Just In From The Fake Jim Steets Prayer Blog

Breaking News From Fake Jim Steets...seems he has his new Christmas Cards!

Dear God, Got My New Corporate X-Mas Cards

Dear God:

In keeping with the $pirit of the $eason, and to let the community know that we are good neighbors, I just got my Entergy Greeting Cards. I have to say, Entergy's PR folks have out done themselves this year.

The kids are really excited about the upcoming lighting of the reactor domes, and of course they always love doing their Christmas shopping in the Entergy gift catalog. The ten percent employee discount really helps save us money. I'm getting the wife that Entergy bed throw this year, and may splurge for a set of the Entergy coffee mugs.

By the way God, could you put in a word upstairs, and ask management to bring back the Christmas giveaways. The maintenance team really misses those canned hams.

Amen

Nuclear Asthmatic Hatchet Man Norris McDonald Writes Own Hollywood Gossip?

Everyone on both sides of the Nuclear arguement know self serving, inhaler toting Pro Nuclear Renaissance, anti coal, self professed Green Nuclear Pitch man Norris McDonald. Like a bad penny, he just keeps showing up everywhere, squirrling a picture of himself next to famous people and large nuclear reactors at various locations and events to feed his hunger for the limelight. Back in September, none of us were surprised to see his PHOTO OP picture with Condi Rice (of Birthing Pains fame) appear on one of his web sites. Posted below for your amusement, and to set the stage for, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story is the article from his web page dated Thursday September 27th, 2007 .

AAEA President & Condoleezza Rice At Climate Summit

AAEA President Norris McDonald attended the "Major Economies Meeting on Energy and Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State. He is pictured at left with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. McDonald expressed AAEA's support for President Bush's climate change programs. He mentioned that AAEA is working hard on climate change mitigation and offered our organization's assistance to the State Department to assure the success of the administration's current effort.

President Bush addressed the delegation at the State Department on the second day. McDonald attended the speech. He proposed a new International Clean Technology Fund that would help developing countries buy nuclear power plants, clean burning coal fired power plants and other technologies.

Now, Fast forward to another Norris McDonald blog dated some two and a half weeks later, and we have to wonder just how desparate for the limelight Mr. McDonald really is? Do we have a pro nuclear hack now trying to write his own celebrity GOSSIP to make himself seem bigger than life, far more important than he really is?

Posted below from the AAEA Hollywood blog is one of those JUICY GOSSIP stories people just love intimating a ROMANTIC CONNNECTION between Norris McDonald and Condi Rice that was supposedly posted by the blogs contributing writer Hollywood! One tiny little problem though for those of us who KNOW HOW BLOGGER WORKS...the poster of the blog entry is always POSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THEIR POST...if you scroll down to the bottom of this particular post, it appears that Norris McDonald himself has written this JUICY GISSIP himself, is trying to spread the rumor himself, is credited by the blogger software as posting the story to the AAEA Hollywood blog all by himself. Talk about a NEW LOW! Does Norris McDonald have no shame? NEI and the Nuclear Industry claim him as their own?

Saturday, October 13, 2007

AAEA President Denies Relationship With Condi

By Holly Wood

A recent photo of AAEA President Norris McDonald with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, at an official Washington event has led to speculation that there is more than official business going on between the two. McDonald is denying any sort of relationship with Secretary Rice and states that such speculation is simply silly gossip. He added that he has nothing but respect for Dr. Rice.

When I contacted McDonald and mentioned the gossip to him, he acknowledged that "Ms. Rice is a very intelligent and beautiful woman and that any man would be lucky to have her as a wife or friend." He stated that he would love to work with Dr. Rice on climate change issues because AAEA is in the forefront of promoting technological solutions to this serious problem. AAEA also supports the Bush Administration's technology solution programs.

posted by Norris McDonald at 5:50 PM

Exposing CASEnergy Nuclear Propagandist-The FALSE Support For Nuclear Renaissance

In Green Nuclear butterfly's efforts to EXPOSE those driving America's Pro Nuclear Propaganda, we feel citizens have a right to know first, that CASEnergy is funded by the nuclear industry, and the nuclear industry's LOBBYING GROUP, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). More important, it is necessary that Americans know who their membership base is, and what their ties are to raping the environment. In this, our first installment, we list the organizational members of this Propagandist society. As we continue to revisit this post, we will give you thumbnails of the players, and why they might be supporting the nuclear rape of our communities, why they support Nuclear Abortions (women living close to nuclear reactors have a 25 percent greater chance of giving birth to a stillborn baby).

Organizations That Support The Nuclear Rape of Our Planet

ABB-As one of the world’s leading engineering companies, we help our customers to use electrical power effectively and to increase industrial productivity in a sustainable way. Can we say INDUSTRY INSIDER?

AFL-CIO, Building & Construction Trades Department-Self serving interests, though ignoring the risks their workers are being exposed to...after all, what is a few AFL-CIO cancer deaths when Nuclear Reactors need to be built and manned?

American Boiler Manufacturers Association Thier website makes them sound so GRAND, but are they? The American Boiler Manufacturers Association (ABMA) is the national, nonprofit trade association of manufacturers of commercial/institutional, industrial and power-generating boilers, related fuel burning equipment, users of boiler and boiler-related equipment, and companies which provide products and services to the boiler industry. In short, ABMA represents the companies that design and build the systems that combust the fuels that generate the steam and hot water that powers and comforts America and the world.

American Chemical Technologies, Inc. "The American Chemical Society announced on Friday that it had reversed an earlier decision to expel its members in Iran and will allow all 36 scientists in that country to rejoin." Sure they will want to claim their actions were justified based on 9/11? They did it as a matter of National Security? They were afraid these scientists were secretly Islamic Radicals?

American Chemistry Council Believes in the old adage that what you DO NOT KNOW cannot hurt you! While promoting the chemical industry as vital to the economic health of the nation the ACC simultaneously lobbied against the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), a public right-to-know program.

American Council on Science and Health This organization makes three people VERY WEALTHY. During its first 15 years of operation, ACSH published the names of its institutional funders, but it has stopped doing this in recent years, making it harder to identify where all of its money comes from. In the latest years for which information is available, some 40 percent of ACSH's budget was supplied directly by industry, including a long list of food, drug and chemical companies that have a vested interest in supporting Whelan's message.

American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance Do we need to tell you anything more than these folks are LOBBYIST? A special interest’s lobbying activity may go up or down over time, depending on how much attention the federal government is giving their issues. Particularly active clients often retain multiple lobbying firms, each with a team of lobbyists, to press their case for them.

American Iron and Steel Institute

American Nuclear Society No vested interest here in a Nuclear Renaissance! The Society was founded on December 11, 1954. It's been a leader in the development of nuclear consensus standards since 1958. Its main objective is to promote the advancement of science and engineering relating to the atomic nucleus.

American Public Power Association Another Self Serving Industry insider! The American Public Power Association is the national service organization representing the more than 2,000 municipal and other state- and local-government owned electric utilities in the United States. The association provides legislative, regulatory and judicial monitoring and intervention services for the public power industry and performs educational and research functions.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Tallahassee Section

Applied Research Center The Applied Research Center (ARC) is the flagship research facility (adjacent to the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in the research park, the Jefferson Center for Research and Technology, in Newport News, Virginia. The Applied Research Center, an $18 million, seven-story, 122,000 square foot office and laboratory facility erected by the City of Newport News, serves as a nucleus for a key center in the development of new technologies in the Commonwealth.

AREVA, Inc-Have you seen their commercials on TV? Talk about a nuclear company with NO PRIDE!

Arizona Public Service NRC: Utility agrees to corrective action at nuclear plant 24 Oct 2007 04:25 GMT... PHOENIX -- Arizona Public Service Co. has agreed to revise training ... training for operators at its Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station after a falsified-record incident last ... caused the plant's computers to underreport thermal power by 0.3 percent, but it did not.

Arkansas Environmental Federation

Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce Any one want to place a bet that Entergy Arkansas is a member of this particular Chamber of Commerce?

Associated Industries of Arkansas There one singular Legislative goal tells you all you need to really know. Lead the effort to pass a sales tax exemption for energy used in industry and manufacturing. How much money you think this effort will save Entergy?

Associated Industries of Florida

Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce The corporate headquaters of Entergy is Where? Oh, while we are at it, lets not forget to include here the SHAW GROUP.

Bechtel Power Corporation Recently, the company has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement of the Big Dig project, its financial links to the bin Laden family, and the manner in which it received Iraqi rebuilding contracts after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Politicians in the United States and in Europe have made accusations of cronyism between the George W. Bush administration and Bechtel.

Bismarck State College What possible self serving interest could little old Bismarck State College have that would make it LEAP at the chance to support CASEnergy? A top official from the U.S. Department of Energy joined U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) here Monday to formally designate Bismarck State College as a national hub for the training of power plant operators. Dorgan secured the designation for BSC in legislation he authored that has been signed into law.

BWXT/ Babcock and Wilcox Company Bigots in the workplace? 2. EEOC v. Bechtel Corp (Discrimination on the Basis of National Origin) “The Philadelphia District Office filed a Title VII lawsuit alleging that Bechtel, an international construction company, subjected charging party to a hostile work environment and discriminatory terms and conditions of employment because of his Iraqi national origin, and discharged him because of his national origin. WHAT AND OUTSTANDING CASEnergy member!

California Manufacturers and Technology Association

Cedar Rapid Area Chamber of Commerce

Cedar Rapids City Building Trades Council, IA

Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council

Chicago Federation of Labor

Chicago Laborers District Council

Chicago Urban League

Cianbro Corporation

City of Little Rock, AR

City of Searcy, AR

City of St. Francisville, LA

CMS Energy How about for starters, this company SOLD PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT to...drum roll please...ENTERGY!

Conference of Minority Transportation Officials

Constellation Energy Another one of Christine Todd Whitman's Environmental stewards in action here. In the biggest fine the state has levied on a polluter in at least seven years, Maryland slapped a $1 million penalty yesterday on Constellation Energy and the operator of its fly ash dump site in Anne Arundel County for contaminating drinking water.

Copiah-Lincoln Community College These SELF SERVING BASTARDS, and further, is CASEnergy BRIBING people to support Nuclear? Dr. Stonecypher reported on a visit from representatives of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy) who were seeking support from the SBCJC. The Coalition’s goal is to increase the use of nuclear energy to ensure an environmentally clean, safe, affordable and reliable supply of electricity. Dr. Stonecypher stated that by supporting the coalition the community colleges could be in a position to establish one (1) or more new programs for nuclear power and technology. The Mission Statement and other pertinent information are attached as “Exhibit F”. Upon a motion by Mr. Henry Thomas and a second by Mr. Chip Crane, the Board unanimously voted to join the CASEngery Coalition.

Cornell University On Aug. 22, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) strengthened its commitment to advancing nuclear power by awarding $100,000 to 38 universities to enhance nuclear research and development (R&D) under President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The one-time GNEP University Readiness awards total $3.8 million in funding and will include upgrading laboratories; improving reactor facilities; purchasing state-of-the-art equipment; providing increased faculty support and further enhancing nuclear-related curricula. GNEP is part of a President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative and aims to close the nuclear fuel cycle by reducing proliferation risks, reducing waste and further increasing energy security around the world. GUESS WHO IS ON THE LIST OF AWARD WINNERS?

Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit

Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce

Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

Dominion

The Dow Chemical Company

DTE Energy

Duke Power Company

Edison Electric Institute

Electric Consumers' Alliance

The Energy Association of New York State

Energy Northwest

Entergy Corporation-Indian Point with its tritium and strontium 90 leaks, then there is Vermont Yankee with its collapsing cooling towers. Let's not forget Entergy's rape of New Orleans to the tune of almost $300 million in government grants when they used the Federal Bankrupcy courts as a means to blackmail the government.

Exelon Corporation Now here is a REAL CLASS ACT! Exelon's Braidwood nuclear power plant in Illinois has released millions of gallons of wastewater containing radioactive tritium into the groundwater around the plant since 1996.

FirstEnergy Corp. What more needs to be said about this fine example of regulatory dereliction than they brought us Davis Besse? Nice to know that CASEnergy has such quality control over their membership!

Florida Carpenters Regional Council

Florida Chamber of Commerce

Florida Medical Association

Florida Power & Light

Florida State University Center for Advanced Power Systems

Florida Utility Alliance

Guardian Industries Corp.

GE Energy

Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce

Hawkeye Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Hurst Technologies, Corp.

Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry

Idaho National Laboratory

Illinois Chamber of Commerce

Illinois Energy Association

Illinois Manufacturers Association

Illinois Pipe Trades

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

International Paper

International Union of Operating Engineers

Iowa State University - Department of Industrial, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Iron Workers District Council of St. Louis and Vicinity

Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT)

Jackson Economic Development Alliance

L-3 Communications MAPPS

Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce

Lee County Labor Council AFL-CIO

Little Rock Port Authority
Longnecker & Associates, Inc.

Louisiana Association of Business and Industry

Louisiana Chemical Association

Louisiana Municipal Association

Lower Colorado River Authority

Michigan Association of Counties

Michigan Chamber of Commerce

Michigan Economic Developers Association

Michigan Electric Cooperative Association

Michigan Grocers Association

Michigan Manufacturers Association

Michigan Minority Business Developers Council

Michigan Movers Association

Michigan Retailers Association

Michigan State Medical Society

Mississippi Development Corporation

Mississippi Manufacturers Association

Mississippi Municipal League

Mississippi State Board for Community and Jr. Colleges

Mississippi Technology Alliance

Mitsubishi Power Systems, Inc.

NAACP, Tampa Branch

National Association of Manufacturers

National Electrical Contractors Association

National Energy Education Development (NEED)

National Ready Mixed Concrete Association

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

National Society of Professional Engineers

Nebraska Public Power District

New England Energy Alliance

New Jersey Business and Industry Association

North Carolina State University, Department of Nuclear Engineering

Nuclear Energy Institute As in NEI, as in the FUNDING GROUP for CASEnergy, as in the lobbying group for the entire NUCLEAR INDUSTRY.

Nucor Corporation Nucor - Vulcraft Group In 1962, Vulcraft was sold to Nuclear Corporation of America which would then become Nucor Corporation in 1972.

NuStart Energy Development, LLC Entergy is up to its ears in this group! NuStart Energy Development, LLC, is a limited liability company formed in 2004 with ten member companies. These members, plus two reactor vendors form the NuStart Consortium. The consortium objectives are: 1) to demonstrate the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) never-before-used licensing process for obtaining a combined Construction and Operating License (COL) for an advanced nuclear power plant; and 2) complete the design engineering for the two selected reactor technologies.

The Ohio State University - Nuclear Engineering Graduate Studies Program

The Oklahoma State Chamber

Omaha Public Power District

100 Black Men Baton Rouge BIG BURPRISE HERE, imagine my surprise that ENTERGY is a big FUNDER! In addition to Cox, major sponsors were Entergy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Pinnacle Entertainment and ReMax de la Louiziana. Wonder what role Norris McDonald might have played?

PG&E Corporation

Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico

Port of Greater Baton Rouge

PPL Susquehanna.

Progress Energy .

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG)

Pumping Machinery, LLC

Quad City Federation of Labor

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Sandia National Laboratories

Santee Cooper

Science and Environmental Policy Project

Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce

Sheet Metal Workers' International Association

Southeast Iowa Building and Construction Trades

South Mississippi Electric Power Association

Southern Company

Tampa Bay Partnership

Three Rivers Community College

TXU Power

United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices in the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry

University of California Los Angeles - School of Engineering and Applied Science

University of Cincinnati

University of Florida - Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Department

University of Illinois At Champaign - Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering

University of Massachusetts, Lowell - Nuclear Engineering Department

University of Missouri, Columbia - Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute

University of Rhode Island - School of Engineering

University of South Carolina - Nuclear Engineering Department

University of Tennessee - Nuclear Engineering Department

University of Wisconsin - Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Program

Urban League of Greater Jackson

U.S. Chamber of Commerce-Look at their support of ILLEGAL ALIENS...need we say more? They EMBRACE and encourage the hiring if ILLEGAL WORKERS! Anything for cheap labor.

Utilities Service Alliance, Inc.

Vermont Chamber of Commerce-Wonder if the people of Brattleboro know that the Chamber of Commerce is SELLING THEM OUT?

Washington State University - Department of Radiochemistry

Westinghouse Electric Company
Will & Grundy Counties Building Trade Council

New England Specific Opposition to 50 Billion in Nuclear Loan Guarantees

(GNB urges you to support and sign the Nuke Free + MoveOn petition to halt the $50 Billion loan guarantee. GNB feels there is an additional pressing need to address the issues stated below by Sherwood Martinelli. RemyC)

The full court press is on, and the lobbyist for the Nuclear Industry (NEI) are walking the halls of both the house and senate in the hopes of pushing through $50 BILLION in loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors...Green Nuclear Butterfly is giving itself ONE WEEK to collect 1,000 co-signers on our Petition opposing these loan guarantees. Give us a hand by sharing this post, or linking to our Petition on your blog on web site.

For HTML code email uraniumhotspot@aol.com

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oppose-50-billion-in-nuclear-loan-guarantees

Petition overview letter

Oppose 50 Billion in Nuclear Loan Guarantees

Target:

All Grassroots Environmental Organizations and Individual Activists

Created by:

Sherwood Martinelli, Green Nuclear Butterfly

The picture you see is a serious infrastructure crack, and radioactive leak at Entergy's Indian Point. Our children, our spouses, and our parents and relatives are dying from allowable radiological releases of strontium 90, and tritium. No United States home owner can get insurance to cover their personal losses from a nuclear incident or terrorist attack. Now, this failing industry wants to build over 200 new reactors in your neighborhoods, and use your money to pay for it.

The Congress and Senate in committee can give the nuclear industry a blank check in the form of 50 Billion in loan guarantees, or they can strip them out.

Sign The Petition Right Now

Petition powered by ThePetitionSite.com

Uncovering NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) Part One

By the way...could NEI Executives Explain Why They Don't Want NEPA to Include The Environmental Costs of a Terrorist Attack in Light of This Centers For Disease Control Slide
Suppose one question that should be asked here, "Has the IRS audited NEI, and if not then why not?" NEI's Federal Tax Number on their 990 is 52-1209124, and this is public information which can be found on the GUIDESTAR website. First, why the huge delays in filing? On the GUIDESTAR website, so far we only have filings for 2004 and 2005, but nothing for 2006. One must assume, that NEI is too busy lobbying on The Hill to address timely filing with the Internal Revenue Service. Which deserves pondering...at what point does a DEFACTO lobbying firm lose their right to their 501 6(C) status? More importantly, why is a lobbying firm with close to $40 million in yearly revenues given such unfettered access to the NRC, and allowed to basically write the rules by which Nuclear Reactors are regulated?

One first has to look at the major players in NEI, titans of the nuclear industry,or old crusty stalwarts of the DOD military nuclear industry such as NEI President and CEO Frank Bowman, though if you compare his lofty salary to that of Joe Calvin one has to wonder if Frank Bowman is President and CEO in title only, a figure head that gives NEI special access over at the Pentagon.

On the subject of salaries, the folks at the top of the food chain are living like sultans, the proberbial grand-pooh-bahs of the anticipated Nuclear Renaissance. In fact, a small handful of these executives earn more per year than the rest of NEI's staff salaries put together. Let's have a look shall we?

First, we have Joe Colvin, a very richly rewarded member of the NEI Dark Tower with a base salary of $3,245,843 BIG ONES! Keep in mind, that does not include his expense account, and willing to bet it's a WHOPPER.

Frank J. Bowman, with the same title almost seems like a pauper with his woeful pay of $650,094 salary...wonder if he got a significant raise in 2006 compliments of the United States rate payers by proxy. That's right, NEI is a PRIVATE CLUB with a hefty entry fee, said fee paid indirectly by us!

Coming at just under a cool half million we have Rober W. Bishop with a salary of $455,774 smackers, Angie S. Howard with $461,092 which is not exactly peanuts. Rounding out the top five is Marvin Fertel at a dissappointing $402,113 clams. So, five employees of NEI who are lobbying on behalf of the NUCLEAR INDUSTRY being paid by us to the tune of well over FIVE MILLION DOLLARS a year, and keep in mind that does not include their expense accounts, and other perks...IE, it would be interesting to see their individual SECURITY HOLDINGS!

Almost makes you feel sorry for the likes of John E. Kane at $375,953 dollars, or lowly STeve F. Floyd at $239,865....these two pikers need to DEMAND A RAISE! We have J. Scott Peterson in this third tier group at $263,567 dollars, and finally Phyllus M. Rich with $272,700 dollars under her Christmas tree.

DANG...makes me think those bloggers over on the NEI Blog must be raking in at least six figures! I guess convincing Congress to give BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of our take dollars to the nuclear industry pays handsome rewards, and in the end it is the rate payers picking up the entire tab, either in our monthly utility bills, or our yearly tax bill.

While TEPCO Tries To Bury Their Reactor Scandal, America Had Its Own Nuclear Disaster Cover Up

The NEI, IAEA, and the nuclear industry have done a great deal of damage control, worked hard to get the TEPCO reactor accident out of the news to save the Nuclear Renaissance. While that was going on, there was another MAJOR nuclear spill right here in America at the Hanford site that required evacuation of employees two miles from the supposed minor spill. Much like TEPCO's refusal to be completely TRUTHFUL, we now have DOE claiming the malfunction of a pump which caused and unknown amount HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE materials to be spread over a large area as presenting no serious risk to health and or the environment...SURE DOE, we always evacuate people two miles away for absolutely NO REASON.

Hours after the cat was out of the bag, long after the wind carried unknown mounts of cancer causing radioactive carcinogens off the site and into peoples homes and lives, DOE took the time to close the barn door after the cows were already gone of spraying a concrete fixative over the top of the spill site. After all, what's a few more DEAD BABIES or BIRTH DEFECTS when we are talking about the Hanford site...they should rename the place the Hanford Death Camp with their horrid history of environmental and worker abuse.

Pump leaks 'hot' water at Hanford

A clogged pump caused an undetermined amount of highly radioactive waste to spill on the ground Thursday night and Friday morning during a transfer operation at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/118561839279910.xml

PATRICK O'NEILL - The Oregonian

A clogged pump caused an undetermined amount of highly radioactive waste to spill on the ground Thursday night and Friday morning during a transfer operation at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Kim Ballinger, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy at Hanford, said several workers were involved in the transfer but none was contaminated.

As a precaution, about 50 office workers - most of them between one to two miles from the spill site - were evacuated Friday afternoon. Environmental monitoring found the traces of radioactivity Friday morning, and about 11 a.m. the workers were told to stay inside their buildings. They were moved out of the area about 3:30 p.m.

Ballinger said a team of workers sprayed a cementlike fixative over the 8- to 15-foot-diameter spill area to keep radioactive material from being carried by the wind.

Steve Wiegman, a senior technical adviser with the Department of Energy at Hanford, said no one knows how much of the radioactive liquid spilled because it rapidly sank into the ground.

"The area is very permeable, so there's no pool of liquid," he said.

The liquid was being pumped from an old single-shell storage tank to a newer double-shelled tank as part of a tank farm cleanup by contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group Inc.

Wiegman said the situation did not meet the criteria for an emergency declaration. But the U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees Hanford, has established an event coordination team and will develop a plan to clean up the spill, he said.

©2007 The Oregonian

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Reactor Accident Worse Than Three Mile Island

With each passing hour, with each passing day, the reports coming out of Japan make it clear that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant accident is in some ways far worse than the accident at Three Mile Island, and citizens in the area surrounding the reactors are in grave peril as long as these seven reactors owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company are in operation. As information comes streaming in, as the damage estimates and contamination amounts grow, one thing is obvious...all seven Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors are in serious trouble, and need to be decommissioned in the name of public health and safety. To do other wise exposes the citizens of Japan to a nuclear disaster potentially far more devastating than Hiroshima ever was.

In the early hours following the 6.8 on the richter scale earthquake, officials at Tokyo Electric Power knew they were in trouble, but refused to sound the alarm, waiting hours to inform the authorities that they were in trouble. Instead, they down played both the damage at the facilities, and the risk to human health and the environment, claiming the only damage suffered was a small transformer fire...suppose they (company management) were blinded to the obvious, which included buckled sidewalks, huge cracks and heaves in the plants road system, and concrete barriers tossed about like a child's Lego set.

With each passing hour, the reports have grown more severe, the contaminant issues growing expodentially. For instance, the tipped barrel of radioactively contaminated materials went to a few, to fifty, then to 100, and now the count is 400 barrels of spilled contents. A leak of materials into the environment was originally stated as being less than two liters now stands at almost 400 gallons of highly toxic waste savagely dumped into the Japanese Sea, potentially threatening the fishing industry of the area. Additionally, we now know that an undisclosed amount of Cobalt 60, and other highly dangerous, cancer causing radioactive contaminants escaped into the air...with NO WARNING TO THE CITIZENS!

The Mayor of Kashiwazaki, Hiroshi Aida tired of the lies and coverup by TEPCO has acted both quickly and decisively in ordering the entire facility closed until it can prove to the citizens it is a safe site that can be operated safely. If the mayor sticks to his guns, it may be impossible for TEPCO to prove these seven reactors are safe. New geographical information coming out into the light of day shows A) that the quake far exceeded the design basis criteria for the plants, which were only designed to survive a quake of a magnitude of 6.5, instead of the 6.8 quake that demolished much of the reactor site, and B) it is now believed that at least one of the reactors actually sits directly atop a fault line.

In an attempt at damage control, in their drive for a Nuclear Renaissance, the heavy hitters within the nuclear industry are out in force downplaying the significance of the event, and offering Tokyo Electric Power whatever help is needed in getting the reactors back up online. Sad to think that political and financial agendas are taking a front seat to human health and safety, but if some of the remarks on the NEI Blog are any example, that is just what we are seeing. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei was quick to offer aid, saying he would be more than willing to put together a team of foremost experts from around the world, but then discredited himself and the IAEA by being quick to point out (without even having seen the damage) that he was sure the basic structural stability of the reactors was probably fine.

The NRC was/is not much better, caring more about political spin, and keeping the GNEP, Nuclear Renaissance ball moving down the field than seeing to the safety of almost 100,000 Japanese citizens, even if it means losing seven of their precious reactors. Expecting Entergy to trot out any minute to the press to announce they are sending Paul Newman over to take a personal tour of the site, and give it a clean bill of health to resume operations. In a perfect Bill Clinton, George Bush tag team, Entergy could also snag Patrick Moore...after all, he never met a corporate jet and a $15,000 check he did not like. Entergy could make it the Three Musketeers by rounding off the group with Christine Todd Whitman. We'll call it the CASEnergy Nuclear Diplomatic Tour.

Face it folks...the longer reactors are up and running, the closer we are getting to a disaster of Biblical Proportions, and try as they might, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the trouble plagued industry they represent cannot hide the horrid truths forever. A perfect example of the twisted lies told to protect the industry can be found in the differing views offered to the Press from a TEPCO spokesman, and a spokesman for Japan's Meteorological Agency. To mitigate public image damage, and the very real risk of having their reactors permanently shut down and decommissioned, TEPCO spokesperson Hiroshi Itagaki said aftershock data indicate a fault under the ocean floor near the plant. Meteorological Agency official Osamu Kamigaichi paints a far more troublesome picture though when discussing the EXACT SAME DATA when he stated to the press that the fault line runs directly under the plant, and that one reactor may actually sit directly on top of the fault line.

Entergy's Indian Point and numerous other aging and brittled reactors also sit on or near MAJOR earthquake fault lines, and a quake of similiar numbers to the one in Japan would more than likely split the cores like an over ripe mellon. Our own reports from various people we have spoken with who are familiar with Entergy's problem plagued Indian Point reactors, which are leaking tritium and strontium 90 into the Hudson River lead us to believe that most of the sensors installed over 30 years ago to detect and record earthquake activity at the Indian point site are not only outdated and obsolete, but in too many cases are no longer functioning. One thing is certain...a earthquake of significant proportion at a site such as Indian Point, or California's Diablo Canyon would cause catastrophic harm, and financial damages would run into the hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. If New Orleans is any example, such and event would all but destroy New York City as we know it today.

Hideyuki Ban, director of the civil group Citizen's Nuclear Information Center was quoted by the press"Japan has a dense population so the human damage would be major here. There would be many deaths," and "I think that a quake-prone country should phase out its use of nuclear power." He is absolutely correct. Neither America or Japan needs another Chernobyl or Hiroshima on their shores, yet the IAEA, NRC and the NEI seem willing to risk just that in their push to revitalize a failing industry. The NRC's rubberstamping of license renewal applications to maintain the nuclear industry's market share has got to come to a screeching halt. Here in New York we have 21 million people living within 50 miles of the crumbling Indian Point nuclear reactors, and a quake similiar to the one in Japan could potentially kill hundreds of thousands of those innocent people.

Nuclear energy is neither safe, nor green, and the time to seek a different pathway to energy independence without nuclear is upon us.

NRC's GREAT WHITE LIE-We Are Safe From A Nuclear Incident

Will this man from DOE save your life, or let you die?

Indian Point, Entergy, Patrick Moore (traitor to Greenpeace), Christine Todd Whitman, CASEnergy, the nuclear industry, their lobbying arm NEI and the NRC are spending millions in public relations dollars to convince us that a Nuclear Renaissance if the way to solve Global Warming, and as a part of that great lie, they routinely tell us that we are safe. No IMMEDIATE danger, the odds of a terrorist attack, and/or a significant nuclear incident at a nuclear reactor site are so low as to make it hardly worth the risk of consideration. It's a nice little WHITE LIE told by people living in nice little homes far away from said aging and brittling reactors as they try to do what is best for big business, rather than do what is necessary to protect human health and the environment...either for money, or stupidity, it seems that even the wind industry (AWEA, ACE NY) has bought into this lie, and is prepared to sell their soul for a few pieces of silver and some S&H Green Stamps. The problem is, it is a lie, and the NRC knows it.

If as the NEI and the NRC would have us believe, nuclear reactors are so safe from attack, why is our government spending billions in protecting against an attack, and preparing our emergency responders for the worst? I'd encourage all of your to spend some time browsing the DOE's Oak Ridge Institutes REAC/TS site. If you spend a bit of time there, you'll find some rather disturbing information that should make you think three or four times about the safety of reactor sites.

REAC/TS opening statement of purpose got my attention right away:

The REAC/TS mission for DOE is two-fold:

Provide 24/7 availability to deploy and provide emergency medical services at incidents involving radiation anywhere in the world.

Provide advice and consultation on radiation emergency medicine from its Oak Ridge, Tenn., headquarters or at the scene of an incident.

Additionally:

REAC/TS is identified in Section 501 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 as a response organization and member of DOE's Nuclear Incident Response Team.

REAC/TS is identified in DOE Order 5530 as the organization that provides medical assistance to DOE's Accident Response Group and the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC).

This does not sound like a group who thinks the likelihood of an attack and/or nuclear incident is slim to none. Instead, it sounds like they think there is a very good chance of such and event. It describes its response teams as follows:

REAC/TS maintains specialized response teams to ensure our readiness to respond. Each team consists of a physician, nurse/paramedic, and a health physicist—all cross-trained in the details of managing a radiation emergency.

They finish off their introduction with a very alarming note that their teams were deployed immediately after 9/11 so they were ready to deal with further attacks that might involve nuclear materials. If as the NRC states,the likelihood of a terrorist attack is so small, then why did DOE immediately deploy these teams to New York, and other areas of the nation?

REAC/TS was also immediately deployed following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States as part of DOE's Consequence Management Response Team. The team stood ready to respond in the event that additional terrorist acts immediately following Sept. 11 involving nuclear materials.

Once you have read through this introduction, suggest you spend some time reading the Hospital Triage in the First 24 Hours After a Nuclear or Radiological Disaster pdf file. This document is NOT for the faint of heart. From the get go, REAC/TS dispels the nuclear industry claim that a nuclear event and/or incident is unlikely with this statement:

Sadly, today’s international environment is such that the real possibility exists that emergency department personnel might have to deal with not just one or two victims of a radiation accident, but overwhelming numbers injured in a malevolent act. Table 1 provides information about types of catastrophes involving radiological or nuclear materials.

...If radioactive atoms enter cells, they are said to be “incorporated.” As long as radioactive materials are on or in a person, the person is being irradiated. Contamination does not cause symptoms, unless the contaminants are corrosive, toxic, or thermally hot. However, note that fission product fallout (i.e., from a nuclear weapon or nuclear reactor core damage) should be brushed off the skin and clothing as soon as possible, since it can be highly radioactive. Caregivers should use strict isolation precautions (including wearing cap, mask, gown, shoe covers, and double gloves) when handling contaminated victims, and gloves should be changed frequently to avoid cross contamination.

Further, this document lays bare the NRC lie that the aftermath of such and event would be a nice neat and orderly evacuation plan. Instead, this document paints a picture of chaos,death, and some of us being left unattended medically, sentencing us to a slow agonizing death of cancer. Here are a few high lights:

1. Except for victims of serious trauma, decontamination can be
accomplished prior to admission to hospital emergency care. Uninjured individuals do
not require hospitalization unless they are vomiting, have diarrhea, or have conventional reasons for seeking emergency care.

2. During
the first 24 hours, those who are not injured (but are suspected of being internally
contaminated) should be advised to seek assistance from public health authorities. Public health authorities may recommend excreta collection and/or lung or whole body counts.

3. Request extra security for the emergency department. Be aware that a terrorist could be among the victims. Request police assistance for traffic and crowd control, assistance with gathering evidence, etc.

4. Patients who are incapacitated because of vomiting, diarrhea or shock might be
contaminated on arrival at the hospital. Removal of clothing and decontamination should be accomplished at the earliest opportunity.

5. If there is a history of loss of consciousness or evidence of cerebral edema or other CNS abnormality not due to physical trauma or stress, with a history of early vomiting (within minutes) and diarrhea, the victim’s dose is likely greater than 15 Gray. Long term survival is unlikely, since multiorgan failure will ensue.

6. Radiation does not cause immediate life-threatening problems. Serious injury
takes priority over concerns about contamination. (So what if being left untreated sentences you to a slow death from cancer.)

7. Trauma or burn victims in serious or critical condition after initial stabilization, who have also been determined to be significantly irradiated (based on accident history, history of early vomiting, diarrhea, early elevated temperature, erythema, elevated serum amylase in first 24 hours)should be given palliative/compassionate care. (In short, you are DEAD, and will not even get a chance to say goodbye to your family.)

8. However, with the real threat of nuclear/radiological terrorism, an emergency department staff may be overwhelmed by individuals requiring or seeking medical attention after a malevolent act.

Now, how vital,safe and secure do you really think Entergy's failing reactors are? How secure in Indian Point's evacuation plan are you now. Remember, the hardest hit in a nuclear reactor incident and/or terrorist attack will be A) the disabled,B) your CHILDREN, and C) the elderly (Grandma and Grandpa). Ask yourselves, "Do you really want to risk another 20 years of Indian Point?" If not, you have to plug in,have to join the growing number of activists that will do whatever it takes to shut this plant down.

Is NRC Agenda and Schedule More Important Than Fairness and Justice?

The Indian Point License Renewal Application was made available online yesterday. With all of it's various and assorted under laying documents, it is almost 3,000 pages in length, with hundreds if not thousands of sites and references, all of which have to be located and read if the document they support is to be fully and completely understood. I want to know that document, am unwilling to take some bureaucrats quickly constructed explanation of it delivered at a public meeting as gospel. The NRC, its licensees may want us to trust them, but them have not earned trust, but rather our distain.

I was up until after three in the AM reading that document, and trust me, it is slow going, and that fact is why I filed a request with the NRC yesterday for an extension of time to adequately understand and know the document. As luck would have it, Neil Sheehan, the NRC's angel of darkness if ever one existed, who had called on another matter, quickly doused any hope the request would go anywhere...he made it abundantly clear that we would get the exact same identical process that every other reactor license renewal application community had so far recieved, made it clear that the NRC was on a tight schedule.

I resisted the urge to quip back, " You mean rubber stamping?", which is what the process is in its current format.

As stakeholders, we are supposed to have a fair and equitable place at the table in this process. Where is that equity when we are expected to comment on a document we do not, and cannot understand without adequate time to digest same and the contents therein? The NRC may not like it, but their regulatory process is set up not to protect citizens of a host community, but to abuse us. The licenses for reactors 2 and 3 expire in 2012 and 2015, so where is the urgency to stick to a 22-30 month schedule, if giving a community more time, allowed us the opportunity to actually understand the documents in question. We are being asked to accept the continued operation of Indian Point for 20 more years...with what is at stake, don't we deserve the time necessary to gain the knowledge needed to make heads or tails out of Entergy's application? A rhetorical question.

I know these kinds of documents, know that dissecting them piece by piece, paragraph by paragraph, and sentence by sentence is the only way to locate the truth we need to justify rejection of the application. The NRC knows this, and does not want us finding the wedge needed to split open the log, thus exposing the ugly truth hidden in the black heart of Entergy's deliberately immense documents. If you are a citizen stakeholder wanting adequate time to digest Entergy's application, I encourage you to write the chairman's office at NRC to request the same 18 month extension of time I have requested before they schedule their first public meeting. The email address is chairman@nrc.gov . You might also want to CC Neil Sheehan at nas@nrc.gov .

Entergy Has Filed For Indian Point License Renewal, The Battle is Joined, GNB Mounts Its First Counter Offensive

Plans are afoot, a counter offensive is about to be unleashed as the Anti Nuclear Grassroots Green movement prepares for the battle that must be waged to stop Entergy's wrongful re-license of Indian Point. Individual stakeholders have rights in the process that we must all exercise. To that end, as publisher of GNB, today I've launched the first of my own counter attacks against a corrupt and bankrupt NRC regulatory process. I encourage our readership to take similar actions, here and in every reactor host community across America. The battle is joined, and we can only lose if we believe the lie that we cannot effect change.

Letter of Allegation Sent Today:

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of the Inspector General
Mail Stop T5-D28
11545 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852-2738

Dear Inspector General:

Please consider this letter as a formal allegation and/or verified complaint against employees of the NRC, as well as the Commissioners who voted on the currently used/in force DBT (Design Basis Threat). Said persons have in the past, and continue to place human health and safety at risk through their wantonly and egregiously negligent, perhaps criminal actions aimed at protecting licensees at the expense of the safety and well being of citizens living in reactor host communities, specifically the host community in and around Entergy's Indian Point facility, of which I am a member/stakeholder.

1. The 2005 Energy Policy Act among other things spells out MANDATORY STEPS that the NRC were/are required to take to ensure the public that nuclear reactor sites are safe, and that NRC's DBT is designed in a fashion to assure success against such a terrorist attack and/or nuclear incident. In his Senate sub-committee testimony, Marvin Fertel, vice-president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, acknowledged that the current DBT does not represent the full spectrum of terrorist threats. The key reason for this, is that the NRC and the commissioners themselves gave the NEI undue influence, allowed the NEI to draft a DBT to their liking, rather than drafting a DBT which would provide the public with any real level of adequate protections against a terrorist attack. In fact, Mr. Fertel in his testimony all but admits to their organization's undue influence in NRC's policy and rule making process when he states, "NEI is responsible for developing policy for the commercial nuclear industry." (emphasis added) A cursory examination of NRC's underlying documents would show time and again NEI's desires were heeded by NRC staff, too the point where the NRC even uses the NEI's exact wording in the creation of NRC policy and rules.

Throughout the entire creation of the DBT, the NRC staff and Commissioners gave the NEI and those it represents too much sway in the creation of the DBT, and without exception, public health and safety took a back seat to the nuclear industry's financial concerns, and corporate bottom lines. Specific areas where public safety has taken a back seat to shareholder interests include, but are not limited to the following:

A. The NEI is allowed to create the attack teams for force on force exercises, thus allowing their members advance notice of what they will be defending against. The DOE's offer of providing an attack team for these force on force exercises, similar to the ones employed to test defense readiness at DOE nuclear sites, was given no real due consideration by the NRC staff, primarily because NEI objected to it. This has created a situation wherein citizen/stakeholders living within close proximity to DOE facilities are afforded a far higher level of protection than those of us living within close proximity of commercial nuclear reactor sites.

B) When the NRC team of staffers created the first draft of the DBT, it included a host of commonly used terrorist weapons of choice. This list was compiled after careful discussion with law enforcement, and a full review of inter/intra agency intelligence. The NEI immediately objected to this list, claiming the costs of defending against such a list was cost prohibitive, and that two of the weapons on the list (even though standard terrorist issue weaponry) would render almost all current reactor site defensive structures obsolete. NRC staff gave into the NEI's wishes/demands and removed all but two of the weapons (Shoulder Launched Grenades [SLG] and a high power rifle using armor piercing bullets. When the commissioners voted on the DBT, after private back room discussions with the higher echelons of NEI, these two weapons were removed from the list. Fact...these two commonly used terrorist weapons render bullet resistant guard towers and shielded areas within the reactor and control room employing bullet resistant glass useless and in grave peril if attacked by a well trained, well armed and dedicated group of terrorists. Rather than protect human health and safety, rather than creating a DBT that would adequately prepare sites for a terrorist attack both NRC staff and commissioners sacrificed our safety on the altar of nuclear industry profits and convenience. The GAO's report to Congress tends to agree and support this allegation.

C. The NRC staff charged with creating the DBT settled upon a particular size explosives-laden vehicle. The NEI objected, claiming that protecting against a vehicle of such enormous size was overly expensive. The commission again gave the nuclear industry their way by GREATLY DECREASING THE SIZE/WEIGHT of the explosives laden vehicle. One commissioner seemed to justify this decision with the failed logic that a vehicle any larger would more than likely be spotted by and stopped by off site law enforcement before reaching the reactor site. It is noted here, that such thinking includes off-site security measures in protecting a reactor site, yet the NRC does not include testing of said off-site security they are relying on in the force on force exercises.

D) The NEI objected to both the size of the terrorist attack force, and the amount of weight (thus weaponry) each attack force member could carry. Again, everything the NEI wanted, they were given as both the size of the attack force, and the weight allotted for weaponry of each member was significantly reduced, thus GREATLY REDUCING the attack a nuclear reactor site would have to defend against in force on force exercises, which in turn, greatly reduced safety levels for members of the general public in the case of a terrorist attack on a nuclear reactor facility.

2. To avoid the transparency that would expose the DBT for what it is, to allow the continued rubber stamping of every license renewal application coming into the NRC headquarters, the agency and staff members involved in re-licensing (directly and/or indirectly) are ignoring federal law and statute where it suits them, specifically, but not limited to NEPA's requirement that the potential impact of terrorist attacks at nuclear facilities be considered in the license renewal application process. Knowing full well that many reactor communities do not have the financial means to litigate against the NRC and a well funded nuclear industry, the NRC has decided to ignore a recent Ninth Circuit Court decision on this very issue...in fact, Neil Sheehan was callously quoted as saying, "What happens in California stays in California..." when he was asked what effects that ruling would have on other license renewal applications. The NRC's relying on a community's financial inability to defend itself ADEQUATELY in the federal courts amounts to defacto Economic Racism on the part of the NRC and its staff, including the commissioners, and the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board, which has held that no such analysis is required.

These egregious actions on the part of the NRC, their collusion with the NEI and key nuclear industry players (Entergy, Exelon, NuStart, Duke Power, TVA) has threatened the lives, safety and security of every stakeholder citizen living within 50 miles of a reactor, with those of us living within ten miles of same at the most peril. Because of the imminent danger we are in due to the negligent and capricious acts spelled out above, as the filer of this allegation, I seek the following actions and protections:

1. A fast-tracked investigation of the allegations and charges contained herein with any criminal wrongdoing found being turned over to the United States Department of Justice for criminal prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.

2. Evaluation of the issues as spelled out to determine if there exist any issues that have abridged my civil liberties, as defined in both the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

3. There be issued by the NRC Commissioners an order halting all license renewal activities until the issues contained herein have been resolved, as allowing them to move forward when a woefully inadequate DBT, which was created through criminal collusion, fails in providing the bare minimum security and safety protections afforded by NRC 10 CFR Rules and Regulations, and other federal statutes and laws, puts every nuclear reactor licensee in a position where they are defacto in violation of their licenses, and thusly subject to license revocation, and or other penalties.

When the NRC staff allow lobbying to cross the line into collusion, not only is the public trust eroded, but our health, safety and security is put at grave risk. When corporate profits supercede the NRC's duty and responsibility to protect human health and safety, the agency stands at the brink of a dark abyss, ready to sell its soul for the goal of a Nuclear Renaissance, and has sacrificed its own right to govern and regulate the industry.

Respectfully Submitted

Sherwood Martinelli


Reference Documents

http://italy.usembassy.gov/pdf/other/RS21131.pdf

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06555t.pdf

http://www.securitymanagement.com/library/gao041064t_nuclear1204.pdf

http://www.ig.energy.gov/documents/IG-0749.pdf

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0739.pdf

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=1898

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/POSTpr222.pdf

http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/archives/budget/FY05_HRpt_108_554.pdf

http://www.totse.com/en/politics/us_military/162581.html

http://www.numat.at/list%20of%20papers/gesamtproceedings.pdf

http://www.iae.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kbutsu/files/AR/AL2002.pdf

http://www.wtec.org/loyola/pdf/nanousws.pdf

http://hss.energy.gov/SecPolicy/directives/M_470.4-1c1_Planning.pdf

Action Alert...Stop The NEI's NEO NUCLEAR LIE

Stop the NEO NUCLEAR American Lie

Action Alert

Calling all Green Nuclear Activist...we need to jump on this Action Alert from FAIR and run with it. We know the truth about nuclear, and must get our voice heard.

CBS's Nuclear Revival
60 Minutes' critic-free boosterism

4/18/07

On April 8, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes aired a segment about the "resounding success" of the French nuclear power program, suggesting that "emission-free" nuclear power might offer an easy solution to the problem of climate change. The report protected this dubious assertion from skeptical scrutiny by failing to quote a single bona fide critic of the nuclear industry.

The segment was titled "Vive Les Nukes," which gave a good indication of the slant it took. Describing it as "an efficient means of producing large amounts of carbon-free energy," correspondent Steve Kroft announced at the top of the segment that nuclear power is "a technology whose time seemed to come and go, and may now be coming again." The notion of a nuclear power renaissance was bolstered by CBS's choice of interview guests—the program spoke only to nuclear power supporters (in France and elsewhere), thereby allowing their rhetoric to go unchallenged.

Guests on the segment were French energy official Pierre Gadonniex, French nuclear industry executive Bertrande Durrande, White House deputy secretary of energy Clay Sell (Bush's "point man on nuclear power"), French nuclear executive Anne Lauvergeon, MIT nuclear researcher Andrew Kadak and David Jhirhad of the World Resources Institute, described as "an environmental think tank in Washington."

Jhirhad was the only potentially balancing source, but he is quoted only to make Kroft's point that "even some environmental groups are taking a second look at nuclear power." This is an emerging line in much of the corporate media (e.g., Washington Post, 4/16/06; New York Times, 2/27/07), though the actual number of green groups embracing nuclear power is quite small. The World Resources Institute receives contributions from several energy companies and other major polluters, information that would have been useful for CBS viewers in evaluating Jhirad's claim that the nuclear industry's "safety record has been pretty good."

The segment's one-sided sourcing was made all the more problematic when the White House's Sell claimed that "no serious person can look at the challenge of greenhouse gases and climate change and not come to the conclusion that nuclear power has to play a significant and growing role in meeting that challenge worldwide." Of course, "serious people" do question precisely that--and CBS should have interviewed them.

Excluding such sources meant excluding important information. While France's nuclear power is portrayed as widely popular, CBS failed to mention large protests held across the country on March 17 (Agence France Presse, 3/17/07) against construction of a new nuclear plant. Nor, in touting the massive nuclear reprocessing plant France has built in Normandy, did the show refer to the radiation it releases into the English Channel (NIRS Nuclear Monitor, 3-4/00) or the cluster of leukemia cases occurring around the plant (British Medical Journal, 1/11/97).

Kroft even adopts industry-friendly language in describing the push to revive U.S. nuclear power, discussing the "financial incentives" and "streamlined regulatory system" intended to encourage nuclear energy development. Such "incentives" might better be described as government subsides, which have long been criticized by nuclear industry critics as a waste of taxpayers' money. Unmentioned in the CBS report were similar subsidies in France; according to the U.S.-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (5/4/06), $1 billion a year in government subsidies go to plutonium production alone.

Excluding critical voices allowed grossly misleading information to go unchallenged, as when nuclear executive Lauvergeon claimed, in the segment's conclusion, that "wind and solar are, you know, temporary sources of energy. It works when you have wind, it works when you have sun. No sun, no wind, no energy. You don't want to watch TV only when you have wind." Of course, wind and solar energy are not "temporary" sources of energy; power generated by both can be stored. Airing this sort of misinformation eliminates any real consideration of viable alternatives to nuclear energy.

At one point, Kroft says that "the Bush administration is pushing a nuclear revival." The same could be said for CBS.

ACTION:
Contact 60 Minutes to ask why its report on nuclear energy excluded the views of the industry's numerous critics.

CONTACT:
CBS 60 Minutes
60m@cbsnews.com
(212) 975-3247

One World Nuclear Order

Comments from Sara Shannon, co-founder of Mother's Alert, author of Technologies Curse: Diet for the Atomic Age (with Ernest J. Sternglass) and Good Health in a Toxic World: Complete Guide to Fighting Free Radicals.

This is the plan, to say that climate change is caused by carbon emissions... and nuclear has no carbon emissions. So we have to go to more nuclear for power.

This is now as plain as day... a whole plan... and tranparently obvious, once one opens the mind to see... probably in the works for years.

France has their reprocessing plant... the fallout from this goes over East to the Alps, goes down into Lake Leman when the ice melts, and some say is responsible for very high rates of cancer around Geneva.

The reprocessing plant in England, Sellafield, across the water from Dublin, releases effluent into the water, it is absorbed by the seaweed, and this seaweed is used on croplands, and Dublin has Very high rates of cancer....

Everything is very grave as it is, and to consider building MORE Nuke plants is so insane it is impossible to comprehend WHAT sort of thinking and goal is behind it.

I heard someone say yesterday, don't know if its true, he heard on the news that there are plans to impose a "climate change tax" on Americans, that this tax would go partly to fund more nuclear power plants... !!!

About Europe again, it seems, as far as we can comprehend from what is stated, that a few weeks ago, there was a decision to allocate for the future that 20% of energy should be from "Green" energy, that is from alternative energies.

And then the revised list of "green" alternative energies included nuclear power! Very quietly stated.

The basis being that nuclear power does NOT release carbon dioxide emissions, which has been determined to be the CAUSE of climate change...

All this done very smoothly. And seemingly valid. Except, that it is not valid... in any sense.

Going back to the topic of the waste from nuclear power production. WHERE are we going to put it?

There is not now or nor will there be in the future any way to manage long term storage... Only can be managed with double talk.

IF we had the money already spent on exploring Yucca Mountain as a rad waste repository, we could have built wind and solar enough for the whole country !!!

There are choices being made, and they are not made with consideration of the health of present and future humans...

The oxygen level is going down; trees themselves absorb radiaoctive elements and are released when you have a fire in your fireplace.

Our bones contain strontium 90 which radiates into the bone marrow, an essential aspect of the immune system.

The common sense admonition to "make every decision with consideration of the seventh generation" has been shred in the paper shredder.

What to do at this point?

Nuclear Energy...Vital, Safe, Secure? Not Exactly-Stories NRC, DOE, GNEP and NEI Don't Want Americans Reading

As the Green Nuclear Butterfly fast approaches the important mile market of 200 posts, thought I would share with our readers a montage of articles that the nuclear industry and our federal government work very hard at keeping out of our news streams. God forbid we destroy the GNEP/NuStart myth that nuclear energy is vital, safe and secure.

Nuclear plant managers let radioactive particles flow into sea
LOUISE HOSIE
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=199942007
NUCLEAR plant operators yesterday admitted illegally dumping radioactive waste and releasing nuclear fuel particles into the sea more than 40 years ago.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) pleaded guilty to four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.

The breaches happened at the Dounreay site in Caithness.

Managers admitted a single charge of disposing of radioactive waste at a landfill site at the Scottish plant between 1963 and 1975.

They also pleaded guilty to three charges of allowing nuclear fuel particles to be released through drains into the Pentland Firth. This took place between 1963 and 1984.

The charges were brought against UKAEA after it was reported to the procurator-fiscal following an investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

Wick Sheriff Court heard yesterday that fuel fragments which were supposed to be put in a storage shaft had been placed in 46,000 cubic metres of landfill.

The error came to light in July 1999 during work at the site.

Fiscal Alasdair MacDonald said six radioactive particles were removed from the landfill and two from the coast.

He added that such solid radioactive waste could only have legally been disposed of in a low-level pit.

Between December 1963 and December 1984, nuclear particles entered the sea from a drain at the site.

Widow fights for justice 25 years after suicide of her RAF husband
Makes one wonder what the real truth is in the Indian Point Lessard murder and suicide earlier this year.
Gethin Chamberlain

IT TOOK Eric Denson three attempts before he managed to kill himself, aged 44. In truth, Squadron Leader Denson had been as good as dead since the Royal Airforce made him fly his Canberra aircraft through a nuclear mushroom cloud 18 years earlier. It was simply a matter of time.

Within hours of landing on Christmas Island, he had started vomiting; soon he had developed skin and stomach problems. It was in his head, however, that the real damage was done. Sqdn Ldr Denson was a changed man, trapped inside his own mind and prey to bouts of depression which would haunt him for the rest of his truncated life.

"The noise was deafening, like 1000 horses thundering towards you" ~ KEN McGINLEY

Now his widow, Shirley, wants the Ministry of Defence to admit that what happened that day over a tiny coral atoll in the Indian Ocean led directly to her husband’s death.

How Dounreay's nuclear dream turned sour
JAMES DOHERTY
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1262682002

IT IS going to cost more than £4 billion in an operation lasting 60 years to decommission Dounreay. The land around the site at Caithness could remain out of bounds for more than 300 years.

But more pressing is the persistent threat to the health of local people and workers, who have been exposed to a catalogue of near disasters since work started on the experimental reactor in March 1955.

The plant was seen as a Godsend at a time when the north needed jobs and the dangers of the nuclear age were played down in favour of the potential benefits.

Chernobyl Shell Close To Collapse
TOM PARFIT IN MOSCOW
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=462902003

THE concrete shell surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is in danger of collapsing, Russia’s atomic energy minister claimed yesterday.

Alexander Rumyantsev told a Russian newspaper he feared the damaged reactor might leak radiation.

"The collapse of the current sarcophagus is a real danger," he said in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "We can’t brush this aside."

Russia’s NTV network stressed "the second Chernobyl disaster would be no less in scale than the first one". If the protective shell crumbled "radioactive dust would go into the air, pushing the cancer rate up".

The warnings came as the 17th anniversary of the nuclear disaster approaches. On 26 April, 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear complex in northern Ukraine exploded and caught fire, spewing a radioactive cloud that drifted across Europe.

Nuclear Fuel Train Derails
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=685082004

A TRAIN carrying radioactive waste derailed in a naval dockyard, it emerged today. An investigation has been launched after the train pulling a container of nuclear submarine fuel derailed in Devonport, Plymouth, on Monday. The container remained on the tracks.

Security lapses at nuclear plants spark terror fears
JAMES KIRKUP POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=176262005

A LITANY of security failures at British nuclear sites has been revealed by government investigators, raising fears of a terrorist attack. The incidents, which even included a burglary, were uncovered by the Office for Civil Nuclear Safety (OCNS), an arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The watchdog’s reports are not normally published, but have come to light because of the Freedom of Information Act.

During the 12 months ending April 2004, the agency recorded more than 40 security breaches, including eight incidents it classified as "failures of security leading to unacceptable or undesirable consequences".

Serious UK nuclear leak 'went unnoticed for nine months'
Remind anyone of Indian Point?
MICHAEL BLACKLEY
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=589332005

TENS of thousands of litres of highly radioactive liquid has been leaking unnoticed at the UK's nuclear reprocessing plant for nine months, it was revealed yesterday.

The leak is being described as the worst nuclear accident in Britain for 13 years and could threaten the future of the Thorp plant, at Sellafield in Cumbria, where the leak was discovered on 19 April.

The International Atomic Energy Authority has admitted that it would classify the accident as "serious".

It was only discovered that liquid was leaking last month, but by that time 83,000 litres of radioactive fuel, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, had already been accidentally discharged.

British Nuclear Group, which runs the plant, said workers had failed to respond to indicators that would have warned since last August that there was a leak. The company has ordered an urgent review to check that there are not any other potential leaks, and is also warning against staff complacency.

Leak raises nuclear power doubts
GERRI PEEV POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=647332005

A LEAK of nuclear fluid at the Sellafield plant has cast uncertainty over the future direction of nuclear power, a senior Cabinet minister has said.

The disclosure comes as Sellafield's managing director, Barry Snelson, yesterday admitted that the leak of 83,000 litres of spent radioactive fuel at the site's Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) could close that part of the Cumbria complex for up to eight months.

Fake nuclear disaster at barracks tests emergency crews' response
JANE BRADLEY
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1938442005

MORE than 1000 emergency service workers took part in an exercise today simulating a full-scale nuclear emergency in Edinburgh.

The biggest exercise of its kind ever staged in the Capital saw crews dealing with the imaginary aftermath of an engine falling from a plane as it took off from Edinburgh Airport.

In the scenario played out in Exercise Senator, the falling engine hits a convoy carrying nuclear weapons on the A720 dual carriageway - and then a fuel tanker crashes into the convoy.

Nuclear Experiment Held Beneath US Desert
ETHAN MCNERN
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=290602006

SCIENTISTS from the US and Britain performed an underground nuclear experiment, short of a nuclear blast, in Nevada, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.

It involved detonating explosives around radioactive material in a vault about 1,000 feet below ground at a remote part of the desert testing range 85 miles north-west of Las Vegas.

No radioactivity was released, said Nancy Tufano, the spokeswoman for Bechtel Nevada, a contractor at the nuclear security administration in Las Vegas.

Report reveals nuclear plant picture scares
As in terrorist making plans?
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=651742006

PEOPLE taking photographs outside Torness Power Station made up two of 18 security incidents reported at the Dunbar nuclear plant in the last three years.

Details released by the Office for Civil Nuclear Security today revealed there have been two incidents that involved individuals taking photographs from outside the nuclear plant and two incidents relating to security guard staffing levels since March, 2003.

Atomic issues worry Sweden
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1126762006

SWEDISH nuclear authorities called an emergency meeting today after shutting down two reactors at a plant in the south-east of the country.

The Oskarshamn plant, about 150 miles south of Stockholm, shut the reactors late yesterday after the company running the plant reported that "safety there could not be guaranteed."

The decision followed a safety scare last week at another Swedish nuclear plant in Forsmark.

Deal reached on atomic clear-up
Gives us an idea of what to expect after nuclear incident at Indian Point.
ETHAN MCNERN
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1491852006

SPAIN and the US have reached an agreement to clean up radioactivity in the Spanish farming village of Palomares, on Spain's south-east tip, 40 years after two US atomic bombs fell in the area after a mid-air collision.

The agreement to clean the area was reached at a meeting mid-September between the US Department of Energy and Spain's CIEMAT, the national Centre for Energy and Environment Investigation, the leading Madrid daily El Pais reported.

Chernobyl deaths 'up to 66,000'
Vital, Safe, Secure
CHRISTOPHER CLAIRE
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=610542006

THE long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster have been severely underestimated with a new study estimating that the nuclear explosion could eventually cause up to 66,000 deaths from cancer - 15 times more than the formal figures released last September.

Nearly 20 years after the world's worst industrial accident, the report suggests the impact of the 1986 nuclear disaster on the UK and the rest of the world may never be fully realised.

The Other Report on Chernobyl, otherwise known as Torch, comes ahead of this Wednesday's anniversary. It was co-written by Dr Ian Fairlie and Dr David Sumner.

Probe after reporter plants fake bomb on nuclear train
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1061462006

AN investigation was under way today after a newspaper reporter planted a fake bomb on a train carrying nuclear waste.

The journalist from the Daily Mirror claimed he had wandered up to the unattended wagons at a north west London depot.

And the paper claimed a terrorist could have blown up the waste, sparking a vast toxic cloud that would have killed hundreds.

What price now for nuclear policy?
PETER MACMAHON SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT EDITOR
(pmcmahon@scotsman.com)
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=1535632006

Hunterston B plant to close for repairs amid fears over cracks
Jack McConnell's nuclear strategy suffers serious blow
British Energy sees £800m wiped off shares
Key quote "It is OK for Mr McConnell and others to say that you can run these stations for ten years more, but when there are safety concerns, they have to be shut down and looked at." - Professor Roger Crofts

Story in full JACK McConnell's hopes that he could rely on the extension of the lives of Scotland's ageing nuclear reactors - and avoid sanctioning the building of new nuclear power stations - suffered a major setback last night.

Serious cracks were found in boiler pipes at the Hinkley Point plant in Somerset, dealing a blow to the First Minister's plan to step up investment in renewable energy while the lives of existing nuclear plants were extended.

British Energy, which produces a fifth of UK electricity, was forced to admit the existence of the faults, which were uncovered after similar problems were revealed at the station's sister plant at Hunterston, Ayrshire, earlier this year.

It was also forced to announce it was investigating "a significant leak" in an underground cast-iron pipe in the cooling-water systems at its nuclear station at Hartlepool.

Asked about any risks to public safety, a spokesman said the boiler tubes were cracked and not leaking, and that water leaking from the pipes in Hartlepool was "non nuclear".

Radioactive waste thrown into skip and buried on landfill site
ANDREW PICKEN
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112&id=251122006

RADIOACTIVE waste from Torness Power Station was thrown out with ordinary rubbish in a skip and sent to a Lothian dump.

A report into the blunder, released to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, revealed that workers at the nuclear plant failed even to check if the waste was radioactive before throwing it out.

It was then taken to a landfill site in Dunbar to be buried alongside normal household waste.

In a report into the incident in August 2003, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said there was a "fundamental lack of control" at the station and ordered an immediate safety review.