Wed Jan 2, 08

Ready To Run ROBERT Kennedy Jr. has reportedly become an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin on cleaning up the environment. Kennedy, now in Aspen with his family, is said to have offered Putin his expertise in cleaning up the terrible pollution in Russia during a trip to Moscow last year. The founder of Riverkeeper also told restaurateur Nello Balan he's interested in running for Sen. Hillary Clinton's seat when it becomes vacant. Kennedy is convinced that if Clinton doesn't win the presidency, she'll quit the Senate when her term expires and join the private sector.

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This from members of RockNet and IndianPointSEC list servs:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was NOT and is NOT the founder of Riverkeeper. The founder was and is Robert H. Boyle, author of The Hudson River, A Natural and Unnatural History. In June of 2000, Boyle and eight other directors of the organization,resigned in protest after Kennedy's puppets voted, at Kennedy's insistence, to hire William Wegner, a federally convicted environmental felon (for eight years the smuggling ringleader of protected Australian cockatoo eggs), income tax cheat and perjurer, as Riverkeeper's "chief scientist." For further information, check the Internet.

Best wishes,
Anthony Henry Smith

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Anthony Henry Smith is correct in each and every point he makes about Robert F. Kennedy.
Last summer I witnessed a TV interview at a sports event with Kennedy, a young son in tow.

After noting how long the interviewer and Kennedy had known each other, she stated that Kennedy had started Riverkeeper 20 years ago. He agreed, nodded and smiled.

We know who started Riverkeeper because we know the work of Riverkeeper’s Robert Boyle. His book, the Hudson River, a natural and unnatural history (Norton) was a seminal work in the environmental movement, locally, regionally and world-wide.

Riverkeeper’s website statement on its history reads
Our History
“Since 1966, Riverkeeper and its predecessor organization have been watchdogs for the health and protection of the Hudson River.” A clarifying statement from Riverkeeper could correct the disparity in Riverkeeper’s history.

Happy New Year to all,

Peter Rostenberg

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If Al Gore invented the Internet, why can't Bobby be the founder of Riverkeeper? ;o)