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

New York Post

Page Six
Wed Jan 2, 08

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

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This from members of RockNet and IndianPointSEC list servs:

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

Best wishes,
Anthony Henry Smith

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year to all,

Peter Rostenberg

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

Is Indian Point 3 Power Ending Up in Canada?

A little bird passed this onto Green Nuclear Butterfly, so take it with a grain of salt, as we have not had time to look into it, and that might take some time. BUT, what if we do not need the power from Indian Point 3? More importantly, what if we are not even benefitting from the power produced from Indian Point 3?

The little bird is telling us, that New York Power Authority is well aware of the fact, that through at least 2010 every bit of power from IP 3 is sold through Con Edison at greatly discounted prices to a third party who is flipping it to Canada. As we state, this information is not verified, but worthy of some investigation, as it shoots the hell out of Entergy's argument that they supply 20 Percent of New York City's energy needs. Which reminds us, isn't there a mandate in New York City that they have to produce 80 percent of their own power? Surely Entergy is not producing every kilowatt of the remainder?

So, who knows, maybe someone like Greg Clary or Matt Wald will track this down.

FUSE USA Seeking Co-Signers For Petition

Friday, November 9, 2007

FUSE USA Seeking Petition Co-Signers

Hi All:

As some of you know, and some do not, I have been working very hard on the issue of Indian Point, trying to either A) stop it's relicensing for a period of 20 more years, or B) if said plant is relicensed, have some of the serious safety issues addressed before it is relicensed. (Examples would include for instance the strontium and tritium leaks on the Indian Point site that are finding their way into the ground water, and into the Hudson River, lack of any mention in the Environmental Report of Refurbishment-even though Entergy has two reactor vessel heads on order, as well as health concerns related to Entergy's continued operation.)

Right now, I am putting the final touches on a Petition to Intervene, and Formal Request for a hearing that will be sent off to the NRC. Said Petition raises 17 Contentions specifically related to Indian Point 3, and I and FUSE USA are looking for a few people concerned with our environment to co-sign this petition today. Do apologize for such short notice, but sometimes time is of the essence. If you would like to support this effort by co-signing, all you need to do is send your name and address for inclusion. Send it by the end of the day to roycepenstinger@aol.com Also, please feel free too forward this email to any and all of your friends that might be interested in supporting this important cause.

If you would like to read a copy of the Petition, please email me off list, and I'll be happy to send it off to you.

Respectfully,

Sherwood Martinelli
FUSE USA

Under We Told You So...Nuclear Industry Starts Letting 80 Year Life Span Out of Bag

Green Nuclear Butterfly many months ago warned the public that the Nuclear Industry planned on keeping their 104 aging reactors up and operational for 40, not 20 years. The reason we knew this to be true, is because of a DOE report we had read wherein it was stated the industry needed to keep as many of its aging fleet up and running through 2050 as possible, as it would take that long to get enough new reactors up and running to offset the power losses represented by reactor retirement and decommissioning. The Propaganda War to prepare host communities to accept this reality began with an article in the Sun earlier this week.

Generating more power
Nuclear plants might be run past their allowed maximum

By Paul Adams
Baltimore Sun

October 27, 2007

Faced with the competing threats of global warming and a looming energy shortfall, federal regulators are contemplating whether another 20 years of service can be squeezed out of the nation's aging nuclear power plants without compromising safety.

Many say they believe that the 104 nuclear reactors operating in the U.S. will be forced to retire faster than industry can replace them, unless regulators act to extend their lives to 80 years from the current 60-year maximum. The discussion is of particular interest in Maryland, where Constellation Energy Group owns two aging nuclear reactors and is considering whether to build a third to meet the state's growing energy needs.

Though it will be years before any licenses expire, the debate has urgency because utilities are making decisions that will affect how many nuclear plants will be built during the next 20 years.

The issue might prove critical to efforts to keep the lights on without adding polluting greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Nuclear plants produce 20 percent of the nation's energy supply but account for more than 70 percent of the electricity from all sources classified as emissions-free.

The plants also dispatch some of the cheapest electricity to the power grid, making them critical to keeping the nation's utility bills in check, proponents argue.

"The practical reality is that if those plants are determined not to be viable for an additional 20-year operating cycle, then we need to start building new generation today," said Alex Marion, executive director of operations and engineering for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group. "Twenty percent of the nation's capacity is a tremendous amount of energy to make up with non-nuclear facilities."

The concern is acute in Maryland, where state officials worry about a power shortfall in coming decades. The operating licenses for the two reactors at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear station in Lusby - the backbone of the region's power supply - are set to expire in 2034 and 2036, respectively. Nationwide, the first plants will hit mandatory retirement under current regulations as early as 2029.

That's a blink of an eye, given that it could take 10 years to come up with regulations for extending the licenses. Also, experts point out that it can take a decade to plan, build and license a new plant. Some 30 nuclear projects are proposed, but no one has committed to construction.

There is widespread concern that the industry lacks the financial backing, infrastructure and manpower to replace all of the existing nuclear plants before time runs out on their current licenses. The infrastructure required to build new plants in the U.S. largely disintegrated after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident raised concerns about the safety of nuclear power.

Yet industry analysts say they expect demand for nuclear energy to increase if Congress reaches agreement on legislation placing limits on carbon emissions - a move that would spur demand for emissions-free generation. Congress also included a package of tax breaks and loan guarantees in the 2005 energy bill.

"Policymakers may come back and say, 'We need you guys to build many, many more plants at a higher rate of construction,'" said Gary Vine, an executive director in the nuclear section of the Electric Power Research Institute. "When that happens ... you're going to probably find our ability to build new plants just to support U.S. energy security is going to be well beyond our capacity."

The Energy Information Institute, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, estimates that demand for electricity will grow by 40 percent by 2030 - about the time nuclear licenses start to expire. The industry would have to build up to 300 conventional plants by then to keep pace. More will be needed if existing nuclear facilities are phased out.

To buy time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is teaming with scientists and engineers to study what kind of maintenance and equipment monitoring are needed if nuclear plants are made to last 80 years. The agency said the effort is in the planning phase, but it has a workshop on the topic scheduled for February.

Reactors require extensive monitoring and upkeep as they age. Major components, such as steam generators, can break down, costing hundreds of millions of dollars to replace. One major focus will be whether reactor vessels - massive structures that contain the reactor core and coolant - can stand up to intense pressure, heat and radiation for another 20 years. Reactor vessels are exposed to significant neutron radiation over time, which can cause the metal to become brittle.

"The technical question is how long can they go," said Revis James, director of EPRI's energy technology assessment center. "I don't believe anyone has ever done that study or calculation."

Critics of the industry say the stakes are high for regulators. Experience has proven that mistakes can be made even when the industry is trying to take initiative. The most recent example involved the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo, which had to be temporarily shut down in 2002 after technicians discovered that acid used in cooling water had almost eaten through the reactor vessel's lid.

Early evidence of the corrosion had been detected a few years before, but not acted upon until it grew worse.

"The downside is there have been a number of aging-related failures, because, despite everybody's best efforts, we've missed them," said David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group that follows nuclear issues.

Lochbaum, who has been critical of federal regulators, said the NRC has limited resources and can't watch over every worker's shoulder or keep track of every piece of equipment.

But regulators have been down this path before. U.S. nuclear plants were originally given 40-year licenses to operate. The NRC published regulations in the mid-1990s allowing plants to operate another 20 years if owners met strict safety requirements designed to catch age-related mishaps.

Constellation's Calvert Cliffs plant was the first to do so in March 2000. A new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs under consideration would cost an estimated $4 billion or more. Still, many say energy from both the new and old reactors will be needed to meet the state's energy needs without adding pollution.

Michael J. Wallace, executive vice president of Constellation Energy, said the company would be interested in extending Calvert Cliff's operating license another 20 years but will need to weigh the economics when the time comes. Maintaining a nuclear plant is like car care - at some point, it becomes cheaper to buy a new one rather than keep fixing the old model.

"The economics are pretty compelling when, for $20 [million] to $30 million, which would be the typical cost of the license extension, you can get a 1,000- to 1,100-megawatt nuclear plant that can run for 20 years," said Per F. Peterson, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley. One megawatt is roughly enough to power 1,000 average homes.

Rising electricity prices have made existing plants highly profitable for the industry. Peterson said there are few components inside a plant that can't be replaced economically.

The exception would be the reactor vessel. Peterson said the size and cost likely would make replacing a vessel impractical. But few say it will come to that.

"We have done a lot of research on reactor vessel toughness," said Vine, the EPRI nuclear expert, "and I think the belief we have now, both in the industry and on the NRC side, is that most of these vessels are OK for well into 80 years and beyond."

Trackback:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.bz.nuclear27oct27,0,3892047.story

Feedback:
paul.adams@baltsun.com

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

Green Nuclear Butterfly, Spanning the Globe

In four short days, Green Nuclear Butterfly will have been open for business for ten full months. In that time, we have seen a lot happen. It's been a wild ride and we are just getting started. As we race towards our one year anniversary on December 26th of this year, thought we'd share the fact that this little Anti Nuclear Blog is literally spanning the globe! In ten months, we have had visitors from some very exotic places. Below is a partial list of country visits.

United States-all 50 states.

United Kingdom

Canada

Germany

Australia

India

France

Japan

Italy

Netherlands

Spain

Turkey

Sweden

Brazil

Switzerland

Poland

Belgium

South Korea

Mexico

Austria

Portugal

Indonesia

South Africa

Finland

Romania

Malyasia

Russian Federation

Money We Paid For Off Site Radioactive Waste Storage Being Given Back To Utilities

Each month we as electric consumers PAY A FEE to have spent fuel stored OFF SITE at a yet to be built repository...that money should be held in trust, and drawing interest. Instead, it is being used up defending lawsuit, and paying Nuclear Licensees DAMAGES! Why are companies like Entergy being allowed to sue DOE, and be awarded OUR MONEY? Simple, they are now being PAID to store the wastes ON SITE until a repository is built.

Lets say we buy into that general argument. If companies in the nuclear industry are now effectively being rewarded finacially for spent fuel to remain AT THE NUCLEAR REACTOR SITE, should not that storage of wastes be held to the SAME STANDARDS as would be required at say YUCCA Mountain? Time to demand some answers.

Another Utility Wins Damages Over Yucca's Failure to Open

10/15/2007

A federal court has awarded a Minneapolis power company $116.5 million in damages for the U.S. Energy Department's (DoE) failure to open a permanent radioactive waste repository for the nation's commercial spent nuclear fuel, as the federal government promised to do long ago.

Xcel Energy Inc. subsidiary Northern States Power Co.'s victory in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims puts the company on a growing list of nuclear utilities that have won legal redress for the costs of having to store spent fuel at their reactor sites as they await the opening of the nuclear waste dump being built in Nevada's desert.

Northern States sued DoE, arguing that the federal government just like a company or individual is obligated to follow through on its contract obligations.

NRC Names Three Judge Panel For Indian Point Application

Seems that the NRC is trying to get a jump on the judicial process related to Entergy's fatally flawed application for license renewal of the Indian Point reactors. In short, those of us seeking to intervene in the process should be prepared for some dirty tricks including a massive number of Entergy Christmas season attempts to get our contentions tossed out. We need a picture of the Grinch holding and Entergy sign.

Atomic Safety and Licensing Board established Indian Point license renewal

Washington -- A three-judge board has been established to review requests for a hearing on the license renewal application for the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan. Should a hearing regarding the application take place, the board would also conduct that proceeding.

The board is drawn from the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board Panel, which is a judicial component of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tasked with conducting all licensing and other hearings as directed by the presidentially appointed commission that oversees the NRC.

The ASLBP operates independently of the NRC technical staff. The judges named by ASLBP Chief Administrative Judge E. Roy Hawkens to preside over the Indian Point proceeding are Lawrence McDade, who will serve as chairman; Dr. Richard Wardwell; and Dr. Kaye Lathrop.

Most boards are composed of one judge who is qualified in conducting administrative proceedings, who is a lawyer, and two judges who have technical qualifications appropriate to the issues in the proceedings, who are scientists or engineers.

Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant has a term of 40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are met. The current operating licenses for Indian Point Units 2 and 3 expire, respectively, on Sept. 28, 2013, and Dec. 12, 2015.

Entergy’s license renewal application for Indian Point was received by the NRC on April 30, 2007.The deadline for the receipt of requests for a hearing on the application is Nov. 30, 2007.

The Hudson River Without Indian Point 2 and 3

The Hudson River Without Indian Point...Let's Go Back To The Future

Entergy wants to relicense for another 20 years its creaking, dilapidated reactors known as IP2 and IP3, or collectively the Indian Point Energy Center. Those reactors are leaking strontium 90, tritium, cesium and other radiological poisons into our environment, into the Hudson River. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided it is acceptable for some of us to die from horrid cancers with each passing day, month and year that Indian Point continues to operate. They spout out formulas, and speak about vague idealistic concepts like Acceptable Risk. Acceptable Risk by what standard? ALARA, where the licensee can state they are doing the best that they can, and the NRC says that is good enough?

Have you, your mother, your daughter, even your grandmother suffered the tragic pains of breast cancer? Has one of your children or relatives been struck down with leukemia, or gone through the painful process of being treated for thyroid cancer? If you can answer yes to any of these, you need to look UP RIVER to Indian Point each and every time you flip your light switch, or turn on a lamp...are those kilowatts of electric power worth it? Should we instead be looking at other alternatives such as conservation, wind, hydro, and as yet unknown and under funded alternatives to a power source that indiscriminately kills?

We have choices, alternatives to a radiological death knocking indiscriminately at the doors of our families, our neighbors. We can choose as a community to tell the NRC no to the Grime Reaper living among us, its strontium 90, tritium spreading cancer like some silent plague can be vanquished. Imagine a Hudson River without these two spires of death rising into the air. Go back to the future, remember the view before those towers rose into the Sky, and then demand in unison that the NRC deny Entergy's License Renewal Application.

New York's future is OURS TO DECIDE. We have the power to take back our choices by marching on Entergy, by taking back the Public Regulatory Process, by demanding accountability. A few weekends where tens of thousands of concerned citizens camped out in front of Entergy, would give the NRC pause for thought. A few hundred protesters showing up in front of Hilary Clinton and Chuck Shumer's district offices would force them to give us more than lip service and a few false promises.

Saying no to $50 Billion in loan guarantees is only a part of the answer. We need musicians, politicians and average citizens to stand up for the 67 American communities being forced to continue hosting dangerous old reactors. We as a nation need to demand that Washington ABOLISH the Price Anderson Act. We saw what happened to the citizens of New Orleans...should we see hundreds of thousands of Americans loose everything in a nuclear incident or terrorist attack on a Nuclear Reactor because our government has given the nuclear industry a FREE FROM LIABILITY CARD? Should Americans be denied the right to insure their homes for the losses that would occur as a result of one of these old reactors visiting a Chernobyl on our communities?

Please, if you live within the 50 mile circle of death that is Indian Point, if you live in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut join the fight to close these dangerous facilities. It takes a village to raise a child, it takes two aging nuclear reactors to kill thousands of those same children.

Betcee May in Earth First! Journal

Excerpt from:

Our Bodies, Our Causes
By Sophia

Earth First! Journal

Eostar 2007
Volume 27, Issue 3

"I came across a campaign to shut down Indian Point, a nuclear power plant in New York State. One extremely vocal man in this fight said that he was determined to find the prettiest girl on the Internet to support his campaign, and he did, indeed, find a model to stand beside him. One of their main publicity stunts—doing a photo shoot in front of this nuclear power plant—brought lots of traffic to the campaign website. Photos from the shoot, some of which were readily hung up in the power plant’s lunchroom, depicted the model posing in heels in front of the reactor, as well as lounging on a hybrid car. How could this be attracting people who really care about the environment? It doesn’t make sense to appeal to people using a method that needs to be obliterated."

hmm...

To read the entire article and comments click here.

NEI taken to task once before for false advertising?

[This is from Sherwood, aka Royce Penstinger, who is buried under 50,000 pages of NRC documents and can't surface for air right this second... RemyC]

Wasn't NEI taken to task once before for false advertising? With Entergy trying to relicense Indian Point, they are at it again as NEI is running commercials locally claiming nuclear does not pollute the air...a quick scan of the few pollutants they still track shows that is and out and out lie.

As to contributing to Global Warming, maybe the world should rethink this...Indian Point on a daily basis sucks in 2.4 Billion gallons of water, and discharges it back into the Hudson at 103 degrees...multiply that times 443 reactors worldwide. Couple that with the most carbon intensive mining and processing that is uranium extraction, and I would suggest that nuclear contribute more too global warming that other forms of producing electricity. As for the burning of coal in the nuclear process...let's ask the DOE to come clean and admit how much carbon was put into the air at the Portsmouth Ohio and Paducah Kentucky plants.

Also, as part of Bush's Global 2010, GNEP plan to revitalize the nuclear industry, a part of that 50 billion this year alone, is a new fuel reprocessing plant to be built on technology that has yet to be proven, which will supposedly reprocess all those spent fuel pools sitting on site...WAKE UP...The plan is too built over 100 new AP1000 reactors here in America. In short, this new generation of GE reactors are not even capable of burning this new reprocessed fuel. Further, said AP1000's are in capable of bringing us the Hydrogen Economy that is being TOUTED as a benefit of these new reactors!

One last suggestion...everyone should call the NRC today, and ask them if it is true that the Industry, EPRI and NEI have done a feasibility study to keep spent fuel right where it sits (on the Hudson River) for at least another 100 years...in short, despite the fact that each and every one of us has been paying a monthly fee to Entergy to dispose of this waste OFF SITE, the industry and NRC now want to turn Indian Point into a defacto low and how level radioactive waste dump. IE...how many are aware of the fact the steam turbines that were replaced are just sitting in a metal storage building at Indian Point. How many realize with Barnwell closing, that the Low Level Radioactive Waste streams from Entergy's Indian Point will now start piling up at the site...just like the 22,000 55 gallons drums at the Japan site hit by and Earthquake.

If the community is wise, Wednesday meeting should be a vipers pit of angry citizens.

EPRI, DOE, NEI, NRC and The Defense and Commericial Nuclear Industry Keeping Public in Dark?

For those of us who find ourselves living within the shadow of death that is the 50 mile circle around an aging, decaying nuclear reactor here in America, we have sadly come to know what it is like to be kept in the dark. We are asked to accept the risks associated with the NRC rubber stamping of 20 year license renewals without being told just what the real risks are that we will be faced with. Accidents caused from FAC (Flow Accelerated Corrosion), stainless steel fatigue, concrete degradation and weld failures are all serious concerns, with the true risks hidden behind the closed doors of the EPRI documents room.

Security is another issue, with the DBT hidden from public view, and any attempts to get honest answers met with a STONE WALL as Sam Collins and other members of the NRC refuse to answer our questions put forth at public meetings. Why can't we know the truth, be told why it was that the NRC commissioners removed from the weapons lists mortars, shoulder launched grenades and rockets (RPG's), and armor piercing munitions? Is it true that NEI pressured the NRC to remove these weapons because they would render 85 percent of the industry's security infrastructure obsolete?

Now, lets look at public health and safety should a nuclear event or terrorist attack at say, "Indian Point". Obviously, one of the things citizens want to know, want to understand is plume modeling. When we try to discuss this with NRC officials (Richard Barkley) we get vague answers, and promises of more information later...that then never arrives. This area is one of great concern to myself, so I did some research this evening, and in a word we want access to NARAC! Why is this valuable software that would allow local communities and citizens to evaluate their risk being SECRETED AWAY behind the walls of Lawrence Livermore Laboritories by the DOE? Could it be, that the truth of Plumes in the event of a significant nuclear incident see citizens demanding the closure of all NUCLEAR REACTORS? Below is some very SOMBERING information on NURAC, and the DOE's involvement in safeguarding public safety. Get involved, demand that this valuable software tool be made available to citizens in Nuclear Reactor host communities...we have a right to know what risks we are facing.

http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/318555.pdf

The NARAC suite of software tools include simple stand-alone, local-scale plume modeling tools for end-user’s computers, and Web- and Internet-based software to access advanced modeling tools and expert analyses from the national center at LLNL. Initial automated, 3-D predictions of plume exposure limits and protective action guidelines for emergency responders and managers are available from the center in 5-10 minutes. These can be followed immediately by quality-assured, refined analyses by 24 x 7 on-duty or on-call NARAC staff. NARAC continues to refine calculations using updated on-scene information, including measurements, until all airborne releases have stopped and the hazardous threats are mapped and impacts assessed

1 Introduction
The dispersion of radiological material in the atmosphere poses potential risks to human health. Releases may occur from accidents involving nuclear power plants, nuclear material processing and transportation, or nuclear weapons. The post-coldwar proliferation of nuclear material has increased the potential for threats from radiological dispersal devices and nuclear weapons. In order to prepare for airborne releases and mitigate the resulting impacts, tools are needed that can accurately and quickly predict the environmental contamination and health effects.

Read The DOE Directive:
http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/neword/153/o1531.pdf

Other Important Directives:

http://www.directives.doe.gov/cgi-bin/currentchecklist#ORDERS

DOE/NRC's One Strike Approach

http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/oldord/5480/o548030c1.html

(1) Single Failure. Safety class SSCs shall be able to accommodate a single failure and still meet their intended safety function, as required, to ensure compliance with the facility acceptance criterion. A "single failure" means an occurrence which results in the loss of capability of the safety class structure, system or component to accomplish its required safety functions. Multiple failures resulting from a single occurrence are considered to be a single failure.

Some Important Manuals can be found here:

http://www.directives.doe.gov/cgi-bin/currentchecklist#MANUALS

Do DOE Nuclear Reactor Sites afford American citizens a higher level of protection than those afforded communities forced to play host to commercial nuclear reactors such as Entergy's failing Indian Point reactors? Read DOE guidelines here:

http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/oldord/5400/o54005c2.html

Where are our protections from the NRC?

Below is and excerpt from DOE's Nuclear Energy Policy, which you can read at: http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/senord/35/n3591.html

Reading the excerpt, one has to wonder where our similar EQUAL RIGHTS are when looking at NRC's commercial licensees.

SUBJECT: NUCLEAR SAFETY POLICY

It is the policy of the Department of Energy (DOE) that the general public be protected such that no individual bears significant additional risk to health and safety from the operation of a DOE nuclear facility above the risks to which members of the general population are normally exposed. The purpose of this document is to establish the basic nuclear safety policy from which specific safety rules, orders, standards, and other requirements shall follow.* DOE facilities will be designed, constructed, operated, and decommissioned to assure the protection of the public, workers, and the environment.

IPSEC Wrongfully Applauds Governor Spitzer In Press Release

Opened my mail this morning to find an IPSEC press release in it that is posted below. Problem is, think IPSEC is being more than naive if they fail to see through Governor Spitzer's carefully laid smoke screen aimed at keeping Indian Point open, while giving him political cover with the grassroots community in opposition to said plant. He in his interview with the Journal News once again trotted out the same old platitudes, followed by the big caveat that gets him off the hook.

Indian Point is not safe, Indian Point should be shut down, (pay close attention) but not until we have replacement power for it. Would be interesting to see the Journal News do their job as journalists, and ask the governor the all important follow up question when he trots out that tired old pony, which is, "What additional energy onto the grid, and/or energy conservation do you plan on counting towards that replacement energy you say needs to be there?"

ACE New York whose membership is heavily infested with people associated with the nuclear industry has already stated their 3000 megawatts if energy onto the grid are in addition to, not a replacement for Indian Point...how convenient. Suppose if the state mandated everyone was to use energy efficient lighting (including retail stores and malls), that said conservation savings would also not count in Governor Spitzer's mind? It's a classic example of a Three Card Monty scam...where's the energy that counts towards closing Indian Point? It's a classic con of the voters...re-elect me, I did everything in my power to close down the trouble plagued Indian Point facility, but it was out of my hands.

Governor Spitzer, the State Attorney General and DEC have all the tools/cards they need to close down Indian Point. Litigation, and a denial of their discharge permit closes the book on this putrid facility. OH! Just one little wrinkle in the ointment...could it be, that the state of New York does not want to go up against Entergy and Indian Point because they OWN the land (and maybe the discharge canal itself)that Indian Point uses to discharge pollutants into our dearly loved Hudson River? For those now scratching their heads, read Entergy's Environmental Report attached to their Application for License Renewal.

So, IPSEC's press release applauding Governor Spitzer is more than premature, it is simply misplaced. It's like applauding Congressmen Maurice Spitzer and John Hall for trotting out their tired legislation calling for and ISA when they know it is not ever going anywhere...it's a smoke and mirrors cover to protect them from their constituents.

IPSEC Applauds Governor Spitzer

The Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition applauds Governor Eliot Spitzer for his clear understanding that "it just doesn't make sense" to have a nuclear power plant at Indian Point in Buchanan, New York. With 8% of the population of this country living within a 50 mile radius of the plant a radiological event at the plant could have consequences that would dwarf those of September 11.

The governor expressed this opinion in a meeting with the editorial board staff of The Journal News and it was reported in that paper last Wednesday. He also stressed the need to have alternative sources of energy in place to replace the power. While this is an important step in planning for closure, the Coalition would like to remind the Governor, and others, that electricity is a commodity that is bought and sold. We live in free market economy that has worked very effectively to create an electricity surplus in New York State.

Right now Indian Point is contributing slightly more than 2,000 MW to that mix. As long as this amount of electricity is being pumped out, there is little room in the market for additional companies to supply more electricity. Once closure is announced it becomes possible for other utilities to make plans to fill the gap and enhance their profits.

That's the way the market works and so there is every reason to expect that businesses will find a way to make a profit once the opportunity presents itself. While we do need to plan ahead, there is no need to count out 2,000MW's.

The chief obstacles to building new power plants are siting and proximity to transmission lines. Most communities do not want a power plant in their backyard and local opposition can still add years of delay to beginning construction. These problems do not exist at Indian Point. The site is already zoned for a power plant and the local community welcomes it, Transmission lines are obviously in place. This makes Indian Point an extremely valuable piece of real estate, no matter how the electricity is generated there.

When other nuclear plants in the U.S. have closed, the electricity has been replaced. A nuclear plant in Fort St. Vrain, Colorado was converted to a gas plant. When the Rancho Seco Nuclear Plant in California was closed by a public vote, "replacement energy" came from an efficiency and renewable power program which achieved a sizable reduction in the need for power.

The undeniable fact is that Indian Point will have to be closed. The question is not if, but when. Most importantly, when the energy market knows that Indian Point will not be re licensed, they will have time to plan intelligently for power options that are safer, cleaner, and far less dangerous from a security standpoint than an aging nuclear plant with a long history of safety and security problems.

When you couple the fact that other means of production can replace Indian Point at the same site, with other elements such as:

the governor's vigorous support for wind energy and other alternatives

a conservation program that has as a goal holding usage flat while continuing economic growth through efficiency

improvements to the grid itself that make it easier to move electricity over longer distances

it becomes apparent that closing an aging nuclear power plant and replacing it with a different kind of electricity generation is a small piece in the much larger puzzle of New York's energy landscape.

Certainly it makes a lot more sense than continuing to operate a facility that poses a risk to so many people and generates highly radioactive waste that must be stored on site.

We can replace the power, we can't replace the people.

"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.

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?

Japanese Quake Delivers Devastating Blow to Nuclear Renaissance?

Could we be watching the beginning of the end of GNEP, and the Nuclear Renaissance that is being trumpeted by the Bush Administration as the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan unfolds?

In early reports out of Japan, we heard about a minor fire at the world's largest nuclear plant. Then, we were told there had been a very insignificant leak (a few pints)of radioactive contaminants inside the plant. Then we found out that there had been off site contamination. Next, a few liters of radioactive waste became, in the blink of and eye well over 300 gallons dumped into the sea. The next shoe to drop was the news that the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese government had hidden the truth from the populace for many hours.

Now today, we find out even more bad news (or good if you are anti nuclear). Seems that the quake far exceeded the plants DB plans, was well above the criteria the plants were designed to withstand, which raises some very serious concerns, or should raise some serious concerns. Additionally, Japan has announced the launch of a second leak investigation...which means, the structural stability of these reactors is now in question. Do we have a cracked core? Has the entire underground piping system been compromised? If there is a second leak, how significant is it, and can they even locate it so that repairs can be made?

In short, people that own stocks in companies like Entergy or Exelon might be wise to dump their investments, as a significant structural problem at Tokyo Electtrics reactor site will send shock waves through the nuclear industry.

Japan quake toll at nine; nuclear plant still shut
BBC reports that a second radioactive leak is being probed
By MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:43 AM ET Jul 17, 2007

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The world's largest nuclear power plant by output capacity remained closed Tuesday, after seismometers indicated the magnitude 6.7 earthquake that hit northwestern Japan Monday produced shocks that exceeded the reactors' design strength, according to media reports.

The quake was reportedly the strongest ever detected at a domestic nuclear reactor.
Second leak being probed: BBC
Water containing radioactive material is already known to have leaked from the plant into the sea after that quake, but officials say it will not harm the environment. And Japanese officials are investigating the possibility of a second radioactive leak from the plant, the BBC reported on its Web site.

Canadian Ad For Atomic Power And Its Parody

The original:

The parody:


From:
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/07/03/nuclear-power-ad-by-h5
posted by linton on hugg.com

Clearwater 07, The Summer of Get Even!

Anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott, once disrobed with 50 others and marched through San Francisco chanting "Nudes, not nukes!" She was delighted to hear about a 2002 naked version of the peace sign, a sign based on an inverted life rune, and first used as an anti-nuclear emblem in 1958, at a demonstration outside Aldermaston, a British research center for nuclear weapon development.

Launch of Indian Point Anti-Nuclear Dead Baby Tour Environmental Direct Action Campaign

Entergy's Indian Point and other nuclear reactors are leaking tritium and strontium 90 into our lakes, rivers and oceans here in America, and around the world. Those radioactive contaminants cause cancers, birth defects, and expose women living near nuclear reactors to a greatly increased risk of stillborn infants. Nuclear Power, the world's largest forced abortion clinic, shades of Adolph Hitler, and radioactive ovens masquarading as vital, safe, secure, and Green nuclear energy here to save us from Global Warming.

To bring national and international attention to this issue, a new environmental direct action campaign is being launched. The Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour.

Read about it, and get involved.

http://ipdeadbabyworldtour.blogspot.com

Monday, June 4, 2007

Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour-Details Coming Soon

Entergy's aging, failing Indian Point reactors 2 and 3 are trying to get 20 year license renewals while leaking tritium and strontium into the Hudson River. These radioactive contaminants known to cause cancer also elevate birth defects, and place women at a greatly increased risk of having stillborn babies. To bring attention to this issue, to oppose Entergy's attempts to relicense these dangerous reactors, this blog will be sending symbolic dead babies (dolls) out on a world tour by leaving them at various locations.

If you find one of these dolls, take pictures of them in unique locations, take them with you on vacation, show them the life that Entergy's Indian Point would deny them, even shoot a video and upload it onto YouTube. Send jpeg files of your dead baby photos, or the link to your YouTube video to ipdeadbabytour@aol.com so that we can create and online Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour here on this blog in the hopes of waking up America to the very real danger of a Chernobyl right here in America as the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) wrongfully rubber stamps the license renewal applications of America's 104 aging degradated reactors for another 20 years. We are hoping to have at least 40 Dead Babies (dolls) traveling around the world by the fall of 2007, and need your help.

If you would like to donate a doll to this project, or make a donation, please email ipdeadbabytour@aol.com and we will provide you with a address. Dolls can be male or female, and must have a full set of clothes to wear...passports are not required.

Stay tuned to this blog for more details.

Nuke The Nuke - Run for the h... huh... nowhere to run to!

This morning the NY Post headline reads:
FEDS TARGET NUKE PHANTOM
The article goes on to say:

"Al Qaeda's so-called nuclear whiz kid - a "tantalizing terror figure" with a $5 million bounty on his head - was the radical big shot investigators had hoped to snag in their 18-month JFK-plot probe. The name of "invisible hand" Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, reportedly was the man Osama bin Laden tapped to lead a previous scheme to detonate nuclear bombs simultaneously in several U.S. cities..."

OK... that's one thing, now read the subtext, read between the lines... What if? What if some suicide nuclear bomber, decides to get close enough to Indian Point, and detonates a backpack nuke... in effect producing the largest dirty bomb one could ever imagine... spreading a cloud of radioactive debris and dust to all four winds, killing millions upon millions of people in a matter of weeks! Not possible you say? Think again!

Now, Mr. Newman, what kind of "security" force in the world, could prevent such a thing? I ask you... Not even "Wackenhut"... usually semi-retired broken down soldiers of fortune, now in their later years guarding McPrisons and not-so-secret bases like Area 51, could spot anyone in time who would venture close enough to the old plant and let off a bomb, with what could easily be a quarter mile, maybe a mile radius range.

And Mr. Newman, you know this possible, for back in '76, you endorsed John Phillips in Westport who, taking a page from "The Curve of Binding Energy" by John McPhee, designed his own nuke at Princeton, in his failed bid for Senate in Connecticut! Remember? He's now living in Switzerland somewhere we hear... been quiet all these years... perhaps knows too much for comfort!

In the 1997 issue of OUI magazine, cover featured above for your ocular pleasure, David Rothmann interviewed Ted Taylor, described as the wiz kid of Los Alamos who tells how to construct a homemade atomic bomb, describes what would happen if it exploded in the World Trade Center and makes 50-year projections that will scare your pants off.

Well, if anyone could read how to do this in a 1970's girlie magazine, in fact the OUI issue right after the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger professed his many sexcapades, imagine anyone getting their hands on some of that missing "plutonium" everyone says has gone awol from the old Soviet Union? Are you comfortable with the thought, someone could blow up Indian Point, and nothing any security force can do about it?