RTR Supporter To Put LEDs Over Hudson

James Johannemann, left, president of All Bright Electric, looks over LED lighting tube units developed by Andrew Neal, right, of ANL Ltd., a Salt Point-based company that is partnering with Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled in Poughkeepsie to supply the units to light the Walkway over the Hudson pedestrian bridge. All Bright is a contractor from West Nyack who has been chosen to do the installation. (Craig Wolf/Poughkeepsie Journal)

LEDs will shine a low-cost light
Dutchess firm's system to save power, money
By Craig Wolf • Poughkeepsie Journal • August 27, 2009

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200908270600/BUSINESS/908270326

Lighting on the Walkway Over the Hudson will make use of a new system developed by a Dutchess County company.

The project leaders say it will use much less power and save the taxpayer lots of money compared with other lighting solutions once the state of New York takes over and runs the Walkway, due to open in October.

Tiny light-emitting diodes, semiconductors better known by their initials, LEDs, are the source of light.

They are strung together and contained in a tubular one-inch diameter shell that is both the lighting instrument and its conduit, said Andy Neal, president of ANL Ltd., a Salt Point-based developer of Illuma lighting systems.

"The conduit becomes the light," he said.

Meeting held Neal and others working on the project met Wednesday at the Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled, City of Poughkeepsie, which will assemble the lighting system components.

The components will then be installed by All Bright Electric, a West Nyack, Rockland County, contractor that made the winning bid for electrical and security work on the walkway.

Federal transportation money, obtained by U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, channeled through the city and then to the Walkway, is paying the bill, said Fred Schaeffer, president of the nonprofit Walkway group.

The contract is for about $670,000 and includes electrical work beyond the lighting, Walkway spokesman Steve Densmore said. That covers power outlets, security camera systems and emergency telephones.

Schaeffer said Walkway's team was very satisfied with the lighting solution.

"It provides relatively low- cost lighting," he said. "It's very efficient and you can also direct it down on the deck so it will be lit for safety purposes, but you'll still be able to see the stars and the moon and enjoy the natural atmosphere of the night.

"People are going to be surprised at how beautiful it is," he said.

Neal said, "Because you're using lots and lots of very small sources, it resolves into just a very flat, even illumination."

About 81,200 LEDs will be incorporated into the system that lights the walkway deck.

Bill DelTosta, sales and marketing director for the Mid-Hudson Workshop, said the challenge was that a strip of lights installed on one rail of the walkway needed to throw enough light to reach 20 feet across the deck without creating too much spill upward that would interfere with night vision.

"It's a very tough proposition," he said. "This is the only way it's going to work."

It also cuts the cost of operation by about 80 percent versus the more standard incandescent lights, he said.

James Johannemann, president of All Bright, said, "It's a tough job to be competitive with. It's such a high-profile job for us."

Reach Craig Wolf at cwolf@poughkeepsiejournal.com
or 845-437-4815

John Hall Announces Bill Requiring Indian Point Indy Safety Assessment

U. S. Representative John Hall
New York – 19th Congressional District

For Immediate Release
February 9, 2007

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12

Hall Announcing Bill Requiring Indian Point ISA or Face Shut Down in 2013

Strict Standards for IP Re-Licensing in Bill Co-Sponsored by Lowey, Engel, Hinchey and Shays

Congressman John Hall will announce on Monday morning his first piece of House legislation—a bill requiring a tough new Independent Safety Assessment for the Indian Point Nuclear Facility in Buchanan, NY.

Hall will make the announcement in the parking lot of the Annsville Creek Paddlesport Center just north of Peekskill, NY. He’ll be joined by members of the New York congressional delegation, other elected officials and environmental leaders.

When:
MONDAY, February 12 at 10:30 a.m.

Where:
Annsville Creek Paddlesport Center Bayview Road
(off Rte. 6 / 202 just west of Annsville Circle)
Town of Cortlandt, NY

Contact:
Arthur Harris / Communications Director
arthur.harris@mail.house.gov
202-225-0415
202-744-0707 cell

Tom Staudter / Press Secretary
staudter@verizon.net
914-762-0097
914-419-5221 cell

RemyC Commentary:

With all due respect, this is a losing strategy. All local bills around the country have been defeated 43-0, with rubber stamp relicensing across the board. We need a National Federal Bill to stop Entergy, the NRC and the rest of the nuclear industry from spreading their poisons to the land, the water and the skies.

On YouTube, we have Chris Shays clearly expressing himself as a staunch advocate of nuclear power to Nancy Burton, from the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone. Here I quote Congressman Shays: "We need MORE nuclear power, not less. Solar energy is not ready yet!"

So what, may I ask, is the Republican Congressman from Connecticut doing on this bill, other than perhaps suffering from a sudden case of Not In My Backyard, fending off Democratic challenger Diane Farrell and her green supporters next election round? Knowing full well the bill is doomed to fail.

What is meant by "or Face Shut Down in 2013"... what do you mean "or"? We at Green Nuclear Butterfly will not wait for 2013... We want Indian Point shut down NOW, immediately, without delay, without fail, before the damage being caused to our environment, and the threat to our lives, the Hudson Valley, Manhattan, finds itself suddenly beyond repair, if it's not too late already.

Congressman John Hall has been advocating the immediate shut down of Indian Point since the 1980 No Nukes concert in Battery Park. Every year he's shared the stage with musicians like Pete Seeger at the Clearwater Festival, Pete who all his life has dreamed of a nuclear free Hudson... and with Bonnie Raitt, one of the original founders of Musicians for Safe Energy, who helped John get elected by performing countless benefits for him along the campaign trail.

I too know some of these people, just like John does. I've worked with famous actors, musicians, performers all my life as a green advocate, founded the Eco-Saloon at Wetlands in New York, where Ani Di Franco, Dave Matthews, countless others shared a song and a beer, over a nuclear free future, with members of Greenpeace, Earth First!, Rainforest Action Network, Earth Island Institute... Where Clearwater members met every month in the Inner Sanctum. What has changed that we have suddenly become so complacent, playing it safe, by the numbers?

So what the hell happened I ask you? What happened to the fire, the passion, the sense of mission... To all boil down to this, another timid, castrated, dead-on-arrival local bill advocating an independent safety assessment the NRC will just brush off like a swarm of pesky flies, with a little toxic Raid maybe, for good measure?

At GNB, and Rock The Reactors, which spent nearly a year taking the issue of Indian Point all over the country to create what is now the largest anti-nuclear coalition since the Clamshell Alliance, we say this is not enough. This will not stop Entergy and their campaign of death. This is too little, too late. We need a new approach, we need Greenpeace! We need Green Nuclear Butterfly!

RemyC.
Rock The Reactors

John Wheeler, Shill For Nuclear Industry At It Again

Chernobyl was SAFE, SECURE and VITAL.

John Wheeler, the Nuclear Industry's self appointed shill is at it again over on his "This Week in Nuclear Blog...no link included. Seems he's jumped into the fray with other nuclear industry hacks bent on blowing me and my blog OUT OF THE WATER, using fear and hidden threats to silence the voice of reason where the failing Indian Point Nuclear plant is concerned. Funny how no one in the world cared what I wrote about until I started writing about Indian Point, NuStart, Entergy and the DOE Nuclear 2010 plan created by the same man who brought us the Iraq War, George W. Bush. Now I have invisible people putting up attack pages here on blogspot, and instead of attacking what I have to say, the NUCLEAR INDUSTRY and those who support it have stooped to outing my wife, outing not only her real name, but where she works...my wife has NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OPINIONS, but that does not matter...using her is a convenient threat...a quiet way of saying, we can HURT YOU, and WE WILL. What's next, bricks through my front window?

Now Wheeler attacked me on his weekly podcast several weeks ago...episode #38 if my memory serves me correctly. Sure he would swear he is not tracking/stalking me, yet he suddenly is blogging about what is going on, adding fuel to an ever growing fire. Problem is, he speaks half truths, speaks with a forked tongue, and uses subterfuge to SCARE PEOPLE into believing Nuclear Energy, Indian Point are safe, secure, vital, and the only REAL CHOICE as we move forward. Plain and simple, in my opinion, WHEELER IS WRONG, fooled, coerced, perhaps bought off by the industry that has supported his comfortable way of life for decades now, clothed his children, paid for their education, probably purchased his house.

He claims that Nuclear Energy is CO2 free...the gaseous diffusion plant in Portsmouth Ohio where much of the enriched uranium created in the past 50 years came from, required NINE utility companies (who burned coal) to supply and meet their electrical needs...the Portsmouth plant at full operational speed required daily enough electricity to power Los Angeles County for one year. Suppose that Mr. Wheeler does not want to count that in Nuclear Industry Waste streams? Curious...Indian Point pumps 2.5 BILLION gallons of water out of the Hudson River daily, returns it to said river WARMER than when it went in. Has Mr. Wheeler done any statistical investigations on the CULMALATIVE EFFECTS on global warming from over 400 reactors world wide dumping that much HEATED WATER back into our rivers, that in turn carry their now warmed waters to the oceans?

OK...how about the BILLIONS of pounds of depleted uranium? I've driven around the Gaseous Diffusion plant in Ohio. What about all the contaminated plant parts sent to Barnwell? You know John, like the one that Entergy sent off that was improperly WRAPPED...want to talk about the worker exposed to the dangerous exposures from that incident? How about the problem with the part they sent to another facility...want to discuss that? Or, how about the near accident in Texas where DOD workers tired and overworked almost detonated a nuclear bomb 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

He puts forward RED HERRING arguments to support his cause, his pay DADDIES cause, such as when he talks about an oil pipeline explosion/fire that killed hundreds of people...we all remember that news story. What Mr. Wheeler fails to tell us, is that explosion occurred because people were trying to TAP INTO THE SYSTEM TO STEAL FUEL. Try some truthiness there Mr. Wheeler. By the way, how much waste does a single reactor create on a yearly basis Mr. Wheeler? Think I recall it averages about 4 metric tons. So, 104 reactors here in America, that's 416 Metric tons of WASTE (that the DOE cannot for the life of itself figure out what to do with...Yucca is not going to happen, you and I both know that) times say only 50 years. That starts adding up. Of course, that does not include ANY DECOMMISSIONING WASTE, does not include any of the parts that have to be sent to Barnwell, which has some serious SPACE PROBLEMS Mr. Wheeler. Curious....how much waste from the Nuclear Industry is already stored at Envirocare, or at nuclear sites all around the country?

By the way...speculation on the limited world wide supply of Uranium has pushed the price up to over $100 a pound...has any one done any charts and analysis to figure out how long our world supply would last at current usage rates, let alone PROJECTED USAGE RATES? Sure, lets make the same mistake we made with fossil fuels of putting ALL OUR EGGS in a FINITE BASKET...makes perfect sense....NOT. Renewable energy...that leaves NUCLEAR OUT. Let me guess, you are going to tell us scientists are working on some "Lost in Space" plan to mine additional product from some asteroid yet to be found? Maybe start mining the moon once George Bush gets his permanent base built up there? OH! maybe when he gets that base up there, the Nuclear Industry has plans to SHIP OUR WASTE THERE, since no one would be there to object?

By the way...affordable...care to share with our readers how much of the cost of subsidizing the planned Nuclear Rebirth is being paid for with our taxes compliments of DOE matching funds? Care to share with our readers how we are screwed if a major incident does happen, since the Price Waterhouse Act protects the nuclear industry from the costs incurred in the aftermath of said MAJOR INCIDENT...that coupled with that nice little exclusion on our insurance policies for nuclear attacks and or accidents pretty well screws EVERY PROPERTY OWNER in a host area if they live through said incident. Sure, you and other shills like you just keep beating those drums and telling people Indian Point and the nuclear industry is safe, secure and vital. Meanwhile, as I know those attacking me are reading my blog, show some class....you don't like my views, I can live with that...leave my wife out of the fight. Attack my version of events, prove me wrong...prove to me that Indian Point is safe, secure and vital, prove to me you can figure out what to do with the waste streams they create. Prove to me that the Nuclear Industry, the NRC and our government would MAKE US WHOLE after a major incident...they sure have failed that task in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina! I am not interested in being another New Orleans, where we are told like sheep we are safe, that Indian Point is safe until the worst case scenario DOES HAPPEN....we already lived through 9/11, that was enough for me...especially considering the NRC's dismal record of protecting Human Health and the Environment. Some of you want to complain that your comments don't get posted...then start IDENTIFYING YOURSELVES, instead of hiding like stinking fetid rats on a sinking ship. You know who I am, I want the world to know who you are...if you love NUCLEAR SO MUCH, then identify yourselves.

By the way Riverkeeper, IPSEC, Green Peace and the grassroots movement...Entergy sponsors almost every MAJOR EVENT at the Paramount Center in the City of Peekskill...why not start holding mini protests at those events to bring attention to this issue? There's one coming up at the end of January...be a good place to start the process of SHUTTING DOWN INDIAN POINT.

HERE'S SOME TRUTH FOR YOU WHEELER:

PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
Nuke-rod recycling proposed
Idea scares some, who were surprised by site’s nomination
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Randy Ludlow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

For nearly 50 years, southern Ohioans labored at a government uranium-enrichment plant, churning out the stuff of nuclear warheads and powerplant fuel rods.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant left a Cold War legacy of nearly 3,000 workers sick or dead from radiationrelated cancers and other illnesses.