3.30.13: Leaks, Lies & Lawyers Parade & Rally in Brattleboro on Saturday to protest Entergy's Vermont Yankee

Come to the Leaks, Lies and Lawyers Parade & Rally on Saturday 3/30/13 in Brattleboro, VT. Join the SAGE Alliance & Bread & Puppet Theatre at 3:30 pm!

Details:
http://www.safeandgreencampaign.org/event/3-30-13-leaks-lies-and-lawyers

3.30.13 LEAKS, LIES AND LAWYERS, 3:30-6:30 PM

Harris Place, downtown Brattleboro, VT, 05301

Organizer: Safe and Green Campaign, safeandgreencampaign@gmail.com

A year has gone by since Entergy’s VT Yankee reactor went rogue on March 21, 2012. What has one year brought us? Nothing but WASTE! Now Yankee is refueling, and so it will add more waste to the already overstuffed fuel pool. MORE WASTE!

• WASTE of taxpayer money defending Vermont from FOUR new lawsuits by Entergy, plus two appeals.
• WASTE of time that could have been spent on safely decommissioning the reactor.
• WASTE of another year — now 7 years! – without a Clean Water Act permit. Another year of heating up the Connecticut River and boiling the fish, during one of the hottest summers on record.
• Another year of radioactive WASTE in the already over-crowded spent fuel pool, created in 1972 to hold 600 assemblies — it now holds 2,500!

Are we going to sit back and let Entergy’s high priced lawyers decide our energy future? No Way!

LEAKS, LIES AND LAWYERS

3:30pm Parade

Calling all artists, musicians, walkers, singers and satirists! Create a float, make a banner, bring your friends and neighbors! Entergy and the state must be shown that we are not sitting back waiting for the courts to decide out energy future. We will fill the streets of Brattleboro so our voices will be heard! No More Leaks, Lies and Lawyers!

4:30 pm  Leaks, Lies and Lawyers

At the Latchis Theatre on Main Street. Speakers, skits, and song. The program includes a legal update, what’s happening at other Entergy reactors around the US, and ways you can shut down Vermont Yankee, advocate for safe, green and prompt decommissioning.

DIRECTIONS: Map to Harris Place Bring quarters for parking.

Gather at the Harris Place  parking lot in Brattleboro at 3:30pm. We will parade around the Common and through downtown on our way to the Latchis Theatre.  Take Exit 2 off of I91 into downtown Brattleboro, Vt. Follow Route 9 into downtown. Go through the blinking red lights. Turn left into Public Parking i mmediately after the funeral home and before the traffic lights at the very bottom of the hill.  On the corner of the parking lot is Silver Moon. Drive to the far end of the parking lot and park there. From this end, it is a short walk down the hill on Grove Street to Main Street. Walk directly across Main Street to Harris Place. (TD bank is on the corner of Main St. and Harris Place.)
If you have a float to unload, you can drive to Harris Place. Same directions as above. Drive thru the parking lot, down Grove Street, and across Main Street into Harris Place.

Co-sponsored by the SAGE Alliance.

Update on April 6, 2013 by admin

The Rutland Herald has reported on the parade and rally, with more than 500 participants (see photo, left).

The SAGE Alliance has also reported on the successful, inspiring event.

Coalition of concerned citizens details concerns about Palisades with NRC Commissioner Magwood

NRC Commissioner William Magwood IVA coalition comprised of 20 concerned local residents and environmental group representatives, including from Beyond Nuclear, met with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Commissioner William Magwood IV (photo, left) for three hours on Monday evening, March 25th, in South Haven, MI, detailing their many concerns about safety, security, public health, and environmental protection -- or lack thereof -- at Entergy Nuclear's Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Covert, MI (see the coalition's meeting agenda). NRC Commissioner Magwood toured the problem-plagued plant the next morning.

The coalition issued a press release.

The St. Joe Herald-Palladium has reported on the meeting, as did Fox 17 television Grand Rapids. Michigan Radio's "Environment Report" quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.

NRC Commissioner Magwood's career has been devoted to the promotion of nuclear power, first as an industry insider (including as a consultant to Tokyo Electric Power Company, infamous owner of the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant), and then as head of the promotional Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The Huffington Post has published exposés on Magwood's attempted coups against his bosses in order to take their jobs -- successfully at DOE, unsuccessfully at NRC. As also reported by HuffPost, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has vowed to block Magwood's aspirations for the NRC Chairmanship, due to Magwood breaking his promise to Reid to not advocate for the controversial Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump as an NRC Commissioner.

Due to his career promoting nuclear power, Beyond Nuclear led the environmental coalition effort to block President Obama's nomination of Magwood for the safety-regulatory NRC Commission in the first place, as well as the U.S. Senate's confirmation of Magwood for the position (the Project on Government Oversight launched a separate effort to block Magwood's confirmation). At the end of 2011, U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) cited Beyond Nuclear's coalition letter opposing Magwood's confirmation as she, too, criticized his broken promises to her about Yucca during his Feb. 2010 Senate confirmation hearing as an NRC Commissioner. Beyond Nuclear has also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to NRC after receiving an anonymous tip that NRC Commissioner Magwood has been holding regular, secretive meetings with leaders of the industry's Nuclear Energy Institute, in violation of open meetings laws and regulations. However, despite filing the FOIA request on Dec. 3, 2011, NRC has not yet responded.

NRC has issued a notice and press release about its upcoming April 2nd "End of Cycle" annual performance review public meeting to be held in South Haven about Palisades. See more info. from NRC about the Apirl 2 meeting here, including its slideshow to be presented (note NRC has loaded its slides sideways).

On April 11th, Beyond Nuclear is co-sponsoring west Michigan presentations entitled "Preventing an American Fukushima" by David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists. He will present at 12 noon Eastern at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and at 7 PM Eastern at the Beach Haven Event Center in South Haven, less than 5 miles north of Palisades. In his annual report of near-misses at U.S. atomic reactors, Lochbaum has included incidents at Palisades (two separate incidents in 2011 alone) for the past two years, making it one of the worst-run reactors in the country.

Environmental coalition defends contentions against Fermi 3 proposed new reactor, challenges adequacy of NRC FEIS

Environmental coalition attorney Terry LodgeTerry Lodge (photo, left), Toledo-based attorney representing an environmental coalition opposing the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor targeted at the Lake Erie shore in Monroe County, MI, has filed a reply to challenges from Detroit Edison (DTE) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff.

The coalition's reply re-asserted "no confidence" in DTE's ability to safely stored Class B and C "low-level" radioactive wastes on-site at Fermi 3 into the indefinite future, due to the lack of sure access to a disposal facility. it also again emphasized the lack of documented need for the 1,550 Megawatts of electricity Fermi 3 would generate. And the coalition alleged that NRC has failed to fulfill its federal responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as by the illegal "segmentation" of the needed transmission line corridor from the rest of the Fermi 3 reactor construction and operation proposal.

This legal filing follows by a week upon the submission of public comments about NRC's Fermi 3 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The comments, commissioned by Don't Waste Michigan and prepared by Jessie Pauline Collins, were endorsed by a broad coalition of individuals and environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear. The FEIS comments included satellite images of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie in 2012, and in 2011 to 2012, attributable in significant part to thermal electric power plants such as Detroit Edison's Monroe (coal burning) Power Plant, at 3,300 Megawatts-electric the second largest coal burner in the U.S. Fermi 3's thermal discharge into Lake Erie will worsen this already very serious ecological problem.

In the very near future, the environmental coalition intervening against the Fermi 3 combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) will submit additional filings on its contentions challenging the lack of adequate quality assurance (QA) on the project, as well as its defense of the threatened Eastern Fox Snake and its critical wetlands habitat. The State of Michigan has stated that Fermi 3's construction would represent the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of state wetlands preservation law. 

On the 38th anniversary of the Browns Ferry near-disaster, another look at "Fire When NOT Ready" -- unaddressed fire risks at U.S. atomic reactors

A current discussion of fire risks at the Palisades atomic reactor in Michigan prompted Dave Lochbaum at UCS to share his 2008 report "Fire When NOT Ready," co-authored by Jim Warren of NC WARN and Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter.

Palisades' previous owner, Consumers Energy, admitted in 2006 that fire protection upgrades -- and many other major safety repairs -- were an expense too many, prompting it to sell the reactor to Entergy in 2007. However, over the past 6 six, Entergy has not carried out those fire protection upgrades (nor most of those other needed repairs).

Dave Lochbaum, who will speak about safety risks at Palisades during presentations in west Michigan on April 11th, wrote the following note today, accompanying the report:

"I've attached a report from 2008 that I co-authored with Paul Gunter and Jim Warren.

About the only thing that would have to be revised to bring this report up to today would be its date.

50 of the nation's 103 nuclear power reactors are KNOWN to violate federal fire protection regulations.

As the report states, the NRC estimates that fire represents about 50 percent of the risk of core meltdown at the average nuclear power reactor -- meaning it equals the threat from ALL OTHER HAZARDS combined. And that assumes compliance with the regulations -- violating the regulations drives the risk up.

Of the 50 reactors that violate the fire protection regulations today are the three at Browns Ferry. That's right (or wrong, actually), the plant whose near-catastrophic fire on March 22, 1975 prompted the NRC to adopt fire protection regulations does not meet those regulations today. And today marks the 38th anniversary of that near-miss.

An industry and regulator constantly asserting that safety is the top priority cannot achieve compliance with very important safety regulations despite decades of time to do so.

If actions speak louder than words, inactions speak the loudest. NRC's inactions on this topic are deafening.

Thanks,

Dave Lochbaum

UCS"

"70 Years of Radioactive Risks in America and Japan"

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps presented a power point entitled "70 Years of Radioactive Risks in America and Japan" at the Helen Caldicott Foundation's symposium on "Fukushima: The Medical and Ecological Consequences," held at the New York Academy of Medicine on March 11-12, 2013. The previous link is the power point presentation in its original form, retaining the notes.

Here is the presentation in PDF format (images only, without the notes).