Watchdogs continue to hound Entergy Pilgrim

Mother endangered Right Whale near PNPS on 1/15/13, calf is out-of-view. Images acquired under authorization of NOAA/NMFS. Credit: Rachel Karasik.Watchdog groups such as Pilgrim Watch, Cape Downwinders, Pilgrim Coalition and Cape Cod Bay Watch keep up the good fight against Entergy's Pilgrim atomic reactor in Plymouth, MA. Pilgrim is a four decade old General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor, the same age, or older, and design as the Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 reactors. 

Pilgrim Watch spearheaded a six year long intervention against the reactor's 20-year license extension, a record of resistance. But, just as it has done 72 other times across the U.S. since 2000, NRC rubberstamped the license extension in the end.

Member of Cape Downwinders, who have carried out non-violent civil disobedience actions in opposition to Pilgrim's ongoing risks, networked with Beyond Nuclear staff at a Clamshell Alliance reunion in New Hampshire last July. A key risk is that there is "No Escape from the Cap" should the worst happen at Pilgrim, as recently affirmed by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency itself. 

Wicked Local Plymouth reported: “There are no plans to evacuate us from danger,” Pilgrim Coalition wrote in a release quoting Falmouth resident and Cape Downwinders member Bill Maurer, “but there are plans to control us during that danger, which essentially insures that we will be exposed to that danger.”

Pilgrim Coalition is plugging Pilgrim's shutdown:

"Plug-In to Unplug Pilgrim: this is an opportunity to find your place in a growing movement to remove the risk from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in your community.

Join us on February 6, 2013 in the Otto Fehlow Room of the Plymouth Public Library and kick off the new year by learning about the issue and ways you can help. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Karen Vale at info@capecodbaywatch.org or (508) 951-4723."

And Cape Cod Bay Watch points out that "Plymouth Is Where NO NUKES Meets SAVE THE WHALES" (see photo, above left). It has just today published a piece in the Wicked Local Plymouth about Pilgrim's harmful tritium and nitrogen pollution into the underlying Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer, recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protetion Agency as “the principal source of drinking water for the residents of the area."

As reported by the Patriot Ledger, Pilgrim just resumed operations after a one week shutdown, caused by an electrical relay failure at the 41 year old reactor which blocked the operation of two water recirculation pumps.

Indian Point needlessly kills over a billion fish, eggs and fish larvae annually

Riverkeeper reports in a fact sheet on the Entergy Nuclear Indian Point Units 2 & 3 atomic reactors:

"...in 2010 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied a critical water quality certification required for the relicensing of Indian Point. Because Indian Point needlessly kills over a billion fish, eggs and fish larvae annually, and has been leaking radioactive waste into the groundwater and the Hudson River, the State determined that Indian Point's continued operation would violate state water quality standards.

A full hearing on the State's 2010 water quality determination began on October 17, 2011. Riverkeeper is mounting a comprehensive legal effort to support the State and deny the water quality certification Indian Point needs to operate. A victory would mark a turning point in Riverkeeper's decades long campaign to halt Indian Point's environmental assault on the Hudson River and force the plant's retirement."

Anti-nuclear drum beat continues against Vermont Yankee

Thanks to Debra Stoleroff of Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance for sharing with us news of "three opportunities to keep the fact that Vermont Yankee is still operating in the public eye and to voice your opinion regarding this fact that Entergy continues to undermine Vermont's democratic process for its own profits; gambling away the health of people in VT, MA, and NH as well as our environment.   Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant remains an accident away from devestating the region."

Sat, Sept. 1: We Are Not Going Away Until VT Yankee is Shut Down and Safely Decommissioned With a Greenfield

Sat, Sept. 8: Our River Runs Through It Flotilla Down the Connecticut River to VT Yankee (see event poster, left, and SAGE Alliance website for details). A major theme of this flotilla is Vermont Yankee's negative impact on the aquatic ecosystem in the Connecticut River, as to fish species (as shown on the poster!)

Sun, Sept. 23: Burlington Friends Meeting at Vermont Yankee followed by NVCD at Vt Yankee

For more info., see Beyond Nuclear's NUCLEAR POWER website section.

The five member NRC Commission unanimously rubberstamped Vermont Yankee's 20 year license extension on 3/10/11, one day before the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. NRC Staff then finalized the paperwork on the rubberstamp a couple weeks later. Vermont Yankee and Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 are identidically designed: General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors.

Licensed to Kill report found arbitrary take limits on wildlife including endangered species

The research uncovered in the 2001 study revealed that federal agencies settled on seemingly abitrary "take limits" to accommodate, rather than mitigate, the harm done to aquatic wildlife and their habitats by operating nuclear plants.

Our current research finds that little has changed since our 2001 revelations. If anything, the situation is worse, with the industry allowed to capture and kill even more animals including endangered sea turtles.

Our report concluded that the regulatory oversight of the nuclear industry’s impact on threatened and endangered species consistently favored nuclear industry financial priorities over the safety and well-being of wildlife and the environment.  Watch for an updated supplement to Licensed to Kill soon.