Rising From The Ashes...Going to Be Reclaiming This Blog

How sadly tragic that many of the things warned about in this blog have come to fruition as citizens of Japan sit huddled together, alone and scared as they are ordered "Sheltered in Place" as the cancers from the radioactive fallout creeps into their bodies...can we all sing the nuclear industry lie, "There is no immediate danger"...fuck you Indian Point, NEI and NRC...there is danger, and hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens are already destined to endure horrid cancers, many of them leading to deaths the nuclear industry will deny.

Indian Point needs to close...how many of you know that all three back up diesel generators are housed in the same building on the site? One fire, one flood, and our community is in the same boat Japan now finds itself in, and trust me, the situation there is far worse than the FACE SAVING Japanese officials are letting us know.

This blog was and is my domain, a project breathed into life for a purpose...it is time that I take it back, clean up the garbage from it's bones that does not belong, and refocus it back to it's original intent...a weapon with which to spread the truth about nuclear energy, do wake up the masses.

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

What EPRI, NEI, NRC and Nuclear Industry Do Not Want Reactor Workers Knowing

Nuclear Industry Workers, Killing Them Softly With Your REMs.

As we watch the nuclear industry rubber stamping license renewal for 104 failing American Nuclear Reactors in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance, we have to wonder where worker protections are at plants like Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point. To push through license renewals for failing reactors, the NRC has allowed EPRI and NEI to rewrite major sections of 10 CFR, the NRC regulations meant to protect human health,safety and the environment. Meanwhile, one simple rule change that would provide nuclear workers with a great deal of protection from cancer causing REM exposures sits on the back burner.

Almost universally, the world has a 2 REM a year exposure rating for people working in nuclear facilities...not so in America, and not even close for many workers at Nuclear Reactor sites. A quick rule change could enact this exposure rating for every NRC licensee...however, the NRC buckled to industry pressure (EPRI and NEI), and is taking no action on changing the rules to lower worker exposure limits until after EPRI (using statistics provided by NEI) conducts a study on the effects of lowering the yearly exposure limits from 3 REM to 2 REM on the industry! Let's save the industry a LOT OF TIME and MONEY by spelling out what such a rule change would do.

1. It would reduce worker radiation exposures by 1/3 from 3 REM to only 2 REM per year.

2. It would propably cost nuclear plant owners like Entergy who reported profits last year of almost half a billion dollars a few million a year in added staff.

3. It would provide union workers more job opportunities, as nuclear plants would have to schedule in more workers to keep individual employee exposures under 2 REM.

So, why not make this simple rule change? Because MANAGEMENT cares more about PROFITS than their workers, especially when those workers are the laborers, the pipe fitters, the welders, nozzle damn insertion-removal workers, radwaste technicians, in-house maintenance, valve and pump vendor technicians...in short, the blue collar, union workers, the back bone of American Industry.

It is a known fact that Indian Point workers read this blog...go to your management at Indian Point. Ask them if it is true that NRC is/has been considering a REM dose reduction. Ask them about the EPRI study on this topic, ask them why worker personal information was shared with EPRI for this study. Demand they explain to you, the worker being exposed why they as a company, as an industry are not pushing the NRC to make this rule change IMMEDIATELY.

Further, so that the NRC has ACCURATE records on every employee in the nuclear industry, demand that PADS tracking be mandatory for every worker in the industry, including in-house employees. Where is your union demanding this rule change? Where is your union in demanding that the NRC not grant exemptions to this exposure and tracking rule? One would think the Pipe fitters Local would be ALL OVER THIS VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE. Grow a backbone, demand that EPRI make public their study entitled:

Evaluation of 2 Rem per Year Occupational Dose Limit:
Potential Impacts on U.S. Nuclear Utilities

Working On Contentions...Need Help Finding Documents

For those who follow this blog, you know that the Green Nuclear Butterfly is planning on filing a Petition to Intervene and Formal Request For Hearing in the Entergy License Renewal Application Process. To be successful, it is imperative to write contentions that will pass the NRC's unfair muster...in short, contentions cannot be subjective in nature even if sound, but must be backed up with proof, using either documents to support your contentions, or by employing experts.

The problem...the nuclear industry has buried and hidden many of the very documents we need to support contentions, and the NRC has hidden even more, or made them all but impossible to see. That is where the Green Nuclear Butterfly needs the public's help, where we need Whistle blowers afraid to come forward to help us in helping the community. As Anderson Cooper would say, "This is about keeping them honest."

Indian Point is unsafe, and documents such as the EPRI NSACL (Revision 2) would help us prove it. Safety, security and degradation problems at the plant that have been hidden would help as well, especially if we had detailed information about these hidden issues. However, we understand the environment of fear that has been created at Entergy owned sites, the fear of losing ones job that keeps employees silent.

For this reason, we are asking people to send us their nuclear documents and secrets, either hard copy or on CD ROM anonymously. With UPS, the Postal Service, Fed Ex and other delivery services abounding, it is much easier today to send packages while keeping your own identification private. So, if that secret has been keeping you up at night, if hiding the truth is eating away at your conscious, now is your time to come clean, and help your community. If you have old documents from your time in the industry sitting up in your attic, dig them out and give them to us. Send us your nuke documents, help us prepare our contentions by sending what you have to:

Nuclear Hot Documents
C/O Sherwood Martinelli
351 Dyckman Street
Peekskill, New York 10566

Fortune Needs To Tell Whole Truth...The High Cost of Nuclear

Just read the article from David Whitford, Fortune Editor at Large, on the high cost of going nuclear, and am dismayed. He is either ignorant of all the facts, or perhaps a shill for the nuclear industry and the NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute. Even his chosen title for the piece is guilty of misrepresentation through omission. The title should have been, "The High Cost To American Tax Payers In Going Nuclear". Never, in the entire history of the world has there been a larger pork barrel gift to industry than George Bush, NRC and the DOE's attempts to revitalize the nuclear industry in the guise of a supposed Nuclear Renaissance.

With 50/50 cost shares, guarantees that the Federal Government will cover cost over runs, the Senate's wrongful attempts to grant 100 percent loan guarantees, and the horrid mistake of reauthorizing the Price Anderson Act, and it is no wonder utility companies are chomping at the bit, lining up to build new nuclear reactors. They, and those investing in them have no risks, as those risk are being paid for by A) the tax payers, and B) the utility customers. We the American people absorb all the risks, take all the financial risks as tax payers and citizens forced to host these monsters, and the utility companies own the asset, and sell us the electricity.

As for Dale Klein...maybe he and the NRC should spend more time enforcing existing regulations, and holding their licensees accountable, rather than weakening rules, and issuing generic findings that excuse their licensees from the regulations in place to keep us safe. They are shoving 20 year license renewals down the throats of communities that don't want to play host to aging, dangerous reactors for another 20 years, and doing it for only one reason. A DOE report issued back in 1998 flat out stated that the only way to a Nuclear Renaissance was to relicense all currently operating reactors for another 20 years...reason was simple...Wall Street would not back another generation of nuclear reactors unless nuclear could maintain its market share during the change over. So, communities became expendable in the name of saving the industry.

David Whitford barely hides his PRO NUCLEAR agenda in his article when he trots out the fact he spoke with MIT Professor Andy Kadak. Of course, he fails to state that the professor is a nuclear engineer teaching at a college tied to both the DOE and the Nuclear Industry. He fails to point out Andy Kadak's vested interest and bias in favor of the nuclear industry, and the fact he is incestuously involved in development of the Pebble Bed reactor. So of course such an information source is going to sing the praises of nuclear energy, claim that NOW is the time for a new generation of reactors to be built...course, he fails to tell you the real risk communities face when old reactors are granted up rates, fails to mention that lack of knowledge and understanding where containment fatigue is concerned (think collapsed bridge in Minnesota yesterday).

Mr. Whitford did get one fact right...nuclear reactor owning companies are making a lot of money right now. What he fails to do, is explain why that is. The DOE picks up most of the research costs for the nuclear industry. American citizens are forced to pick up the lions share of the security costs for nuclear reactors, as well as maintaining the necessary emergency management teams to deal with a nuclear disaster. Further, it is easy to make money when the Price Anderson Act excuses you from liability should your antiquated and fatigued plant cause a significant nuclear event similar to the one in Chernobyl.

Curious here if Mr. Whitford is aware that the industry claims 80 percent loan guarantees are not adequate, that they must have 100 percent loan guarantees for the nuclear renaissance to move forward. IF nuclear reactors are such a GREAT DEAL for investors, lets have NO LOAN guarantees. The NEI has hired a new group of lobbyist to corrupt Washington Congressman on this very fact, claiming Wall Street will not embrace a nuclear renaissance without these 100 percent loan guarantees.

As for CEO David Crane of NRG Energy's quotes...what risks are the utility companies taking in this Nuclear Renaissance? 100 percent loan guarantees, the Price Anderson Act shielding you from financial liability, 50/50 deals with the DOE for the first 6-8 reactors built, and coverage for build time over runs and costs. The nuclear industry does not deserve this pork, and if they want a Nuclear Renaissance, they should have to do it honesty. No pork barrel politics, and no having the NRC weakening regulations, and granting exceptions from others because the NEI has decided said regulations are not cost beneficial to the reactor owners, public safety be damned.

A Good Reason To Boycott Rolls Royce...Their Support of Nuclear War Machine

Just home from a weekend of camping, was browsing the Internet searching for news stories when I came across a report that the Rolls Royce company is intimately, even incesstually involved in Brittains Nuclear Navy. Seems they just signed a new 10 year, $1 Billion pound contract to continue their involvement in, and contribution to the NUCLEAR WAR MACHINE. Seems like a good reason for the rich and beautiful people of the world to start a boycott. Another example of the closed cycle of warmongering/commercial nuclear power.

Rolls-Royce to maintain the Navy’s nuclear powered subs

http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk/content/7747/Rolls-Royce_to_maintain_the_Navy’s_nuclear_powered_subs

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 26 Jul 2007 9:46

Rolls-Royce has won a new £1 billion contract to provide through-life support for the reactors for the Royal Navy's current fleet of nuclear powered submarines for the next ten years.

The contract covers the reactors and equipment that translate the massive power of the nuclear fission plant into the high pressure steam that drives the submarine's turbines, providing electrical power to the boat's systems and powering its propulsion system. Not only will Rolls-Royce be working on the 13 Swiftsure, Trafalgar and Vanguard submarine models, but also the new Astute class submarines currently being built by BAE Systems, the first of which was launched in June this year.

Rolls-Royce has been supplying nuclear steam raising plants to the Royal Navy for almost 50 years from its production site at Raynesway in Derby, and this new contract will help secure the future of staff working in this part of the business.

"The World Without Us-A Worthwhile Read

Gazing through our visitor links this evening, was lead to the following book review, which I share here...Weisman's bittersweet excerpt on Indian Point and the world's 441 nuclear reactor brought tears to my own eyes.

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001775.php

The World Without Us

Postpeople hypothesizing

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

-- Steven Leckart

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

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

Sample excerpts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Time Clock Is Ticking On Indian Point Relicensing

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

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

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

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

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

2. Send your donation to:

FUSE USA

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

NRC's Official Letter Making The Announcement

No. 07-091 July 25, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Indian Point application for license renewal is posted at

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

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

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

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

Federal Register

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interesting Article, with several crucial pieces of new information:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jakarta Anti Nuclear Protest

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

Thousands protest Indonesia's proposed nuclear power plant

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/85657.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Email Trish Your Anti Nuke Sentiments: trishconrad@hotmail.com
Just who is Trish Conrad, and what politcal connections from her days in Oregon brought this rabid, frothing at the mouth Pro-Life advocate to Washington, DC to work for the NEI?

After she lost her friend (Andi Parhamovich) needlessly in Iraq (she should not have been there in the first place), one would think Trish would have a real grasp on government and industry lies, especially where nuclear and the DOD is concerned. But then, perhaps with her unreasoned support of Catholic positions on abortion, illegals, and assisted suicide, one should not be surprised that a very right wing radical religious zealot Republican (all internet traces suggest this) would and could support nuclear energy's rape of America, and specifically America's lower and middle class communities.

She's listed on the NEI Blog as a contributor, and her profile on Blogger lists her as the publisher of http://trish-talk.blogspot.com which is a rather stilted and poorly composed blog if ever one existed. She is quoted extensively in various press articles, referred to as and NEI Spokeswoman.

I have a call in to see if she is the same Trish Conrad that used to be the Director of Communications for Oregon House Speaker Mark Simmons...if she is, that raises some rather serious questions, both about her, and NEI...more on that as my research continues to unfold. Do we have someone here that has traded in her government position and contacts for a chance to CASH in with a large Non-Profit nuclear industry group?

More Proof That Japan Just Dodged Chernobyl Last Monday

As someone living less than three miles from the trouble plagued, mismanaged and leaking facility owned by Entergy, and known as Indian Point, I am startled at the frightening similarity between Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant and the three aging and dilapidated reactors that sit on the shore of the Hudson River here in New York. Living in the shadow of these behemoth relics of a failed nuclear industry, and having spent some time in Japan back in the 90's, I have kept a close eye on the aftermath of the TEPCO accident as it unfolds, and just as I had predicted, as information trickles 0ut, Japan and the world came much closer to a world wide disaster than was first known, and is now being admitted. Pure blind luck, not nuclear industry expertise saved us from what would/could have been a catastrophic event far worse than Hiroshima or Chernobyl.

Here in America, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant story is not getting the coverage it deserves as the media cooperates with our government, the NRC, NEI, DOE and the nuclear industry in mitigating the damage that has been done to George W. Bush's plans for a Nuclear Renaissance with 200 new reactors being built along the waters edge here in America. These high money players in the nuclear industry want the story buried, and our press seems more than ready to oblige...after all, Patrick Moore, Christine Todd Whitman, CASEnergy and the NEI have bought and sold their souls, convinced them that Nuclear Energy is the vital, safe, secure green energy that will save us from Global Warming. Now that the emperor has been shown to have no clothes, now that the naked ugliness that is nuclear energy has been exposed, they are pretending not to see, hoping the story will just go away.

Problem is, the story should not, and so far is not going away, but continues to get worse as news story find their way out of Japan, and onto the world wide web. Like Indian Point, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant sits atop and earthquake fault line, and like Indian Point, both Japan's regulatory agency (NISA), and the plant owners chose to ignore that reality from the very beginning, even before construction had begun. Here in Westchester county, the Indian Point site failed five out of six citing criteria, yet the NRC ignored that truth and allowed the reactors to be built. False assurances were handed out like DumDum lollipops, and the host community was assured the facilities were/are safe, that the odds of a large earthquake doing significant damage to the reactors was so small as to be almost nil...we now have quantitative proof that promise was a lie, a red herring trotted out to cloud the real risks involved in constructing and operating nuclear reactors sitting atop earthquake faults.

A look at various Japanese press sites this morning outline more problems as the investigation into TEPCO's cover up of the incident continues. Most alarming on this morning's list, is the fact that six of the transformers were damaged in the quake. Niigata prefectural government officials who inspected the plant have been quoted when asked about the transformer fire that it was, "simply by chance" that a fire broke out only at the transformer of the No. 3 reactor. It took TEPCO over two hours to extenquish the transformer fire for reactor number 3. What could/would have happened if all six damaged transformers had erupted into flames? As we contemplate that question, it should be noted here, that it has come to the light of day, that ten of the eleven companies owning nuclear reactors in Japan do not have the necessary equipment and staff on hand to fight a fire at their nuclear facilities. This information only saw the light of day as a result of the investigation now going on in Japan in the aftermath of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant debacle. Officials have been quoted as saying, "the companies did not have firefighting squads on duty around the clock and would have to summon such personnel if a fire broke out at night or during a holiday period. "

Pro Nuclear Bloggers like Rod Adams, the NEI Blog, and We Trust Lee spent the better part of last week doing damage control, trying to play with the radioactive release numbers to make the leaks seem insignificant. Meanwhile, a TEPCO official has been quoted regarding the leaks, and stated, "A considerably large amount of water" must have spilled out", the TEPCO official said. Further, we now know that irradiated water leaked out of ALL SEVEN spent fuel pools at the crippled Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant site, and that company officials are refusing to quantify just how much radioactively contaminated water actually LEAKED OUT of these pools. A TEPCO official was quoted as saying, "We never assumed that water could flow out of the pool."

There is a very scary thought...earthquakes SHAKE the ground, and much like a bucket being shaken about, significant amounts of water will SLOSH out, but this NEVER occurred to company officials, never occurred to the regulators (NISA and the IAEA)? TEPCO attempts to mitigate this disturbing news by saying none of the leaked water in the other six pools contaminated the non-radioactive side of those buildings...uhhh, is it me, or does that contamination of the nuclear side of the building still have to be remediated, or are workers going to be forced to accept the additional exposure risks going forward if these reactors ever go back online?

Japan, and TEPCO have now reluctantly agreed to allow the UN (IAEA) to send and inspection team to the devastated plant site, not because it is the right thing to do, but because they want to stem negative World Wide Press coverage of the accident, fearing the negative stories, and the comparisons to Chernobyl could negatively impact their tourist industry. Funny what a difference a few days makes. Last week the government rejected the IAEA's offer of assistance in inspecting the plant, claiming the damage was so serious that the people concerned are too busy repairing it.

We are talking a huge cover up here...already the government of Japan is saying the plant will eventually reopen. Early plans see TEPCO going in, and BEEFING up the foundation, which is four stories underground. This sounds eerily similar to the never ending quilt of failing weld joints that are holding Indian Point's reactor cores in place...God Forbid a quake should hit our area, as these embrittled domes would shatter like a thermos dropped on a concrete floor, the radioactive plumes rapidly visiting death upon the populace of our area. Some would come such a statement alarmist in nature...is it? The NRC over the years has issued over 1500 Generic Findings that EXCUSE their licensees from rules and regulations meant to keep us safe. Cost benefit analysis now places company profits ahead of citizen safety, and protection of our environment, and if nuclear reactor owners cannot meet certain regulatory guidelines, the NRC simply suspends them in the name of National Security and Interest.

The horrific accident at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant should be the world's wake up call that nuclear cannot, must not play a key role in resolving Global Warming, proof that the risks are far too great. GNEP is a fatally flawed nuclear energy strategy that would see America playing host to the entire world's nuclear waste streams. The NRC has callously ignored reality, placed public safety at risk by rubber stamping every licensee renewal application that has come before it. However, we have and opportunity to stop George W. Bush's Nuclear 2010 wagon from racing further down the road to hell, but it requires citizens of every nation getting involved. The line in the proverbial sand is Entergy's Indian Point reactors in Westchester county, New York.

Entergy's Indian Point facility NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUILT, much like the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The Indian Point facility has been nothing but trouble since day one. Mismanagement, cover up and lies have been the norm through all of its various owners, and like the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, Indian Point sits atop a MAJOR earthquake fault line, and failed to meet five of the six siting criteria required at the time the plant was built. Couple this with leaking fuel pools, cracks in the reactor domes, failing spray nozzles, underground electrical cable problems, a non working evacuation plan, tritium and strontium 90 leaking into the Hudson River and the obvious lack of meaningful and effective security, and the fact that NRC is contemplating Energy's license renewal application is pure insanity. The good news if any, is that we have a chance to stop this injustice.

Politicians, and calls for and ISA will not shut down Indian Point, nor keep the NRC from rubber stamping Entergy's license renewal application like they always do. Massive public outcry and anger though will stop the relicense of the facility. With 21 million people living within a 50 mile radius of the plant, we have the numbers...but, people must get involved in the process, people must start organizing protests, and demanding accountablity from our government, and from our politicians. Hilliary Clinton pretends too be worried about Indian Point, but then goes out on the campaign trail and tells citizens in South Carolina that nuclear MUST BE ON THE TABLE as and option in addressing Global Warming...sorry babes, but you should not be allowed to claim both sides in this important debate. A few hundred protestors targeting her district offices on a regular basis would hold her feet to the fire, force her to DEMAND the closing of Indian Point.

Congressman John Hall talked a good game when he ran against incumbent Congress woman Sue Kelly, but he's become rather cool on the subject of Indian Point since being elected. If you look at John Hall's roots, he has the contacts (Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne) in the music industry to bring significant attention to this issue, can put the International Spotlight on Indian Point with a carefully orchestrated concert, by calling his grassroots supporters into the streets to march too, and onto the grounds of Indian Point. Sadly though, his campaign rhetoric was just that, and now that he is in office he is more concerned about staying in office than doing right by the people he is sworn to protect. That has got to change, and it will only change when public outcry demands that he take real action on this important issue. Decades ago he filled Madison Square Gardens, yet today as a Congressman in Washington, DC he is content with issuing meaningless press releases to our local papers.

The call for a world wide Nuclear Renaissance comes from America, the GNEP plan the tap root that must be eradicated. We can end this failed energy strategy by targeting sites such as Indian Point, we can stop nuclear proliferation by fighting Indian Point's license renewal application with everything we have. We need Greenpeace to send their boats up the Hudson River, we need the Sierra Club to take a stand. Indian Point is the battle we have to win, Entergy the nuclear licensee to go after. To be successful, we need anti nuclear groups from around the world to step in and lend us a helping hand, because the next nuclear bullet is coming, and we might not be so lucky as to dodge it when it hits.

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

TEPCO and Japan just dodged a Chernobyl bullet this past Monday when a 6.8 on the Richter scale earthquake came far to close to destroying SEVEN reactors on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant site. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) spent most of last week trying to down play the significance of the event, and insist that the public was in NO IMMEDIATE DANGER. Based on the political spin of these PRO-NUCLEAR groups, and TEPCO itself, suppose the first question we all need to ask ourselves, is when was the last time you saw a insignificant incident carry with it a bill of $1.7 BILLION dollars? You can bet that price tag will continue to go higher as days and weeks turn into months, and possibly years.

Looking back on Hurricane Katrina here in America, the second question that came to mind, "Will TEPCO follow Entergy's nefarious and repugnant example, and try to stick the citizens of Japan with the clean up and repair bill? After Hurricane Katrina, many lower and middle class families suffered, and found themselves homeless, Entergy used the Federal Bankruptcy Courts to basically hold New Orleans hostage. Eventually, they were successful in forcing government to come up with grant money to the tune of almost $300 million, even though the parent company that year recorded almost $500 million in profits. How many families could have been made whole, had homes rebuilt if it were not for Entergy's rape of the system. Will the citizens of Japan find themselves held hostage in a similar fashion as the TEPCO tragedy unfolds in the coming months?

Reading about the expected costs from this Three Mile Island like event, considering the fact that NEI, the NRC and even the IAEA have classified this as and insignificant event, the citizens of America should be truly alarmed with the Price Anderson Act which protects nuclear reactor owners from financial liability in the case of a significant nuclear event or terrorist attack on and American Reactor. Nuclear Industry damages are capped at ten billion dollars in such a horrid scenario, with our government stating Congress can authorize money to cover any financial shortfalls in making a community whole. A significant nuclear incident, or 9/11 like terrorist attack on a reactor such as Indian Point would see damages instantly soar into the hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.

Federal law protects NRC licensees, and it is impossible for citizens to buy nuclear accident insurance. Two years later New Orleans calls for Federal Government assistance fall on deaf ears, and the tab there is far less than the tab would be after a nuclear accident. Do any of us really see government making a nuclear reactor host community WHOLE once a nuclear reactor has imploded, contaminating the land for tens if not hundreds of miles around it for hundreds if not thousands of years...forget NRC's false assurances that such and event cannot happen, and instead look at the nuclear fallout patterns in the aftermath of Chernobyl. Congress msut repeal the Price Anderson Act, as the time has come to END the handouts to this failing industry.

$1.7 Billion dollars is a lot of money for a small nuclear incident. Here in New York where two planes took down the twin towers we have 21 million people living within 50 miles of Indian Point. Entergy's Indian Point sits adjacent the Hudson River on a KNOWN earthquake fault, and is only 24 miles up river from New York City. Congressman John Hall's call for an ISA will not stop the wrongful relicensing of Indian Point. Only citizen outrage will accomplish that reality. 50,000 or 100,000 people marching on the plant would force the NRC to hear our voices. Congressman John Hall, Congressman Maurice Hinchey, Senators Schumer and Hilliary, and Governor Spitzer overnight could put that many people in front of these troubled and failing reactors...problem is, they do not have the political balls, nor desire to do that. For them it is a numbers game, and the numbers are all about them keeping their jobs, rather than about human health and safety. If they want to keep playing games, then the job falls to us as citizens to organize and make our voices heard.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa should be a WAKE UP CALL to all GREEN CITIZENS of America that a Nuclear Renaissance is not the answer to Global Warming. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa should be a wake up call to the citizens of America that we need to demand an end to the Price Anderson Act that protects the nuclear industry and its profits at the expense of our nation, and every host community in America. The NRC may want to rubber stamp Entergy's license renewal application for Indian Point, but we as citizens have the numbers to stop them, even if it means a massive sit in at the failing Entergy owned site on the Hudson River.

One thought in closing...the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactor site alone has over 20,000 barrels of low level waste stored on site, 400 of which tipped over and spilled in this incident. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site is new as reactor sites go, and yet they have over 2,800 barrels of low level radioactive waste stored on site for each of the seven reactors. With some 440 nuclear reactors operating currently in the world, that means we have conservatively one million, two hundred and thirty two thousand barrels of low level radioactive waste just sitting around waiting for another accident to happen...any one care to tell us where the nuclear industry is going to store all this long lived radioactive waste that GROWS with each passing day?

Mayor Orders Nuke Plant Closed, Company President Apologizes

The Mayor of KASHIWAZAKI, Japan has ordered Tokyo Electric Powers seven reactors shut down until they can prove they are SAFE! The NRC would have a shit fit if Andrew Spano ordered Indian Point shut down...after all, God Forbid Entergy's profits be impinged upon because of SAFETY ISSUES such as tritium and strontium 90 leaking into the Hudson River. Tokyo Electric Power's stock took a one percent hit yesterday, and sure the Mayor's announcement will see said stock tumble further. If the NRC actually starts enforcing its regulations at Entergy and Exelon nuclear reactors here in America, we could see similar stock plummets here as well. If there was ever a risky time to own Entergy stocks, right now seems to be it.

Indian Point represents almost 20 percent of Entergy's nuclear arsenal, and the aging brittled reactors have some serious problems...far more serious than those of the currently closed Tokyo Electric Power reactors that could remain closed for months, if not years. After all, the ground under the reactors WENT LIQUID for God's sake. Indian Point failed five of the six siting criteria back when they were originally licensed, and the fact said reactors sit on top of a earth quake fault line should seriously jeopardize their bid for relicense...SAY TUNED folks, as this fight is far from over, and when the dust settles, Westchester might yet rid themselves of these monsters.

Mayor Closes Quake-Hit Japan Nuke Plant

By ERIC TALMADGE,

AP

Posted: 2007-07-17 23:13:30

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - The mayor ordered that a nuclear power plant hit by a strong earthquake be shut down Wednesday until its safety could be confirmed after a long list of problems - including radiation leaks, burst pipes and fires - came to light.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world's largest nuclear plant in power output capacity.

Signs of problems after Monday's quake came first not from the officials, but in a plume of smoke that rose up when the quake triggered a small fire at an electrical transformer.

It was announced only 12 hours later that the magnitude 6.8 temblor also caused a leak of about 315 gallons of water containing radioactive material. Officials said the water leak was well within safety standards. The water was flushed into the sea.

Later Tuesday, it said 50 cases of "malfunctioning and trouble" had been found. Four of the plant's seven reactors were running at the time of the quake, and they were all shut down automatically by a safety mechanism.

Officials said there was no harm to the environment, but acknowledged it took a day to discover about 100 drums of low-level nuclear waste that were overturned, some with the lids open.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

07/17/07 23:12 EDT

Utility chief apologizes for problems at quake-hit nuke plant

By ERIC TALMADGE,

AP

Posted: 2007-07-17 23:15:01

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - A top power official apologized for radioactive leaks and several other malfunctions that occurred at a Japanese nuclear plant after a deadly earthquake, but said the company's basic safety measures still worked.

The comments came just moments after the mayor of the local city hosting the power plant ordered the facility shut down until its safety can be confirmed.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, president of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., toured the site Wednesday morning, declaring it "a mess." The previous evening, his company released a list of dozens of problems triggered by Monday's 6.8-magnitude quake.

"It is hard to make everything go perfectly," Katsumata said.

"We will conduct an investigation from the ground up. But I think fundamentally we have confirmed that our safety measures worked," he said.

While TEPCO says the quake was stronger than planned for, it has said none of the problems posed serious threats to people or the environment.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

07/17/07 23:13 EDT

Mounting Troubles Could Shut Down Japan Reactors For Months, Even Years?

As the investigations at Tokyo Electric Power widen, it is becoming very obvious that Japan just ducked a nuclear Holocaust in the aftermath of Monday's Earthquake. The originally filed false report of just a transformer fire is now an ever growing list of serious issues at the largest nuclear facility in the world, and one has to wonder if all seven reactors should be permenantly shutdown in light of this earthquake. Problems now on the list include the following.

Huge fire at an electrical transformer facility took over two hours to bring under control, and only an act of God kept it from spreading.

At least 1,200 liters of radioactively contaminated water spewed into sea, with the effects to fish and aquatic life not really known. Look for Homer Simpson's three eyed fish in the coming days and months.

No less than 100 barrels of radioactive waste were brutally knocked over in storage facility, with thousands of barrels yet to be fully investigated.

Major duct thrown out of place in major vent; resulting in a horridly dangerous leak of radioactive cobalt-60 and chromium-51 from five of the plant's reactors. Imagine not one, but FIVE reactors spewing cobalt-60 and chromium into the atmosphere, yet it was TWELVE HOURS before the public was informed!

Water leaks inside buildings housing all seven reactors, with no accurate measure of how much liquid has been released.

Significant malfunctioning and blockage of water intake screening pumps at two reactors, which could have potentially led to core meltdowns in a worse case scenario.

Blowout panel visciously ripped down at turbine buildings at two reactors.

Significant oil leak from low-activation transformer waste oil pipes at two reactors.

Loss in water-tight seal at reactor core cooling system-this could be indicative of significant damage, as reactor(s) shifted off original locations.

Major water leaks from diesel generator facility, burst and destroyed extinguisher pipe, burst condenser valve and filtration tank.

Seriously broken connections and horribly broken bolt at electric transformer.

Total and complete loss of power at control center for liquid waste disposal facility.

Significant and troublesome oil leaks from damaged transformer and magnetic transformer facility.

Numerous oil leaks at reactor water supply pump facility.

Disrupted electrical connection at magnetic transformer facility.

Structurally significant cracks in embankment of water intake facility.

Numerous air and oil leaks at switching stations.

Huge amounts of land under most parts of plant turned to mud in quake-caused process known as liquefaction which could lead to significantly settling of important infrastructure of the plant in the coming months, which in turn could compromise structural stability and reliability of foundational structures.

Japanese Government, Tokyo Electric HIDE Radioactive Leak FROM PUBLIC

In shades of an NRC cover up that Bush would be proud of, seems that the Government of Japan, and the Tokyo Electric Company kept the public in the dark about hundreds of gallons of radioactive materials spewing into the sea after the early morning earthquake. Seems that Japan has taken a page out of the NEI/NRC play book...if there is and accident, try to cover it up, and keep the news from the general public for as long as you can. Which explains why it is that NRC/DOE and FEMA have a whole bunch of FAKE news pieces in the can for when the major nuclear incident hits here in America, more than likely at Indian Point, since Entergy's failing reactor on the Hudson is a serious target for results minded terrorists around the world. After all, if we knew the truth, we would NEVER voluntarily shelter in place, but like lambs to slaughter, that is just what Entergy and the NRC have planned for us...sheltering in place, sentencing us to slow deaths with a skant 40 percent level of protection from the fallout after a terrorist attack, or significant incident at the plant. Guess the money players in Japan were thinking along similiar strategy lines in keeping the public stupid today.

Japan Quake Causes Nuke Plant Leak, Fire
AP
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/japan-quake-causes-nuke-plant-leak-fire/n20070716153709990020
Posted: 2007-07-16 15:37:53

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - A strong earthquake shook Japan's northwest coast Monday, setting off a fire at the world's most powerful nuclear power plant and causing a reactor to spill radioactive water into the sea - an accident not reported to the public for hours.

The 6.8-magnitude temblor killed at least 8 people and injured more than 900 as it toppled hundreds of wooden homes and tore 3-foot-wide fissures in the ground. Highways and bridges buckled, leaving officials struggling to get emergency supplies into the region.

Some 10,000 people fled to evacuation centers as aftershocks rattled the area. Tens of thousands of homes were left without water or power.

The quake triggered a fire in an electrical transformer and also caused a leak of radioactive water at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of electricity output.

The leak was not announced until the evening, many hours after the quake. That fed fresh concerns about the safety of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors, which supply 30 percent of the quake-prone country's electricity and have suffered a long string of accidents and cover-ups.

Curious here...does Entergy have a financial interest or stake in Japan's problem plagued Nuclear industry? If the littany of mistakes, problems, and leaks is any example, the Green Nuclear Butterfly is betting that Entergy has a stake in Japan's nuclear present and future, and that is a scary thought indeed.

Two News Items...Cracked Japanese Reactor, Homer Simpson Protests

Nuclear Reactor on The Brink of Chernobyl in Japan after early morning earthquake...a bullet dodged...this time.

Two breaking news items to report here:

1. Japan has suddenly changed its tune, and has admitted the reactor shaken to its core in the western coastal city of Kashiwazaki, near Niigata, about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo is spewing forth radioactive contaminants into the Sea of Japan...the NRC has offered to SEND HELP. Like a freaking egg, a newer, yet still very fragile reactor core has BROKEN UDER PRESSURE, and here we sit in the Hudson Valley with not one, but two reactors built right on top of and earthquake fault line.

Nuclear scare after Japan quake

A strong earthquake in central Japan has damaged a large nuclear power plant causing a leak of radioactive material, officials at the plant have said.

2. Meanwhile, closer to home in New York city, seems some protests/street actions are shaping up in New York City for the opening next week of the new Simpson's movie...what better opportunity to bring attention to Indian Points failing reactors that are leaking strontium 90 and tritium into the Hudson River? The new Simpson movie, and the evacuation scene that plays a crucial part in the movie are a perfect back drop to use in bringing public attention to the very real fact that Entergy and the NRC's evacuation plan for Indian Point is a non workable piece of shit.

We are watching our news sources to bring you up to the minute information on Japan's radiation leaks...all we can do, is thank God that the epicenter of the earthquake was no closer than it was. Sadly, the NRC could care less about public safety, and will continue to rubber stamp license renewals in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance....after all, the citizens of Westchester County, and New York City are expendable in Entergy's eyes.

Back From Vacation, Busy Week Planned

For the sake of our children, IPSEC needs to change their image, and way of conducting business... during the relicensing process, action through consensus is a recipe for failure.

Greetings Blog Readers:

Yes, I have been on vacation, getting some much needed rest and relaxation, but am now back and ready to face what promises to be a very busy week here at the Green Nuclear Butterfly as we man the fortresses, and continue our fight against the wrongful relicensing of the aging and brittled Indian Point Nuclear reactors. Thought I would give a quick run down of some of the things we are working on.

1. Remy should be reporting on the *Rock The Reactors* concert event held this past weekend in Woodstock, New York.

2. Green Nuclear Butterfly is working with FUSE to complete comments opposing the New York State Discharge Permit for Indian Point reactors.

3. We are working to schedule a meeting with the state of New York on the permitting process as a stakeholder, and are going to opposed the state meeting with the NEI who is NOT a stakeholder for Indian Point.

4. We are in the process of interviewing and considering the hiring of our first expert witness as we move our Petition to Intervene further down the track.

5. We will be receiving a full box of necessary documents from the DOE this week, and have to prepare proper paperwork to get other documents that require special clearance.

On other fast breaking news...has the time come for IPSEC and their member organizations to reconsider their basic charter or become obsolete? In recent months, IPSEC's basic way of operating has shown itself to be a dismal failure in our community's time of need...when we are staring a wrongful relicensing square in the face, it is necessary to act fast, to be decisive in which direction to turn as and organization. IPSEC's consensus style of management has been a complete disaster, and as a result deadlines have been, and are about to be missed as they languish in shallow waters while the Manna Jo's of the world drag their feet and keep the organization from reaching agreement on what to do, or what petitions to be a part of.

IPSEC has reached a crossroads, and decision time is upon them...if they are going to be effectively involved in the fight to close down Indian Point, they need to trash the consensus style of operation they have played with for years, and elect a board that has the power to actually make decisions for the organization and its members. Failure to realize and accept this reality, failure to make immediate changes makes them obsolete as and organization, and they will not play a part of any merit in the fight...no clearer sign of this reality can be found than Riverkeeper's sudden departure from the coalition after another meaningless emergency of the STEER committee this past week failed to find any consensus, and all agenda items were put on hold until September.

Green Nuclear Butterfly is actively working with three other organizations to put together a new coalition of the ready and willing. We are taking the necessary steps required to merge the necessary talents needed to be a major player in the relicensing process, and hope to announce these developing plans very soon...if you are your organization would like to be a part of this new coalition, please feel free to send and email to uraniumhotspot@aol.com with all your contact information.