Philip Imbrogno Writes in Detail about IP 84 Sighting

The following article was written exclusively for the Smoking Gun Research Agency by Philip Imbrogno and appears in their January newsletter issue, as well as here on their website.

Please feel free to send them your thoughts at dispatch@sgra-media.org

Clinton and NRC Commissioner Dale Klein - April 2007

A Gift From Hooters

Hooters Wing Sauce 3 Mile Island Extra Hot

3 Mile Island - The hottest of all Hooter's Wing Sauces. If you can't make it to a Hooters. . . A thrill on the grill! Great for ribs, chops, shrimp, seafood & dips.

Heat Scale: 7

Ingredients: Hot sauce, aged red pepper, vinegar, salt, red pepper, pickled jalapeno peppers, & sodium benzoate.

To Order!

ZapRoot rants on Hyperion

The Reactor Core Breach at Indian Point Three

In a developing news story, our research behind the scenes leads us to pose to Entergy, Indian Point and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency several key questions regarding the long term viability of Indian Point's two functioning reactors, specifically reactor number three.

1. Is it true that in 1984 the NRC and Con Edison hid a breach in the core of reactor three by having their space suited decontamination and repair crews working in the stealth of darkness, bringing crews in and out only under cover of the midnight sky? I'd suggest folks like Neil Sheehan be very careful HOW THEY ANSWER THIS QUESTION...never know what proof might pop up and bite them in the ass.

2. Could Entergy explain why they CHEATED on the reactor core stress test...the MUST PASS test if a nuclear reactor is to win license renewal? Further, can the NRC explain why they are not doing anything about this? Look for an explosive document release to back up this claim in the coming months here on Green Nuclear Butterfly.

3. Can the NRC, Con Edison and Entergy explain why a LARGE GASH in spent fuel pool number two (put there by an errant welder) was NEVER reported, even though it took over a year to repair the leak which was significantly below the water line. (This information comes from a former employee of Underwater Welding out of Connecticut)

4. Can the NRC explain why they have admitted there is tritium leaking on the Indian Point facility that does not match the fingerprint to be coming from the spent fuel pools...isn't it true that the NRC knows emphatically that tritium is LEAKING from the hot leg of both reactor 2 and 3?

More presents from Santa Claus coming...the pro industry biased pricks on the board may think they got rid of one Sherwood Martinelli, but don't be so sure.

Phil Imbrogno Releases New Indian Point 1984 UFO Sighting Information

Phil Imbrogno just wrote a new book, Interdimensional Universe, and although he does not get into much details in the text, he spoke at Pymander Books in Norwalk, Connecticut at lenght on December 13th about Indian Point, revealing that there was a lot more to the 1984 massive UFO sighting at the plant.

At the time, Imbrogno explained that he was pressured into not releasing the full account of the event. He has sworn testimony from workers and security at Indian Point, describing than in addition to the sighting of a giant ship hovering near one of the reactor domes for 30 minutes, many of them experienced close encounters inside the facility as well, with aliens walking in and out of the reactor 3 containment wall.

He was told that there was a crack in the reactor, and that we were in essence saved from disaster by this otherworldly interference!

I don't want to paraphrase, so if you want to cover this revelation yourselves for your own blogs or magazines, please contact Phil to see if he'd be willing to repeat his comments so they can be put into writing. I suspect these additional details could spur renewed interest about how precarious such a dangerous facility is in the region.

Philip Imbrogno can be reached through his publisher:
Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
2143 Wooddale Drive
Woodbury, MN 55125
(651) 291-1970

He is the author of the following published books. Crosswalks across the Universe (Viking Press), Night Siege the Hudson Valley UFO Sightings (Ballantine Books); Contact of the Fifth Kind (Llewellyn) The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings 2nd edition (Llewellyn) Celtic Mysteries in New England (Llewellyn), Celtic Mysteries Door Ways to another Dimension in the Northeast. (Cosimo 2005) and the recently published Interdimensional Universe (Llewellyn).

He has a weekly column that appears in 13 newspapers called "Stargazing" and has appeared or done research for a number of major television presentations on UFOs, astronomy and the paranormal. Although Phil is a scientist and professional educator he follows the old ways he has worked with many groups brining people to local ancient sites of energy to help them connect with nature and the complex universe in which we are all a part of.

(Additional personal information removed at the author's request. May 17th 2011)

League of Conservation Voters Nuclear Panel

Held December 11th in New York City

Amazing IP Article by Jeffrey St. Clair

Excerpts from Jeffrey St. Clair's article:

...study conducted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that ominously concluded that the chances of a reactor meltdown increased by a factor of nearly 100 at Indian Point, because the plant’s drainage pits (also known as containment sumps) are “almost certain” to be blocked with debris during an accident.

Hillary’s ties to Entergy are almost primal. The Little Rock-based Entergy Corporation, which once employed John Huang, the infamous conduit to the Lippo Group, was one of Bill Clinton’s main political sponsors, shoveling more than $100,000 into his campaign’s bank accounts from 1992 to 1996.

Read the whole article on CounterPunch.

Westchester County Green Drinks

Westchester County Green Drinks

December 16th will not only be the 4th anniversary of GreenDrinks Westchester, but also the introduction of and passing the crown to the new organizer, Seth Leitman at Memphis Mae's in Croton-on-Hudson. Seth is a very green guy, Westchester resident and the author of Build Your Own Electric Vehicle. He will talk about the new and updated version of this book. Seth will also sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.

The new, updated edition of Build Your Own Electric Vehicle contains everything that made the first edition so popular while adding all the technological advances and new parts that are readily available on the market today. Seth Leitman is president and managing member of the ETS Energy Store, LLC, which offers consulting services for energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy efficient transportation for business and the home. Previously, Leitman worked for the New York State Power Authority and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, where he helped develop, market, and manage electric and hybrid vehicle programs serving New York State and the New York metropolitan area.

Seth is also the consulting editor for a series by McGraw-Hill Professional of upcoming titles called the "Green Guru Guides," which focus on implementing environmentally friendly technologies and making them work for you. Hop in your hybrid and join the good green folk at Memphis Mae's at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, December 16th. Memphis Mae's has tasty southern BBQ and has created a Green Eco-Friendly food menu just for the Green Drinks event! Included are organic beers and wines. It is located½ mile north of the Croton-Harmon train station off of Rte 9 in Croton-on-Hudson.

Directions:
From the North (Peekskill, Cortlandt, Garrison, Cold Spring, etc.)

Rt.9 South. Take exit "North 9A/129",which is the exit after "Senasqua Rd.". At the end of the ramp make left at stop sign. Make a right at the first light. Memphis Mae's is located in the shopping center immediately on your left next to the Chase Bank

From Yorktown, Somers and surrounding areas

Rt.118 West/Southwest towards the Taconic Parkway. At the end of 118, make a right onto Rt. 129 towards Croton-on-Hudson. Go through two lights. There will be a shopping center on the right immediately after the second light. Memphis Mae's is right next door to the Chase Bank.

From Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow and Ossining

Rt.9 North. Take the exit immediately after the Croton Point exit, called "129". Make a right at the stop sign at the end of ramp. Make a right at the first light. Memphis Mae's is located in the shopping center immediately on your left next to the Chase Bank.

From down County, Sprain Brook Parkway going north

Take exit for Rt 9A and follow 9A until it merges with Rt.9 in Croton. Take exit "129" which is immediately after Croton Point Ave. exit. Make a right at the stop sign at the end of ramp. Make a right at the first light. Memphis Mae's is located in the shopping center immediately on your left next to Chase Bank

Contact Tracey Corbitt at greendrinkswestchester@yahoo.com if you'd like more info or to be put on the e-list for a monthly reminder.

Or, go directly to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreendrinksWestchester
to sign up

Demo Tomorrow Morning at League of Women Voters in Manhattan!

From Marilyn Elie & Lorna Salzman

Green Brigade Press Conference @ 8:30 AM

An organization called Green Brigade has contacted IPSEC about a NYC event on December 11 and asked for our help. The League of Conservation Voters is planning a forum on sustainable energy and they are including nuclear energy in their description of what is sustainable and green house gas free. I plan on attending the forum and hope to have an opportunity to make the point that nuclear power at Indian Point is neither safe nor sustainable.

It would be great to have some company. I understand that it is difficult for most people to make a NYC event at 9AM on a Thursday morning. However, if you can, please do! If the League endorses nuclear energy you can bet that Entergy will seize on it as an endorsement for relicensing Indian Point. Green Brigade is planning a press conference at 8:30AM. If there are any early birds out there who work in NYC and can come by before going to the office, please do so!

The web site with more info about the forum is listed below. It is still possible to sign up to attend the forum and there is no fee.

http://www.nylcvef.org/poweringthefuture

Powering the Future: Nuclear The third in a series of policy forums "Greening the Empire State". Together with NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and its Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, NYLCVEF will be hosting three events that lay out the facts about solar, wind and nuclear energy in the context of New York State. We'll hear from policymakers, regulators, industry insiders and financial experts who will discuss the pros and cons of each technology.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

9 AM - 12 PM
NYU's Kimmel Center

60 Washington Square South

New York, NY 10012

From:
Lorna Salzman

PROTEST: NY League of Conservation Voters forum

On Dec. 11th, from 9 am to 11 am, the NY LCV will be sponsoring a forum on "green" nuclear energy in NYS. It will be at the NYU Kimmel Center at NYU on Washington Square Park. (near W.4th St. subway stop).The NYLCV is and has been corrupt to the core for decades. It operates as a shill for corporate interests while pretending to be an impartial endorser of pro-environment candidates. This endorsement process lends it a veneer - a very thin transparent one - of impartiality and credibility that it in no way deserves.

NYLCV has become in recent years more blatant in its pro-corporate activities. Its name is deceitful inasmuch as a few handfuls of chosen establishment, corporate and business representatives, and a passel of high-placed, high-priced lawyers, are the ones who "screen" candidates by distributing questionnaires and conducting interviews.

NYLCV is Greenwashing Writ Large. It needs to be confronted and exposed.Anyone wishing to attend and protest its Dec. 11th forum promoting nuclear energy should contact me so we can co-ordinate our actions. My phone starting Nov. 5th is 718-522-0253.

If anyone has good press contacts, you would be well advised to try and interest them in exposing this fraudulent organization.

Lorna Salzman

Green Brigade

718-522-0253
http://www.lornasalzman.com

GREEN BRIGADE CARBON-FREE/NUCLEAR-FREE BY 2050

REDUCE CO2 TO 350 PPM

Dear friend:

We have initiated a NYC group, Green Brigade, to address global warming. Our first priority will be to work with Appalachian groups fighting mountaintop removal of coal, and to support the movement to stop the construction of new coal power plants (two are proposed in NYS), and support the phase-out of existing coal plants.

If you agree with our positions below, would you consider being an Endorser of this statement? It will be posted to our web site once the site is established. (please include any affiliation or ID with your name).

Please feel free to phone me if you have any questions or suggestions: 631-653-3387.

Sincerely,

Lorna Salzman for Green Brigade
PREAMBLE

Credible scientists and climate studies are urging a reduction in CO2 emissions by 80% over the coming decade (as proposed by Lester Brown) and a reduction of CO2 atmospheric concentrations to 350 ppm (as proposed by James Hansen) in order to prevent the "tipping point" -- a 2 degree Celsius increase in average global temperature which could throw the planet into a new climate regime, with catastrophic consequences for humans and global ecosystems. Unless we stabilize energy use immediately and reduce it by at least 80% by 2020 we face dire social and economic chaos.

Therefore, we undersigned citizens urge our government to embark on a massive "Manhattan Project" to curb energy use and achieve a carbon-free/nuclear-free economy by 2050 through various means:

- ending tax breaks and subsidies to fossil fuels and nuclear power, including food-based biofuels;*- taxing all fossil fuels and rebating revenues to citizens;- accelerating renewable energy technologies and incentives;*- rejecting carbon trading;- imposing a national gasoline tax so price equals that of western Europe;- mandatory energy efficiency standards for vehicles, buildings, appliances, and industry;*- banning construction of new coal-fired power plants;* phase out existing ones;- ending direct and indirect support for fossil fuel exploration and power plants abroad;- funding and expanding public transportation at national, regional and local levels;- imposing international sanctions and wood tariffs to prevent deforestation;- facilitating massive global reforestation and revegetation;- imposing Border Tax Adjustment (BTA) to place tariffs on high carbon-footprint imports;- developing a global Marshall Plan for transfer of renewable energy technologies to poorer nations;- supporting relocalization of American economy, especially in agriculture;- signing on to all international environmental treaties

Solving the global warming and energy crises requires more than new technology. The mechanisms we have relied on have failed and created additional problems. Economic growth must mean ecological improvement, not ecological destruction. Market prices must reflect true costs for the market system to work. We must move to a full-cost pricing system, including consumption taxes, that will replace the traditional growth model that rewards increased extraction, production and consumption. The current "free market" is not free and is used to justify growth and profit at the expense of social welfare and ecological integrity. Development of new technological and entrepreneurial ventures has been suppressed by ill-advised government subsidies and tax breaks which reinforce the use of fossil fuel and nuclear energy. The urgent need to end the dependence of less developed countries on fossil fuels and bring them the benefits of renewable energy must be fulfilled in a global Marshall Plan to transfer technology and wealth from the wealthy countries to the poorer ones. We must move to a steady-state Conserver Society that makes the redistribution of wealth a major goal alongside ecological sustainability.

GREEN BRIGADE

Executive Committee: JK Canepa, Stephanie Low, Rob Jereski, Roy Morrison, Lorna Salzman
Endorsers (to date): Ross Gelbspan

Contacts:

lsalzman@rcn.com

stephlow@earthlink.net

mutualaid@earthlink.net

631-653-3387; 212-973-1782; 212-534-4103

* These positions are included in the IEER (Institute for Energy & Environmental Research) Statement of Principles, and are supported by CCAN (Chesapeake Climate Action Network), FOE (Friends of the Earth), IPS (Institute for Policy Studies), and NIRS (Nuclear Information & Resource Service) and over 100 local and regional groups in the USA and abroad.

New Entry @ The Environmentals

Go to The Environmentals for more information on Scott Church's beautiful image of Three Mile Island.

NRC Blames WestCan Council for Rejection of Contentions

In yesterday's post on the Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc. is reported that the presidentially appointed commission that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected an appeal by the groups and a state assemblyman challenging the Indian Point license renewal application under the umbrella of WestCAN.

The groups include the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network (WestCAN), Rockland County Conservation Association, Public Health and Sustainable Energy (PHASE), Sierra Club -- Atlantic Chapter and state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.

On July 31, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel handling the Indian Point license renewal hearing expelled WestCAN from the proceeding. It did so because the counsel for WestCAN repeatedly disregarded agency regulations and instructions from the panel.

In its ruling Tuesday, the commission upheld the expulsion, noting that the actions by WestCAN's counsel have "seriously disrupted the Board's efforts to meet its responsibility to conduct a fair, orderly and efficient hearing, has interfered with the other participants' efforts to use their own litigation resources efficiently, and has made our own review of the appellate documents and the underlying record far more time-consuming than necessary."

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said WestCAN does have additional appeal power.

"There’s no further recourse with the NRC. Certainly they have the options if they want to challenge this in federal court, they could seek do so, but as far as the NRC is concerned, this is the end of the line as far as any further appeals."

The commission has also taken the rare step of ordering the NRC's Office of the Secretary to not accept any further filings from Susan Shapiro or Sarah Wagner, the lawyers for WestCAN, unless they meet all procedural requirements. That applies to all NRC proceedings. This has happened in only one other NRC hearing, involving the Millstone case in Connecticut.

Comment from GNB:

"Sherwood Martinelli suggested to Susan Shapiro from the very onset that the original petition be filed UNDER HIS NAME as a NON ATTORNEY as prose petitioners are given FAR MORE room to make mistakes and remain in the process....SUSAN OBJECTED, insisted she be the LEAD FILER. If Susan had followed Sherwood's advice, FUSE USA's September filing would STILL BE INTACT, as would the one filed in October, and further Sherwood NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED from the proceedings as an intervener after getting frustrated with the NRC in December."

Clearwater Sloop Sail to Indian Point October 10th

Pictured: Mannajo Greene, Steve Filler, Jeff Rumpf,
Alec Baldwin, Richard Webster, and Joe Mangano

Seems our invitation got lost in the mail!

For more, read here:
http://www.mcclearwater.org/news.php

Climate Change => New Green Jobs Report

Tue, 9 Dec 2008

Climate Change => New Green Jobs Report
New study released by Duke's Center for Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness.

http://www.cggc.duke.edu/environment/climatesolutions

LED lighting: Leading U.S. manufacturers find it crucial to ensure high quality and to protect their innovations--two good reasons to keep the manufacturing close to home.

Report Sponsors:
Environmental Defense Fund
Building & Construction Trades Dept (AFL-CIO)
Industrial Union Council (AFL-CIO)
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
United Association of Plumbers & Pipefitters

Center for Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness
919.681.6564 Fax: 919.681.4183
cggc@duke.edu
Bay B, Erwin Mill
2024 W. Main St., Durham, NC 27705
Attn: Mike Hensen, Sr. Program Coordinator
Box 90420 Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0420

helium - produced by decaying uranium and thorium

Pikachu at the Macy's day parade is full of helium, which the New York Times describes as "a finite and increasingly scarce resource, produced extremely slowly by decaying uranium and thorium." Like anything else, when it gets scarce and expensive, people start thinking about using it more carefully. So this year, instead of just releasing it into the air, they recovered it.

Ace Hoffman's Pick for Secretary of Energy would be Harvey Wasserman:

via [NucNews]

December 7th, 2008

Dear Readers,

Apparently John Bryson is on Barack Obama's short list for Secretary of Energy. And NASA climatologist James Hansen has endorsed nuclear power as a solution to global warming.

With such support, barring a meltdown, the 104 licensed nuclear power plants in this country will still be operating when Obama leaves office. And maybe a few "mini-nukes" will ALSO have been built by then, either for military, or for rich civilian use. And maybe a few new large ones, too, and a score of military propulsion units. Yucca Mountain will keep moving slowly, inexorably forward, unless there is a large earthquake nearby (there are routinely, lots of small ones).

Obama could leave America at least as vulnerable to terrorism, to human error, to unwatched embrittlement, and to unchecked creeping cracks as it is today.

Tritium and a thousand other radioactive isotopes could be pouring into our air, seas, and soil from every reactor that operates today. No change.

All Obama has to do, is do nothing.

And that's not good enough. The world has to undo this mistake; it can't just assume nuclear plants will go away by themselves, run out of raw materials or be shut down for cost reasons. NO. It won't work that way. They'll keep them going with toilet paper and spit and "recycled" military weapons -- thorium, anything -- until something awful happens.

Nuclear reactors employ a lot of union workers. Each of these workers -- every one of them, or they'd quit -- thinks radiation isn't so dangerous. Government and industry wouldn't lie to them to make a buck off their misery, they think. They don't know any better. They believe what they want to believe, to preserve the cocoon of self-confidence, and there's always someone "qualified" (a Health Physics professional, usually) to tell them it's safe -- to tell them it might even be good for them. To tell them everything is dangerous. Crossing the street is dangerous.

So Obama will have no trouble keeping the nuclear power plants open, if that's what he really wants. And there ARE more operating civilian nuclear power plants in his home state than in any other state in the nation.

Nevertheless, by his near-utter silence on the issue during the campaign, Obama practically single-handedly HAS killed the "Nuclear Renaissance," which is withering on the vine these days (but by no means is it dead). Was this just good politics, or what? We'll see.

It's certainly good to watch one multi-billion dollar nuclear project after another around the world falter, as has been happening, but it's not nearly enough, and perhaps is more due to the financial -- pardon the term -- meltdown than to anything else. We need to close the operating nukes -- all of them. Obama can take office with them already closed. Nuclear power produces an unreliable 1/5th of our (U.S.) electricity, about 7% of our total energy needs -- we can close them all and quickly replace them with wind power, peaking power -- ANYTHING.

But of course, it won't happen.

Unless there's a meltdown.

And that's not all that unlikely, when you think about it. With 104 nuclear power plants, most of them many decades old, with the entire NRC focused on trying to issue as many preliminary site licenses as possible before Bush leaves office, with "self-regulation" rampant throughout the nuclear industry, with constant demand for maximum power, with cost pressures forcing fix-on-fail for everything not called a "critical" part according to some arcane NRC regulation, with deadly dry casks popping up all over the country and then being forgotten about while they multiply -- and multiply their dangers -- with spent fuel pools full, even as some of the fuel is being offloaded into the even-more-deadly dry casks, a meltdown -- or something worse -- is not unlikely. It's not too late to impeach George Bush for not shutting the nukes down, for Dick Cheney's secret pro-nuke energy plan, for torture, for the million dead from the War on Truth, or for complacency in the face of imminent threats to the national security.

Finding the right person for Secretary of Energy is certainly one of the most important tasks Obama faces right now. Bryson doesn't fit the bill, but be warned: In a letter to this author, Harvey Wasserman stated, "the rest of the list I've been seeing isn't all that great."

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman
Author, The Code Killers: An Expose:
http://www.acehoffman.org
Author and programmer, All About Pumps, Animated Periodic Table of the Elements:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com
Carlsbad, CA

a few cartoons

South Africa Scraps Plan to Build Nuclear Power Plant

South Africa Scraps Plan to Build Nuclear Power Plant
By Ron Derby and Carli Lourens

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg)

-- South Africa, suffering a power crisis that's limiting supplies to gold and platinum mines, canceled a plan to build a
nuclear plant for about 120 billion rand ($12 billion) as the credit freeze cuts financing.

State-owned Eskom Holdings Ltd's decision won't undermine "national security of supply" as economic growth will slow and other plants are being built, the government communications office said in an e-mailed statement today.

Groups led by Areva SA, the world's largest supplier of nuclear reactors, and Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse Electric Co. were vying for the order. A global recession and an expected drop energy demand is halting spending on projects from Canada to the Middle East and Africa.

"It's too big, we can't do it," Johannesburg-based Eskom spokesman Fani Zulu said. "The bidders were informed after we took the decision at a board meeting yesterday."

Eskom, looking to borrow about 150 billion rand, is in talks with the World Bank for a loan of as much as $5 billion and its credit rating was cut by Moody's Investors Services this year after regulators allowed a 27 percent increase in electricity prices rather than 61 percent.

'Disappointed'

"We're disappointed because we put a lot of work into the process, but we're hopeful the South African government will remain committed to developing nuclear power," Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, spokesman for Areva in Paris, said by telephone. "If South Africa comes back to us, we'll be there."

Eskom hasn't kept pace with electricity demand in Africa's biggest economy and restricted supply to companies including Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc.

The economy will probably grow at a slower pace than forecast by Eskom over the next five years, reducing power needs, said Jac Laubscher, group economist of Sanlam Ltd., the biggest South African-owned life insurer. "It's not a train smash that they've canceled the nuclear plan."

The global recession and rising interest rates in South Africa have reduced government projections, with the economy now expected to expand 3 percent next year and 4 percent in 2010.

The plan was also canceled also to ensure Eskom's ability to "provide the economy with competitively priced energy is not jeopardized," the government said.

Demand Increase

South Africa had planned to generate 20,000 megawatts from nuclear reactors by 2025, more than 10 times the current output. Power demand has risen by 50 percent since apartheid ended in 1994, while government indecision postponed Eskom's expansion.

The reasons for the "pause" are specific to South Africa, and don't reflect the general state in the nuclear industry, as shown by efforts by utilities in the U.K. and the U.S. to build nuclear power plants, Areva's Saulnier said.

Areva proposed two 1,650-megawatt reactors, while Westinghouse offered to build three 1,140-megawatt reactors. South African construction groups Aveng Ltd. and Murray & Roberts Ltd. formed part of the groups bidding for the contract.

Janine Claber, a spokeswoman for Westinghouse, wasn't immediately available to comment on the decision.

Electricite de France SA, the world's biggest operator of atomic reactors, has South Africa among its priorities for nuclear expansion. The utility wants to operate about 10 so- called Evolutionary Power Reactors by 2020 and yesterday at an investor day in London included two in South Africa.

South Africa remains "committed to nuclear power," to lessen thenation's carbon footprint, said Department of Public
Enterprises Director General Portia Molefe today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ron Derby in Johannesburg at
rderby1@bloomberg.net; Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at
clourens@bloomberg.net.

Indian Point Reveals Plans To Help Boost Horrid Public Image

What in the world has happened to Riverkeeper? In a recent article, "Indian Point reveals plan for changes, " Entergy promises $100 Million for PR work with local municipalities, tours to increase "buy in" with wary locals, increased emergency facilities to allay resident fears (and better cover their own bee-hinds in the event of a nuclear "incident"), education to replace skiddish nuke workers who, as a rule, don't actually care much for working in leaky, un-safe plants, and making the power plant's elevation and shrubbery look oh-so-purdy!

My word! Riverkeeper's commentary on the way this $100 Mill is being spent simply defies belief! Reportedly, according to the stated quote of Riverkeeper's program director for the Hudson River, "If Entergy wants to pay for this study and wants to spend more money to make improvements on the plant, it's hard to argue with that."

As I see it, even from 170 miles away? It's as easy as pie to argue with the self-serving types of so-called "improvements" Entergy plans on making! Just for starters? It would certainly be a nice gesture if Entergy would use that money instead to make reparations to the millions adversely affected by deadly radioactive contamination of the air, groundwater, Hudson River, and Atlantic Coast for more than four and one-half decades.

Next, while they're at it? Perhaps Entergy could consider putting a few more bucks into trying to stop the leaks under the second radioactive waste fuel pool that have been contaminating both the area's groundwater and the Hudson for an unknown number of years. Now mind you, I'm not saying there's an easy "fix" for this catastrophic enviro-disaster. I'm simply saying that some more money thrown in this direction might be better appreciated in the scheme of our grandchildren's futures than merely spending "improvement" monies on schooling new nuke workers, conducting nuclear plant tours (with accompanying "dosing" for kids on class and scout troop trips), beefing up community emergency response services, slapping on a coat of fresh paint for the building facade, and planting some viburnum and holly bushes to spruce up the grounds!

You see, when a corporation is permitted by the federal government to nuke a community? There are, out of necessity, some quite hefty costs the nukers must be made to pay. So when we're talking about "improvements?" We need instead to be talking about substantial remediation and reparations of such a magnitude that, in the blink of any eye... we've already blown the entire $100 Mill already!

Case in point is the high cost to human health by virtue of living near a nuclear power plant.

Environmental restoration aside, medical bills alone incurred via radioactive poisoning caused by venting and leaking of 3 reactors (and nuclear fuel pools) into the environment over 46 years within the NY-NJ-CT tri-state area are of a truly incalculable magnitude.

I mean, in as far as a nuked-out Hudson and greater NYC metropolitan area, with regard to our precious children who come down with asthma and leukemia, and our friends and family with their autoimmune and neuro-muscular system disorders, breast and pancreatic cancers? Can someone tell me how you even put a dollar amount on such "costs?"

No two ways around it. $100 Million ain't gonna even begun to cut it in terms of the types of "improvements" Entergy's going to have to come up with in order to made good on the damage to public health and environmental degradation and devastation Indian Point owners and operators have been steadily perpetrating since 1962.

Permission to forward to everyone in the greater NYC tri-state area. Certainly, if the local supposed watchdog group for the Hudson is going to applaud this horrid use of $100 Million? This fact needs to be broadcast far and wide as nothing more than the Public Relations boosting stunt it is... a purely CYA effort on the part of Entergy's public image efforts, undoubtedly in need of a pretty major overhaul!

And as far as so-called enviro groups implying these types of "improvements" are a positive thing in terms of the Hudson? Why, this is nothing more than a whitewashing of real "improvements" that are sorely, critically needed with regard to the devastation being caused every day by toxic, radioactive and life-destroying Indian Point routine operations.

Cathy Garge

Location of Projected New Nuclear Power Reactors

Enlarge the map:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/new-reactor-map.html

Expanding The Search Circle

One has to be vigilant when dealing with scum sucking nuclear monsters such as Entergy and their twin nuclear abortion machines that are visiting still births and untold THOUSANDS of cancers at the duped citizens of the Hudson River Valley. To that end, FUSE USA has been working behind the scenes in searching for the hidden Radiological data that Entergy has egregiously hidden and or twisted with the help of the NRC to make it appear that Indian Point is safe now, and for years into the future...

The first issue I would suggest citizens of Westechester County, as well as all those living in the five bouroughs of New York consider is the License Renewal Application, and WHAT WE ARE NOT BEING TOLD...I myself, Green Nuclear Butterfly, as well as FUSE USA have alleged all along that:

A) The license renewal application is RIGGED, that the NRC has been and will continue to RUBBER STAMP License Renewal Applications, including the application for Indian Point.

B) Entergy CHEATED on it's reactor core stress tests at Indian Point and other reactors it owns, controls or manages, and shared with the other industry reactor owners how they too could CHEAT on this critical test...in fact and deed, a reactor cannot be relicensed if it DOES NOT PASS THIS TEST. Entergy and other nuclear licensees CHEATED as they know their reactor cores are far more porous now than is safe for the general public, and that the risk of a instant implosion of a core from THERMAL SHOCK is not only a risk, but something that will happen to at least one reactor community in the next 20 years as a result of wrongful license extensions in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance. Am I the only one that finds it odd that the NRC claims they cannot find the same file on the EPRI Internet site that simple old me was able to locate? FACT...NRC is in colusion with the NEI and nuclear reactor owners to SAVE THE NUCLEAR industry under the guise of National Defense even if it means sacrificing and entire community such as New York City.

C) The License Renewal Application IS NOT JUST FOR 20 YEARS! NEI, NRC and Entergy are perpetuating a FRAUD upon our community. WE have alleged all along that the NRC intends to extend the 20 year license extension granted in this process to one of at least 40 years through a NON HEARING, NON PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT administrative order. You can find at this link, tacit admission on the part of Entergy that this is true. In fighting the same fight in a different arena that is FAR LESS PUBLIC Entergy uses as one of their arguements that the decommissioning funds for Indian Point will not be needed FOR AT LEAST SIXTY YEARS INTO THE FUTURE...hmmmm....2013 to 2033 plus another 20 years beyond that to 2053 comes out to 45 years! WAKE UP PUBLIC...if you do not get outraged, you are going to get stuck with Indian Point killing your babies, spreading breast cancer amount your wives, daughters and mothers for at least another FORTY FIVE YEARS!

Further, FUSE USA have reason to believe that Entergy, NEI and/or the NRC might have used Redstone to do some Tritium monitoring and/or modeling...to that end, we have filed a FOIA with this segment of the United States Army...more tidbits to follow. We would ENCOURAGE all REACTOR COMMUNITIES in AMERICA to file a FIOA with Redstone to find out if any Tritium testing/monitoring has been or is occuring in your community. You can email Redstone at redstone-USATAReg1@conus.army.mil

Dear Redstone:

It appears from your web site that Redstone provides some kind of tritium inventory/tracking/measurement services to both government and members of private industry. As a stakeholder living within 3 miles of the failing nuclear reactor facility known as Indian Point which is owned by the Entergy corporation, as a stakeholder aware that said site is leaking both Strontium 90 and Tritium into my environment, as a husband who attributes his wife's cancer to radioactive contaminants released from the Indian Point facility, I am always tracking down pathways for these and other carcinogens which Entergy goes to great extremes to keep out of the public domain.

Seeing the services that you offer, coupled with the fact that Redstone appears to be a segment of/department of our Federal Government, I am formally filing this FOIA request in which I seek the following release of information:

1. Any and all files, reports, papers, memos related to tritium. tritium releases, tritium dumps, tritium monitoring done by, or that Redstone is aware of within a 25 mile radius of Peekskill, New York.

2. Any letters, correspondence, files, reports, studies, papers, memos, notes and other underlying documents that establish mention or deal with Strontium 90, Tritium, Celsium 137, other nuclear industry contaminant streams and pathways, or that seek/suggest a relationship with, or an inquiry from NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute), EPRI, NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), and the commercial nuclear industry, including specifically Exelon, Entergy, Areva and TVA.

3. Any letters, correspondence, files, reports, studies, papers, memos, notes and other underlying documents that establish, mention. suggest or tie the Commercial Nuclear Industry to the use of, or defense of Directed Energy in carrying out their security requirements as more fully defined under the DBT for nuclear power plants.

Respectfully Submitted via electronic transmission (Email)

Sherwood Martinelli
FUSE USA

IMPORTANT letter from Dr. Busby

by way of:
Cathy Garger

savorsuccesslady3@yahoo.com

If you’ve been following the ongoing saga of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant on New York’s Hudson River, you already know about the long history of underground radioactive leaks seeping out of two spent nuclear fuel pools there. It is also possible you might have heard the buzz - or, read, in this “mission accomplished” article www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081110/NEWS/811100315/-1/rss01 that 500,000 gallons of radioactive water has been dumped by Entergy Corporation into the Hudson River.

The explanation of this dumping process was offered by a July 31, 2008 report called the “Indian Point Independent Safety Evaluation”:

http://nyindianpoint.org/images/Full%20Report.pdf

“When all fuel has been removed, the pools will be drained. Pool drainage is a two‐step process. First the water level will be lowered to 2‐3 feet. The residual water layer will provide radiological protection while the debris and sludge in the bottom of the spent fuel pool is removed, after which the remaining water will be drained by April 2009. The removed debris will be collected and, based on activity level, either shipped off‐site for disposal or stored on‐site in the interim radioactive waste disposal facility.”

If you’re new to the matter of what nuclear power plants do with all of their radioactive materials after making some steam to generate a bit of electrical energy? A spent fuel pool, according to “The Code Killers: An Expose” http://www.acehoffman.com is “where used nuclear reactor cores are placed after use in a reactor…The amount of spent fuel in the pool is usually dozens of times more than is in the reactor itself.”

Indian Point spent fuel pool 1 has been holding all of the nuclear materials from Indian Point 1, a reactor which operated from 1962 to 1974. Thus, the drainage solution offered to prevent the continued underground leaking of unfiltered radioactive fluids from migrating underground into local groundwater and Hudson River was to clean up the radioactive water – or, at least, tidy it up a bit – and then get rid of it… by dumping (yes dumping) it into the Hudson River.

So, with jaw dropped and mouth possibly still hanging wide open (as this writer’s has been since first learning of this)… you might be asking yourself, “Is this really so? Did Entergy Corporation actually just get away with dumping 500,000 gallons of radioactively contaminated water directly into the Hudson River?!”

Well, the simple answer is yes – and no.

According to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) or, as it is more aptly called, “Nuclear Radiating Committee,” by those aware of what these federal pro-nukers actually do, the entire 500,000 gallons of water from the Indian Point1 spent fuel pool have not been dumped – not all of it, not yet, that is.

According to Neil Sheehan of the NRC in a November 14 statement to this writer, the amount of “dirty” water poured into the Hudson was not 500,000 gallons, but rather… 459,000 gallons. The entire NRC statement is featured below for your edification – and reading amazement.

Well, what became of the remaining contaminated water in the Indian Point Pool 1, you might ask? As Mr. Sheehan relays the story, Entergy is apparently saving the worst for last.

Yes, the worst is yet to come. Reportedly, approximately 50,000 gallons of the very worst radioactive materials – the ones surrounding the “sludge” (near the reactor cores themselves) are going to be filtered – until the radioactivity is lessened to a level that the feds can legally bless it and anoint it with their most *un*-holy water, and allow Entergy get away with dumping the worst of it into the Hudson. Now, mind you, these 50,000 gallons or so still remaining contain the most deadly types of radioactive poison chemicals ever to have been created.

Some solution, eh? Drain the contaminated pool, filter it to get some of the radioactivity out, and then dump the amount of radioactivity you can get away with into the Hudson. I don’t know – maybe it’s just me, but it seems that Entergy’s being allowed to get away with… mur… uh, let’s just say, destruction of life, in legalized form.

Was there any other option than dumping the “dirty” water into the majestic Hudson, you might be wondering? Why, indeed, yes, there was, according to Dr. Chris Busby, Green Audit Co-Founder and Director www.greenaudit.org/about_green_audit.htm and Founder of Low Level Radiation Campaign http://www.llrc.org who stated in private correspondence with this writer on November 17, “They should have moved the water to another tank and stored it there; then dug out the mud and stored that in a different tank.

Forever. “Dr. Busby has even more to say (to follow below) on this dirty “business” of what kind of radioactive poisons are contained within the remaining contmainated water. Could they have filtered all radioactive contaminants out, as Entergy tried to claim in its October 6 statement, http://www.lohud.com/article/20081006/OPINION/810060311/1345/NEWS0202
“The filtration and removal of all contaminants from Unit 1 at Indian Point is a major achievement and milestone for the plant.”

I won’t paraphrase what the internationally renown radiation scientist and researcher, Dr. Chris Busby says. Dr. Busby’s letter in full on this matter (and the NRC statement below it) is quoted here so you can read Dr. Busby’s comment and – think about its implications for yourself.

As time is of the essence, I’ll cut right to the chase. In short, the residents in the tri-state area now have an important decision to make. There are still roughly 50,000 gallons of the most contaminated water known to human kind being readied for dumping into the Hudson River.

May all those concerned – including residents from Connecticut, New York, and all down the Jersey coast – consider telling Entergy Corporation to stop relieving itself and using the Hudson River as its personal nuclear toilet in which to excrete its nuclear dumps.

Dear Cathy

I have had a look at what you sent. I note that there are no numbers, no data. Perhaps this is on purpose. The idea is straightforward: the stuff is leaking into the groundwater due to hydrostatic pressure in the pond, so take away the water and no pressure. But here are a few comments.

First, you are right that tritium cannot be filtered as it is essentially water. Second, filtration can only remove particles larger than the filter pore size, and below about 2 microns it gets very hard to push anything through a filter. So particles less than 1 micron will get through. I think there will be a lot of particles that get through. Then, anything that is soluble will get through, because it is molecules. You can’t filter salt water and get out the salt.

Caesium-137 is soluble and probably the major radioactive component of the mixed fission products in the pool. Strontium-90 is also soluble although less so, so are the dangerous alpha emitters uranium U-235, U-238 and U-234 and plutonium-239 and Pu-238 and Am-241 and the beta emitter Pu-241. There is also Co-60, also soluble to an extent, all depending on the acidity of the water in the pond. I would need to know the concentrations of these things in the final effluent, I note they haven’t given those. The question to ask is for a table of activities in the final discharge water of these substances above.

These substances attach to silt in the river and wash around the shores. They then get blown ashore as inhalable (respirable) particles by a well described effect called sea to land transfer and the cancer rate on the coastal strip goes up. I have data that shows that in Connecticut, it is the coastal counties close to the Millstone plant that have significantly higher child leukemia than the counties away from the coast, a paper I will write up when I get a moment: Joe Mangano gave me the numbers. It's the effect I found in the Irish Sea due to discharges from Sellafield. People who live near fine mud are most at risk.

They should have moved the water to another tank and stored it there; then dug out the mud and stored that in a different tank. Forever.

Best regards
Chris
Dr Chris Busby

Castle Cottage

Sea View Place A

berystwyth SY231DZ UK

tel +44-1970-630215

November 14, 2008 statement from Neil Sheehan, NRC regarding Indian Point1 Spent Pool Drain-down

They flooded up the pool last 5/20 and the idea was that they would start the drain down on 9/15. They completed the drain-down on 10/1, and on 10/31 they announced that they had removed the sludge at the bottom of the pool.

So, as far as the liquid that was in the pool, the water that was in the pool, it involved about 459,000 gallons. What they did was filter that water through a series of 7 filters to make sure that there was no contamination that would have been above federal limits for release to the River. They also had sampled it before they even put it through the filters so they knew that they had water that had very low levels, very low concentrations of radioactivity. In any case, they ran it through this series of 7 filters, and then released it to the River.

There was also some water, once they drained it, down near the bottom, there was some sludge at the bottom, from all the years of use, there was some water that was in and around that sludge that, as an extra precaution, they not only ran it through those filters, but they also then ran it thru the radioactive water clean up system for the IP unit 2 and put it in a tank. They will sample that and they may run it through again, but they will not release that until they are fully satisfied that that water, again, is within allowable levels for release to the River. They don’t have an exact estimate on how much water is involved that was associated with the sludge. But it fit within a 75,000 gallon tank. They think it may only be somewhere in the order of 50,000 gallons or less, but they don’t have a firm estimate right now.

*****Cathy Garger is an anti-radiation freelance writer, public speaker, and activist who has recently joined the Green Nuclear Butterfly Blogger writing staff.

Greece rules out nuclear power

By George Lekakis
The Daily Telegraph

April 03, 2007

GREECE yesterday ruled out the prospect of becoming a buyer of Australian uranium despite international pressure to adopt new sources of power generation.

Members of the European Union, including Greece, are now investing in alternatives to coal-fired power after last month committing to aggressive targets for lowering greenhouse emissions.

But the country's finance minister, George Alogoskoufis, yesterday told BusinessDaily that nuclear power was not part of the Greek Government's plans for future electricity generation.

"We are investing heavily in natural gas (and) we're looking at biofuels, solar energy and wind energy," he said. "Now, nuclear is a 'no-go' in Greece, although we realise other European countries have derived many benefits from nuclear energy.

"But given that Greece is a relatively small area and given we are also prone to earthquakes there is a lot of aversion to nuclear energy."

The reluctance to embrace nuclear power means that Greece will find it difficult to meet EU emissions targets.

Greece relies heavily on brown coal to produce electricity and 40 per cent of national greenhouse emissions are generated by PPC, a state-owned power company.

Under the EU targets, Greece has to stem emissions by 25 per cent over the next five years.

Mr Alogoskoufis, who is leading a Greek trade delegation in Melbourne this week, has been a key player in the recent rejuvenation of the Greek economy which has seen foreign investment increase by more than 200 per cent since 2003.

He is also driving the privatisation of state assets and is considering a proposal to offload the government's 55 per cent stake in Athens Airport.

The Greek Government is evaluating options for executing the sale, including a stock market float or a trade sale.

A sale of the airport will have implications for local investors in the Australian Infrastructure Fund.

The AIF owns 5.3 per cent of the Athens facility through a strategic interest in German investment fund -- Hochtief AirPort Capital.

It is understood that AIF and Hochtief are keen to move to full ownership of the airport by negotiating a trade sale on the government holding. The sale of the majority stake in the airport has been complicated by the uncertainty surrounding the future of the national air carrier, Olympic Airlines.

A float of the Olympic business was thrown into turmoil two years ago when the European Union found that the airline had received illegal subsidies from the national government.

"We're in negotiations with the European Union to determine whether Olympic has to return to the state any funds," Mr Alogoskoufis said.

A spokesman for the minister later said that a sale of the airline was preferable before the airport stake was sold, but was "not necessarily a prerequisite".

Mr Alogoskoufis is scheduled to meet Federal Treasurer Peter Costello in Melbourne tomorrow, before taking the trade roadshow to Sydney.

Shares in Australian Infrastructure Fund closed down 2 to $2.74.

Greece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_energy_policy#Greece

Although Greece has established Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), a decision has been made not to implement a nuclear power program to generate nuclear electricity. There is one operational nuclear research reactor and one sub-critical assembly.[73] The country believes due to its small size and earthquakes in the region, nuclear power would not provide many benefits.[74] Greece did receive electricity produced by nuclear power from Bulgaria in the past. However, with the shutdown of two Bulgarian reactors in 2006, these imports are almost non-existent.[75]

Van Jones

via: http://www.summerrayneoakes.com/index.php/2008/10/11/the-green-solution-to-our-economic-woes

THE CODE KILLERS: An Expose by Ace Hoffman

From:
Ace Hoffman
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

THE CODE KILLERS: An Expose by Ace Hoffman (free download!)
November 10th, 2008

Available for download now!

THE CODE KILLERS: AN EXPOSE

Alternate title: Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, Corrupt Government, Corporate Greed, Mass Hysteria, General Ignorance, and Your DNA: A Dangerous Mix? A look at the Databy Ace Hoffman

First published: 2008

35+ years in the making -- thousands of interviews conducted to research this book!

Hundreds of books read -- thousands of magazines scoured!Hundreds of drawings, photos, diagrams, and vital historic documents presented in one place!A unique compendium! Great for the beginner OR the expert!

Bring THE CODE KILLERS to public hearings (and submit it electronically) so you always have the facts handy and THEY DO TOO!

Available free from: http://www.acehoffman.org

Direct URL (300 dpi printable version):
http://www.acehoffman.com/books/TheCodeKillers.pdf
(File is about 111 megabytes. Warning: If printed, it takes a lot of ink!)

Lowest-resolution version for quick review (about 17 megabytes)
(please don't print this version!)

Printed copies are available directly from the author: 600 dpi; 28-lb acid-free paper (67-lb covers): Only $12.00 + $3.00 S&H.Copies of The Code Killers were sent to about 75 Congresspeople today (then I upgraded page 9 (again)).

I hope you enjoy The Code Killers and will want to recommend it to your friends and colleagues!

Printed copies are available immediately, on acid-free, 28-lb paper with a binding that should last for many decades (it's called "unibind").

The cost per copy is $12.00 + $3.00 S&H, but for the price of two copies including S&H, which would be $30.00, I'll send three copies (technically, for $25.00 plus $5.00 S&H).

10 copies are $75.00 plus $10.00 S&H. 25 copies are $175 plus $15.00 S&H.

50 copies (which one person already ordered, though she ordered it a few weeks ago, at a slightly lower price) are $325.00 plus $30.00 S&H.

Payments can be made through paypal to: msales@acehoffman.org or, for Visa and M/C payments, people can call my 800 number: (800) 551-2726 or my other number: (760) 720-7261.

** Ace Hoffman, Owner & Chief Programmer, The Animated Software Co.
** POB 1936, Carlsbad CA 92018
** U.S. & Canada (800) 551-2726; elsewhere: (760) 720-7261
** home page: http://www.animatedsoftware.com
** email: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

SPREAD THE NIGHTMARE LIKE JAM ON TOAST!

WAVE OF FUTURE: MININUKE PLANTS
By ERIC LENKOWITZ
November 10, 2008

Nuclear reactors smaller than garden sheds but capable of powering 20,000 homes will be available within five years from the company that gave us the atom bomb, it was reported yesterday.

What's more, the miniplants will be perfectly safe, Hyperion CEO John Deal told The Guardian.

The New Mexico-based firm claims it already has 100 orders and a six-year waiting list.

(From today's NYPost. Hyperion was an exhibitor at the Democratic convention.)

One Fifth of Those On Board DEAD or INJURED...Nuclear Sub Accident UPDATE!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Nuclear Submarine Accident...UPDATE....Read Between Lines

Rest EASY Comrades, we have Russian News sources telling us that everything is A OK on a as yet unidentified nuclear submarine, even though 1/5 of those on board were either KILLED or INJURED when the fire-extinguishing system of this antiquated nuclear submarine accidently LAUNCHED ITSELF...I am sure you believe every word DEAR COMRADES! Shaking head...folks, we need to READ BETWEEN THE LINES HERE. All is well, but:

1. The sea trials were HALTED.

2. Anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs and the rescue vessel Sayany are accompaning the submarine TO AN UNDISCLOSED TEMPORARY BASE.

3. First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Kolmakov and Navy commander-in-chief, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky ARE RACING TO SCENE OF THE ACCIDENT for a first hand assessment of the unfolding situation.

Again, the Russian Navy spokesperson is INSISTING that the onboard reactor is SAFE! Then tell us where the accident is, let independent investigator onboard the submarine!

In Worst Nuclear Accident Since Chernobyl At Least 20 Russian Sailors DIE HORRIBLE NUCLEAR DEATH

During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, John McCain routinely LIED about the safety of the Nuclear Navy, deliberately mislead Americans regarding the safety of nuclear energy...well, as we all sit safely in our homes tonight, Russia is hiding the location and name of a naval vessel where 20 sailors have died a horrible nuclear death, with at least 20 others severely injured, perhaps suffering from severe nuclear burns or sure to be FATAL over exposure to radioactive particulates...which raises the question, is the world in the middle of a Naval China Syndrome as a Russian sea going vessel spews its ruptured onboard reactor's nuclear particulates into the world's oceans? Is this the first example of what is to come as America's own aged and brittle reactors give up the ghost and explode when exposed to Thermal Shock? WE NEED DETAILS RUSSIA, NOT COVER UPS!

At least 20 die in accident on Russian nuclear sub

MOSCOW, Nov. 8, 2008 (Reuters) — At least 20 people died and 21 were injured in an accident on board a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, Russian news agencies said on Saturday. ... > full story
http://www.nukestrat.com/russia/subpatrols.htm

Soviet/Russian Nuclear Submarine Patrols 1981-2006

The annual number of patrols performed by Russian nuclear-powered submarines has plummeted from 235 in 1984 to less than 10 today. In 2002, the strategic submarine force did not manage to send a single boat on deterrent patrol. (click on graph to download PDF version)

Patrol Areas

During the Cold War, the patrol areas for Soviet ballistic missile submarines gradually changed as new capabilities were introduced. Most important was the range of the missile, which permitted the submarines to pull back into patrol areas ("bastions") closer to the Soviet Union.

Delta IV Class Ballistic Missile Submarine

Russian nuclear submarines are spending most of their life at pier side.

What Does Obama Mean For Indian Point?

Two days ago the press reported that Obama was considering Robert Kennedy Jr. as Environmental Protection Agency director. This despite Robert Kennedy Jr. backing Hillary Clinton for President, while Ted Kennedy backed Obama.

Today we read that Obama is considering John W. Rowe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Exelon Corporation, as Energy secretary! What's wrong with this picture?

Once everyone gets over the elation of our first black president in the White House, not having Sarah Palin to worry about, we need to start looking more carefully at how Obama got elected.

John W. Rowe is also chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry’s lobbying group, based in Washington. In addition, Mr. Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, has worked as a consultant to Exelon.

The Obama campaign, as of late May 2007, had accepted $161,000 from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power plant operator. Exelon at the time, was Obama’s fourth largest patron.

I'd like to be in the room when Robert Kennedy Jr. and John W. Rowe have to reach a compromise. Let's hope that compromise is Indian Point!

I remember Congressman John Hall's swearing in ceremony two years ago inside the meeting hall where Entergy plays host to the community. Many of the speakers congratulating his victory introduced him as the man who would shut down Indian Point, yet when John took the stage, he didn't make any mention of it.

A couple of months later, at Pace University, Hall talked about a meeting he had with a representative of the NRC at his office in Washington DC. He expressed concern that unless the NRC denied the relicensing application of at least one nuclear power plant, the NRC would lose all credibility in the eyes of the public. The NRC official asked him, which one should that be, and John answered Indian Point, which got a rise from the crowd.

Since then what has any of the local public officials really done to further along the opposition to the relicensing? When it came time to give thanks and support to the grassroots organizations that contributed to the filing of hundreds of contentions opposing the new license, at a press conference in White Plains, all the credit went to Riverkeeper, when everyone knew, the owner of this blog, Green Nuclear Butterfly, was in fact the individual most responsible for the research and writing of all documents filed.

Those involved in the fight to shut down Indian Point, know the story, inside and out. The grassroots efforts to stop the relicensing of Indian Point were derailed by the stupidity and greed of a certain lawyer in Rockland County, with the assistance of a few co-conspirators, who feared full blown revolution on the shores of the Hudson, not realizing this was probably our only hope to create a strong winning coalition!

Riverkeeper did succeed in forcing Entergy to install a new cooling system to the tune of $1.7 billion dollars, to make Indian Point safer, which Entergy is now fighting on appeal. It will not stop the plant from getting a new license or operating for another 20 to 40 years.

Recently Entergy announced, boasting with renewed confidence that nothing the public could do would derail their new license, that they were going to start dumping 500.000 gallons of contaminated waste water into the Hudson river. By now anti-nuclear organizers along the Hudson are so beaten, they'd let Entergy get away with anything.

Which is why we need a national anti-nuclear movement to take over the fight to shut down Indian Point. Local organizers have failed. It's been a constant stream of divide and conquer, petty quarrels, missappropriation of money, resources, and research materials, undermining from within.

I'm told there are only two ways to shut down a nuclear power plant. The NRC has to want to, or a sitting U.S. president has to write a decree. Obama could shut down Indian Point!

Will Robert Kennedy Jr. who has been deafeningly silent concerning Indian Point in the last two years, side with the nuclear is clean and green and the solution to global warming gang, or remember his past allegiance to the anti-nuclear movement, especially now that so much data is reaching the maintream about the links between radiation and breast cancer?

Obama is sending mixed messages. You can't support Van Jones's Green Collar Jobs initiative, while at the same time, support the relicensing of old, dangerous nuclear power plants. The two are mutually self-exclusive. Obama's presidency may not resolve the ideological riff between the anti-nuke and pro-nuke camps, but at least, it would seem, a genuine dialog may become possible.

Once again, the GE EdgeLab at UConn in Stamford, Connecticut, has extended a standing offer to provide their think tank facility for a meeting of the minds between the two camps, pro-nuclear engineers, and anti-nuclear scientists. If President Obama, long time Riverkeeper member Robert Kennedy Jr. and John Rowe are ready to put all the data on the table, General Electric has offered the conference center for that closed session.

Aging nuclear power plants are a great risk to our endocrine system. They will all need to be shut down within the next 20 years, over 400 of them worldwide. There is no active strategy in place to handle such a Gargantuan task. We're robbing Peter to pay Paul, threatening the future of the human race. We should not be building new reactors until we have solutions to the old ones. This will require international collaboration.

Let me remind everyone of what John Hall said to the NRC official, shutting down Indian Point would be a great way to start a positive dialog between all parties involved, and once again, the CT Technology Council is offering all Union members currently working at Indian Point new jobs in the green economy. Let's replace nuclear radiation with solar radiation. Future generations will thank us for it.

~ RemyC
Director, Rock The Reactors

From Someone Who Served On The Same Nuclear Aircraft Carrier As McCain

As someone who served on the same nuclear aircraft carrier as McCain once did (although at different times) I may have some light to throw on this subject, although my nuclear carrier experience was little more enlightening on these questions than McCain's was.

First, naval nuclear power has some advantages over civilian nuclear power. First is size. the naval reactors are much smaller than civilian reactors, and are of a different design, so they are moire self-contained than civilian reactors, and they are in a much more restricted environment, which tends to make them a bit safer--clearly the Navy doesn't want it reactors to be blowing up all the time, so they take great pains to build in heavy safety safeguards, and profit is not an issue, so if they need an extra safety valve, radiation monitor or better fire protection, they put it in. reactor personnel are very thoroughly trained, since they cannot call on the manufacturers for help when they are at sea, and, of all the departments that make up the ship's company, only the reactor department is always fully staffed and never subject to being moved to other duties, either temporarily or permanently.

That said, one must always remember that the function of naval ships is, when necessary, to sail in harm's way. We have never had one of our nuclear ships engaged in a battle at sea where shots, bombs or missiles were exchanged, so we have never had to face the prospect of the contamination that might result from a breached reactor in battle. I suspect that it would not be insignificant. However, we have had two nuclear submarines lost at sea, and the Russians more than two.

Neither of our lost subs were carrying nuclear missiles. Both the Thresher and the Scorpion were lost in deep sea accidents. They were both "attack" subs, rather than ballistic missile subs. Scorpion was returning tot he US from an operational deployment when it's accident occurred (circumstances not known for sure and all suggested causes have been rather controversial) so it was carrying nuclear weapons, but not missiles, probably just torpedoes). Thresher was on a test voyage after a major overhaul and so was carrying no weapons at all. Whether either reactor was destroyed in the accidents, I do not know, but it is known that neither reactor was involved in the cause of what happened.

Since naval reactors must have the capability of rapidly varying their power output, and we do not want to have to refuel them any more often than absolutely necessary, they are fuel with weapons-grade uranium, that is, 90% or higher U-235 enriched. The USS Enterprise, the nuclear carrier that both McCain and I served on carries 8 reactors, it has been refueled at least three times, maybe four. The way they do that is to cut holes in the flight deck and all the decks down to the reactor compartment, and pull the whole reactor out with a crane, and replace it with a new reactor, presumably improved and with a longer lifetime (presumably another reason why naval reactors tend to be safer--they do not have old components that have been around longer than the fuel they are using). The newer nuclear carriers have much improved designs and use only two larger reactors.

Submarines are never refueled. They are designed so that the reactor fuel will last for the design lifetime of the boat, and when they would need to be refueled, they are retired from service and broken up. That turns out to be cheaper than refueling them.

The reactors are, I believe, shipped to the Naval Nuclear Reactor Facility in Idaho, where they are dismantled and the spent fuel recovered. What happens to the waste from there, I do not know, but there is clearly plenty of it. I'm pretty sure that the spent fuel in not reprocessed, since, being mostly U-235 to start with, there won't be much plutonium to recover. But the reactor parts are all pretty radioactive by this time so they have to be handled as radioactive waste, and I'm not sure what that process is.

I'm not sure what is done with the Russian Naval reactors. What is pretty certain is that they were not built to anywhere near the standards that our boats were, nor has their waste material been as well handled (such as it is) as ours. They have lost at least three nuclear subs (and several other non-nuclear, but nuclear armed subs) and I think that the reactors in those subs may be leaking radioactive materials into the sea. At least one of them was lost in shallow water, and I don't recall if that boat was recovered. If not, it is almost certainly leaking into the Arctic Ocean at depths that can result in threats to humans.

All reactors, land-based or sea-based, discharge more or less small amounts of radioactive water, mostly containing tritium. Ships are supposed to catch the water to be released and bring it back to port with them, but it doesn't always happen, as recent admissions about radioactivity releases in Japanese waters reveals. It is worthy of note that at one point, the Navy had in its inventory, a submarine detector that worked by looking for the gamma radiation emitted by all reactors, which ended up in discharged water into the boat's wake.

The airborne detector looked for a slight increase in gamma radiation in the water, and then attempted to follow the track of that radiation to the sub. I don't know if it ever worked as advertised, but I recall that they Navy claimed that it had detected at least one Russian submarine with the device. I doubt that it was ever sensitive enough to be a reliable detector, and, of course, it only worked on nuclear-powered subs, which were never a majority of the Soviet submarine fleet.

A long response to a short question, but I hope it clarifies things a bit.

So how long does one submarine last for?

Not being a submariner, I don't know the answer to that question, but it's at least 15 years, maybe more. I think you can figure out the answer by looking at the commissioning and decommissioning dates for nuclear submarines in "Jane's Fighting Ships," which includes that kind of data. It might also be found in Wikipedia.

I left Enterprise in 1969, as it was entering the shipyard for its second refueling, which was scheduled to put reactors in that had a 15-year lifetime. So it has been refueled at least once since then, probably around 1985 (I retired from the Navy in 1976, so didn't follow those details much after that). Whether the reactors installed in 1985 had a 20-year lifetime or a longer one will determine if it has been refueled a fourth time. In any event, that one is likely to be its last, since it has now been in service for over 50 years, a very long time for a warship. It will be refueled a fourth time (if it hasn't already), and it is scheduled for decommissioning sometime around 2030, by which time it will have been in service for 75 years.

But submarines have a much shorter lifetime, especially modern ones with maximum depths well in excess of 1500 feet. Cycling to and from those extreme pressures accelerates the metal fatigue of the hull, and that is mainly what limits their useful lifetime. Nuclear reactor lifetime can be adjusted to pretty much whatever limits are imposed by hull life.

Hugh Haskell

United States
USS Thresher (SSN-593) (sank, 129 killed)
USS Scorpion (SSN-589) (sank, 99 killed)
Both sank for reasons unrelated to their reactor plants and still lie on the Atlantic sea floor.

[edit] Russian or Soviet

Komsomolets K-278 (sank, 42 killed)
Kursk K-141 (sank recently, 118 killed)
K-8 (loss of coolant) (sank, 42 killed)
K-11 (refueling criticality)
K-19 (loss of coolant)
K-27 (scuttled)
K-116 (reactor accident)
K-122 (reactor accident)
K-123 (loss of coolant)
K-140 (power excursion)
K-159 (radioactive discharge) (sank recently, 9 killed)
K-192 (loss of coolant)
K-219 (sank after collision, 4 killed)
K-222 (uncontrolled startup)
K-314 (refueling criticality, 10 killed)
K-320 (uncontrolled startup)
K-429 (sank twice, 16 killed)
K-431 (reactor accident)

The Soviet icebreaker Lenin is also rumored to have had a nuclear accident.

While not all of these were reactor accidents, since they happened to nuclear vessels, they have a major impact on nuclear marine propulsion and the global politics. Many of these accidents resulted in the sinking of the boat containing nuclear weapons on board, which remain there to this day.[3]

See also: List of military nuclear accidents