Successful event raises funds and awareness on Entergy Palisades atomic reactor's brittle pressure vessel
Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor, located in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shoreOn April 19, a fund- and awareness-raiser, “Pull the Plug on Palisades for Earth Day,” was held at the Old Dog Tavern in downtown Kalamazoo, MI.
The event, focused on the Entergy Palisades atomic reactor's (see photo, left) dangerously brittle pressure vessel, was sponsored by Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter’s “Palisades Shutdown Campaign,” in support of an environmental coalition's (Beyond Nuclear, Michigan Safe Energy Future-Shoreline Chapter, Don’t Waste Michigan, Nuclear Energy Information Service of Illinois) legal interventions before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. The interventions seek the long overdue, permanent shutdown of Palisades due to major safety risks.
Highlights of the event included the "Duffield/Caron Project, with Friends," with their wonderful blend of "Piano Boogie, Blues & Ballads," as well as speakers from the local, state and national coalition: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, D.C.; Terry Lodge, the Toledo-based attorney who leads the legal effort; Bette Pierman, Michigan Safe Energy Future (MSEF)-Shoreline Chapter; Michael Keegan, Don't Waste Michigan; and Gail Snyder, Nuclear Energy Information Service of lllinois (NEIS).
(Arnie also did a May 2013 audio podcast, "Nuclear Regulators Bury Their Heads in the Sand," about Palisades' "leak in the Lake" of 82.1 gallons of radioactive water, from its long-leaking, defectively-constructed Safety Injection Refueling Water Storage Tank. Arnie interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.)
Beyond Nuclear prepared a slide show of images from past years and decades of anti-nuclear resistance at Palisades, as well as at Cook (two reactors, 30 miles south of Palisades), and additional anti-nuke activism in Michigan and the Great Lakes region.
Reporters from several area media outlets covered the event (WWMT TV-3, WXMI TV-17, WMUK NPR radio), which was attended by around 80 people, and raised a good amount of funding to support the intervention, as well as awareness in the local community.
Kathy Barnes of Don't Waste Michigan has posted photos of the event at Facebook.
A video/audio of the Duffield/Caron Project, with Friends, including Michael Hoag of the MSEF-Kalamazoo Chapter, has also been posted online. (Michael also created the attractive promotional poster for the event, and helped out tremendously with technical support, such as projecting the slide show and Arnie Gundersen's video, during the event.)
April 21, 2015