It's been a bad week..

for Indian Point, anyway.

The explosion in the transformer yard across the street from the facility has caused IPs safety rating to be degraded from green to white. Not to mention it scared the crap out of a lot of people already on edge about Indian Point's safety.

Local Congressman John Hall, Westchester's County Executive Andy Spano and a host of other politicians renew their calls for independent safety assessments and for outright closure of the plant.

Noreen O'Donnell writes a common-sense piece in the Journal News, articulating the gut-level fear felt by most of the people who live in the shadow of that facility.

Leaks, shutdowns, terrorism, and now explosions. Scary stuff when you're talking nuke plant.

But we must realize that either choice - shutting down, or allowing re-licensing of IP - is not to be made lightly. A thousand good jobs, megawatts that would need replacing, huge impact on the local economy - these are all huge considerations. While the dangers of radioactivity weigh in as well. 

So here's what I'm effectively being asked to decide. Would I prefer cheap electricity from a life-threatening plant that could be minutes away from melting down? Or spiked unemployment, loss of millions of dollars in the local economy and a drastically higher electric bill - but I'm alive?

I'm a regular joe citizen of this area, I've lived my whole life within Indian Point's shadow, and that's the choice I'm being asked to make. And I do not know a thing about what distinguishes a safe nuclear facility from a dangerous one. But I still have to choose based on what little comprehensible information I have available to me.

Entergy and ren ask me to trust the tireless, wholesome, well intentioned scientists of Entergy and the NRC, the benevolent fire-keeping sorcerer-owners of Gaia's fire.

Riverkeeper and my local leaders call them dangerous, incompetent, venal liars who will let everyone rot so they can become ever richer.

So I sit here worrying about my choices, as cries are raised for an independent review of the plant.

It's absolutely true that nobody trusts the NRC, and on the other side, nobody who supports the plant will trust a study conducted by a team of Indian Point assassins.

And there's the more disturbing question: why does Entergy oppose an independent review of the facility? If there's nothing to hide, what are they hiding?

So here's what I think we should do. call on our government - and Entergy - to remove the politics from the equation, and let us take a real look at what's hot in Buchanan.

Hire a FOREIGN organization with NO vested interest in the outcome. Give them full authority to conduct a thorough and thoroughly independent study. Bring in scientists from another nuclear country like France, Germany or Norway to conduct this independent assessment, and make the conclusions a matter of public record. Keep it honest by making it contractual that none of the participants can work for Entergy or a related company at any time in the future. And if that is not honored, allow for severe, multi-million dollar fines. This shouldn't be much of an issue for say a German engineer. There's plenty of work for them in their own countries.

We are not capable of doing this on our own. IP can't get a fair trial in a local court, so let's change the venue, or at least the place the jury comes from.

Does anybody have any compelling reason why this is a bad idea?

If so, I'd love to hear it, and I'm sure the two or three other readers of this obscure message board would as well.

****Update****

John Hall will be holding a town meeting tomorrow evening at 7pm (Monday, April 9th) at the Howland Cultural Center on Main Street in Beacon. The subject will be - you guessed it - energy. I wonder if Vincent Ferro will be there. Just in case, I'll bring the "Excommunicate Rudy" signs - in case he forgot his.

Comments

[ren]

Tom, and Brendan...

Sherwood Martinelli (Green etc. Butt-Fly)is just addicted to psycho anti-social self promotion, to the extent he is really being shunned by everybody.

He has begun blogging on white exploding snowflakes as "Entergy Slob", pretending he's a plant worker , communicating with Sherwood Martinelli.

(Kind of like having an imaginary friend)

He is also blitzing the web with nonsense url's not in blog format, just reposting inane crap, in a dirty tricks mode.

Once you recognize his stuff, you instantly bust him, no matter who he's pretending to be today.

I'm beginning to think his wife may be in serious danger, if she's still staying under the same roof with this guy.

[B Tween]

I'm sorry for your troubles, Tom. You have a right to your opinion like everybody else in this country. And people have the right to disagree with you (like me!), but they cross the line with threats and harrassment.

There's a big difference between you, a private citizen, and someone who's running for office - or someone who holds office.

Remember when someone gave out Bloomberg's personal phone number? That was OK. It's his job to answer to the people.

It's not yours.

When somebody starts a blog, they create an open forum for debate. If their own views can't stand on their own against what other people write, they should shut down the blog, not harrass the people.

[Larue]

***Note - I had to delete certain elements of the original post that I considered libelous, slanderous or threatening to an individual's personal security, no matter how funny they were. I suspect the author will be happy to email you the full original text if you are determined to read it. Redacted sections are marked with (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).
--BT

Dear Mr. Clegg.

I've seen your passion in defending the rights of those who prefer to allow Indian Point to continue serving the public in the Lohud region. You've been active at many a rally, and written more than a few letters to editors. It's all good , conscientious citizenship in action, and it must be applauded.

You have now had the pleasure of being hosed by the two fake wannabe antis, Sherwood Martinelli, and Remy Chevalier. These two have their own weird private reasons for starting green nuclear butt-fly, and it has to do with grabbing nuclear and/or anti-nuclear traffic, and pumping up their adsense accounts, (paid penny-per-click adverts) using the word "nuclear" to increase hit-count. In short, they are ripping off the "nuclear" issue, to use it for chintzy private wannabe blog fame. As such, they are not worth answering, or fighting with. I know you like to tell the truth, and that you expect to be listened to honestly. The fellow who runs this "Northern Aggression" site is like that-- an opponent maybe, but a respectful, sane person, interested in dialog.

The two wacks who call themselves Green Etc Butt-fly are not sane. They are not even anti-nuclear. They are disrespectful delusional flakes, (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx), who would just love to get an honest citizen like you into a debate, and then twist what you say into insanity just to feel smart. These two (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) need to impress each other as "Ultra Radical" to keep their respective anal probes stiffened up adequately. They are a 100% embarrassment to humanity.The real anti-nuclear movement shuns these two like the plague, and with good reason. Answering them, is like sticking your hand into a rat-trap, so the rat can bite it.

Things have moved on. All the thoughtful people have moved on to a new compromise position, holding all the good and all the bad about Indian Point in their brains at once, and not joining either side. And very assuredly, NOBODY is joining these two dangerous freaks.

In actuality NOBODY is posting any antinuclear blogs these days. The movement per se, as it used to be in 2001, died, from lack of interest a couple of years ago. Yes, a few old eccentric stragglers will show up at any NRC meeting, but that's it. Any anti stuff that you see nowadays is all Martinelli & Chevalier, under about 30 different bogus names, shamming a fake little pseudo-movement.

So my advice to you is, walk away, do not answer Green Asshole Butterfly, or even look at their site (they use 'site meter', when you link there, to stalk their visitors' IP addresses). Since nobody is reading their psychotic bullcrap except you, there's no reason to think you have to defend against them. Nobody's listening. BUT.....They are both very clever little old aging (xxxxxxx) tricksters, and they have a pronounced nasty side. Fighting with them, can only hurt you, and will not help your cause. In fact, ANY controversy at all only helps their little nutcase plan, which is to trap an honest citizen like you in public, and get him to say something stupid, so they can turn on him, and maybe look good for once, to anybody.

They have tried to snag a real person into answering them for about 6 months now, and you were the innocent chump , trying to do right, who took their bait. So 6 months of waiting, dangling the freak bait, hiking their come-on skirts up a little higher each time...waiting....and waiting....and they got good old honest Tom Clegg. Sorry, guy! .....But that just proves how few people have read their various sham blogs up till now. Don't worry about it, you were set up!

(xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Martinelli also calls himself Porgie Tirebiter, Pinto Bean, Royce Penstinger, and most lately "Entergy Slob". I don't think he remembers at this point, which aliases are fake, and which (if any) are real. He has about 50 blogs going, and he gives himself rave reviews, as if he was separate people. For the public good,(and his family's safety) this guy seriously requires a rubber room, and large-dose maintenance thorazine.

(xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Everybody has religiously refrained from direct action vis-a-vis these two. Me, because I enjoy watching their inept and pornographic little butt-luv-affair unfold, like two worms in a terrarium.. Yes, the smell of worm-crap is nauseating, but they just keep failing..., and wiggling....and failing, and offending everyone.......and failing. They are their own worst enemies, and really do not need anyone's help to be regarded as real ugly-weird, a definite avoid.

I advise you to step back, get a grip, and let their offensive freak crap rot, of its own stench.
If you need, much more info is available on them, in the public domain. They are basically dead psycho worm-meat. Keep a good distance. Watch your FME. Shit wipes off on you sometimes.

(xxxxxxxxxxxx)

[ren]

Thought you'd be interested in my idea...

It's about how to truly justify an ISA.

The difference between the general public repeatedly being shown acceptable safety conditions by an alarmist press wrongly deeming them possible emergencies, and a truly degraded or dangerous nuclear plant , ...has not been made sufficiently clear.

Even an absolute collapse of local political confidence in NRC and its day-to-day oversight cannot be solved by re-inspecting all 104 nuclear plants whenever a local political figure gains traction for the idea in his/her constituency. Such a development can only result in the squandering of resources, funding, and effort into situations not warranting such activity. Taken to its extrapolated worst case, this strategy would flood all 104 nuclear plants with hordes of intrusive inspectors, impeding plant operations, and possibly inducing the very events they came to inspect against.

One of the first principles espoused in the international IAEA document 75-INSAG-3, "Basic Safety Principles for Nuclear Plants", in its preamble by nobel laureate Mohammed El Baradei, is that effort must be targeted to need. "It is important to avoid concentrating resources on efforts that have only marginal effects"..

With local governmental figures voicing ephemeral concerns brought to their attention from activist, intervenor, and opposer groups, outside of any indication that acceptable safety has truly been compromised, we see a clear need for a high level separation of fact and claim, perhaps by a national or international committee, establishing guidelines, and trip-points for the beneficial use of independent safety assessments, and likewise setting precise indicators barring the frivolous use of ISA as a political panacea.

The basic safety case for each of the 104 American nuclear plants has been set out in their Preliminary Safety Analysis Report and their Final Safety Analysis Report. Deterministic comparison of each plant's adherence to its written safety case is provided in real-time by the presence of resident NRC inspectors, and the NRC Reactor Oversight Program.

Probabilistic analysis of the major US plant types can be done by qualified researchers at any time, setting out the risks versus the probabilities in general, allowing guidelines to stand as required reading for those who would inspect, and re-inspect, frivolously, without knowing anything at all about the limits of mere inspection.

(Inspection as a tactic cannot predict an unforseen event. The very evening an ISA is completed at plant "X", a meteor could strike the containment dome, and breach the reactor core--- the inspection would have been a total waste of time).

Politicians ignorant of Probabilistic Risk Analyses seek an absolute "How Safe Is It?" answer , one that eternal inspection, by its very nature, cannot supply. PRA can provide that overview. Therefore politicians should direct the Congressional Research Service to commission a national PRA report on the 104 reactors, as their own internal legislative guide on how to avoid useless calls for repeat ISA's. In point of fact, politicians have been slyly misguided by intervenor and opposer public relations operatives posing as "technical experts", and given the Maine Yankee ISA & shutdown as the one and only way to find out if your local nuke is dangerous. Actually, the MY ISA found the plant was acceptable for further operation. It was a bereft conglomerate corporate culture that had no further interest in its nuclear asset, and bailed out. So even in the case of Maine Yankee, the public was never told how safe the plant was, or was not.

In the face of this impossibility to get blood from a stone, vis-a-vis the ISA tactic, politicians must be educated where to look for this information. I would challenge Senator Clinton and Congressman Hall to write up legislation empowering NRC or CRS to do a "PRA Constitutional Report" on each of the American reactors, with appropriate funding and a clear legislative charter., and to report the results in a high level national safety assessment.

After this report had scientifically charted the relative safety of all 104, then , and only then, would ISA become a useful tool, targeted at whatever specific need had been scientifically unearthed in the PRA Constitutional. This also has the benefit of closely following the IAEA methodology set out in 75-INSAG-3, the high-level agenda-free international document most trustworthy as an authority in these matters.

Without such a framework, any call for an ISA, without clearly demonstrated need, can rightly be called frivolous misuse of legislative priviledge. Within such a framework, established need can form the basis of any future calls fo an ISA.

Reference Documents may be found at:

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/P082_scr.pdf , links to the current international standard for safety at nuclear plants. "75-INSAG-3"

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub991e_web.pdf, is the IAEA publication setting the international standard for judging safety in nuclear plants built to earlier standards.
The document is named "INSAG-8"

[b tween]

I think that is a really interesting idea. I scanned the two INSAG publications and find the concept of probabilistic assessments compelling. I wonder if INSAG-8, considering section 32-on might be trouble for IP? I'm not a geologist or engineer, but I intend to read them more carefully and do some collateral research for my own edification.
Nonetheless, I bet an idea like this would have traction, and if it's plausible and credible would form the basis for a workable compromise that would make a lot of people happy.

[Tom Clegg]

B Tween you and I might disagree on some issues but we agree on others. At work I am considered a liberal. This is because of my stands on issues like the death penalty, taxs, being a Democrat and others. As far as ren latest idea I LIKE IT. Unfortunately it won’t fit certain politicians and organizations agendas. So I don’t see it coming to pass. Speaking of organizations. Let me tell you about rivercreeper (riverkeeper). Rivercreeper is run by Robert F. Kennedy JR.. Here is how he took over. RFK JR was caught in possession of heroin. So unlike you or I who would be facing jail time. When your name is Kennedy you get community service. So he chose riverkeeper. The head of riverkeeper at the time was Robert Boyle. He took RFK JR under his wing. The dissention started when RFK hired his friend.
Boyle and 8 of the 22 Riverkeeper board members resigned from Riverkeeper, Inc. in protest of the hiring of William Wegner. For eight years Wegner operated a ring of smugglers who stole bird eggs directly from the nests of protected cockatoo species in Australia. Wegner and his ring then smuggled the eggs by air to the United States. Birds that hatched and survived were then sold for as much as $12,500.00 each. A federal judge accepted Wegner’s plea of guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax fraud and sentenced him to five years in prison. The judge also found that Wegner had attempted to obstruct justice by committing perjury at the trial of a co-defendant Wegner paid a $10,000.00 fine.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has stated that everyone deserves a second chance and notes that he himself had been given a second chance in that he had once been convicted of a drug offense.
We note, however, that Kennedy’s offense was essentially a victimless crime while Wegner’s offense was a crime against the environment, the people of Australia, the people of the United States and against the birds. In order to avoid detection during the flight, smugglers flushed newly hatched chicks down the plane’s toilet
Although Wegner has been convicted and served his sentence, nothing he or anyone else can do will correct the damage he has done or make his victims whole again.
Wegner’s prison sentence seems to have done little to improve his ethical sense. The resume Wegner submitted to Riverkeeper accounts for his period of incarceration without referring to the fact of the incarceration itself Wegner describes work he performed and omits the significant information that he performed this work while he was serving time as a prison inmate.
Kennedy overstepped his position as attorney for Riverkeeper when, in November of 1999, he hired Wegner. Boyle terminated Wegner after learning of the hiring and upon review of Wegner’s resume, court records and media accounts. The matter came to a climax at a board meeting on June 20th when Kennedy insisted that Wegner be rehired over Boyle’s objection.
While we hope Riverkeeper continues to work to produce changed human beings who think and act differently in regard to the Hudson River and all that pertains to it, we also recognize the primary mission of Riverkeeper is not the rehabilitation of Wegner or of those like him
Sincerely,
Anthony Henry Smith
Fishkill
(for The Fishkill Ridge Caretakers)

As for Lisa Rainwater PHD. Indian Point Campaign Director. She talks like she knows something about nuclear power. But when you dig dipper you find out her PHD is in German studies. So how does that make her an expert in nuclear power? IT DOESN’T! Again the so called experts that the politicians and public listen to. The newspapers go to are a heroin addict ( would say former. But does riverkeeper give random drug test. LIKE INDIAN POINT!) A exotic bird smuggler, and someone who has a PHD in German studies. CAN’T YOU SEE ALL THEY WANT IS MONEY!

[b tween]

Tom:

I've written before about RFK Jr. I appreciate much of the work he's done, but in December of 2005, he said this:
"As an environmentalist, I support wind power, including wind power on the high seas. I am also involved in siting wind farms in appropriate landscapes, of which there are many."

But NOT in his backyard. That's 6 miles straight out from the Kennedy compound. A coal plant, say, in New Bedford will be fine, thanks, as long as the smoke blows south of the Kennedy Compound, but JUST THIS ONE TIME! You can put all the propellers you want in somebody else's valley with his blessing!

I take everything everybody tells me from both sides of an argument with a grain of salt, because I know that 99% of the time, the people who are yelling loudest stand to lose the most money if they don't win.

So don't look to me to defend them - I will never, ever run for office, and I'm not trying to get rich from any of this. I just want a safe, prosperouos place to raise my family.

[ren]

That's why my litmus test for the "Truth or Bullcrap" dimension of all these anti-Indian Point political tagalongs is: "Where are the new Power Plants ??".

I don't even express any preference for how, where, or what kind. It doesn't matter. "New plants"-- as a concept-- wasn't in the little anti-nuke tutorial package each politician's campaign director had discreetly mailed to them from Lisa Van Suntum, along with their Yankee box seat tickets, and their reservations at Bird & Bottle.

So the pols are clueless, beyond their little cockatoo-parrot training to say "ISA....ISA.... polly want an ISA"

This half-policy, half-science , & half-truth is gonna crash up against reality real hard, dashing Bren's hopes, as expressed above.

Maybe they can be educated by somebody in their own camp, but I doubt it.

[b tween]

That's right - I have maintained all along that I don't want to see a political assassination succeed because that serves nobody's interests (other than those whose lives revolve around nothing but being proven right, of course).
But I still maintain there is a political solution, and I think the PRA (or PSA) idea has legs. I also think the ball is in Entergy's court to lead on the matter. If it's left for politicians to decide, they will have little choice by to appeal to the most vocal of their base.

If I wrote the op ed pieces for the local rags, I'd be beating a drum for just this kind of compromise. It would calm the nerves of the locals (who I still maintain are worried), give the impression that IP had nothign to hide and wanted to actively do something to prove it, and would give cornered pols a graceful exit.
So, if the plant can pass the probabilistic analysis - which I believe it probably (ha ha) would, from everything I've read over the last few months - why oppose it? git er done, and let's move on to something else.

[Tom Clegg]

B tween could please elaborate on what work JFK Jr has done that you appreciate? Because all I see him doing is collecting donations from hardworking gullible people and suing anyone he can to line his, the smugglers, and the phoney PhD’s pockets. Did you appreciate it when he sued Bear Mountain because the runoff from the animals at the zoo (all the animals are indigoes to the region) WAS GOING INTO THE Hudson River. BTW in 1976 while Cold Spring NY was celebrating the bicentennial. Pete Seeger sailed his Clearwater boat in flying the Russian Flag. I guess someone has to look up to these phonies who tell, you don’t look at us. Look at Indian Point. Sorry I sound harsh but you are putting the wrong people up on a pedestal

[ren]

Actually much of the IAEA stuff is patterned on pioneering NRC work. There was a series of IPE's- independent plant examinations, and the results are in the public domain.

Short Form-- NRC found most American plants to be WAY overdesigned.

check out :
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1437/v1/part05.html

Sorry, Tom Clegg, for interrupting. I just found that link, and it looks like paydirt.

[b tween]

Riverkeeper has done a great deal to clean up the Hudson. No entity is perfect, but because of the work Pete Seeger, Clearwater and Riverkeeper have done, the river is swimmable and fishable.
I saw Pete Seeger, at 85 years old, chest-high in the water down by the train station, pulling weeds for the beacon riverpool. He does ths singalongs on Main St. on second saturday and has worked tirelessly to raise money for so many projects that improve the quality of life in our area - without costing taxpayers a dime.

We clearly have different views of communism. To me, it's a failed political philosophy tht doesn't warrant much thinking about. To many people in the generation before me, it's an insidious threat to our very way of life.

I never much worried about it, because we live in a democracy. If enough Americans vote to change the constitution to communist, it would only mean that the capitalist system we're using has failed so badly that it needs to be scrapped. That ain't gonna happen, but hell, if that's the case, so be it. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said "we get the government we deserve".

Riverkeeper's relationship to Indian Point aside... someone had to go after the polluters, and the EPA sure as hell wasn't going to. So I'm very glad Riverkeeper was there to do it instead. RFK may be their highest profile member, but he isn't the organization. Suing the zoo was silly. But I do appreciate them for the loads of other lawsuits they brought that did good. Con Ed, Mobil, the MTA, and so on, don't use the river as their own personal sewer system anymore because of Riverkeeper. That's a good thing.

[ren]

I hate to assassinate a person's heroes, but I think the era pre-Wegner was the halcyon Rkeeper, and the era post-Wegner, Post Boyle, Post Matthiessen, was the evil ripoff clone of the first organization.

Of course I might be wrong.

How bout them shindigs in Bannff, though.... auctioning off M Monroe pics & all?

[ren]

hey, guys, check out my cartoon at:

http://whitenuclearsnowflake.blogspot.com/2007/04/indian-point-opinion-gap.html

click on the image, to see it full sized!

(My very first cartoon!)

[b tween]

Hah! I love the cartoon. But I would have had vultures circling IP too. And at least 2 or 3 people (representing the 20% with no opinion) looking cluelessly up into the sky.

On that other point: all my heroes are dead, and I know I live in a world where good deeds are overwhelmingly motivated by self interest - remember the Namibian orphans?

That's not a criticism or indictment. I'm with Adam Smith on that topic. The Wealth of Nations lays out why that's a "societal good", and how the concept of altruism needs incentive.

I don't think we're the kind of species that can collectively do it any other way.

[ren]

I kind of see "society" breaking into two pieces..... one stratum dominated by a shallow garish media circus, and the other stratum lived anonymously by good people working out the real problems, almost in secret.

[Tom Clegg]

I did some looking back on your site. Now I understand! You’re an active member of Clearwater. I notice you left out one of the biggest polluters of the Hudson River. The city of Newburgh. Did you leave them out because they are not a big corporation? Also if you follow what goes on? The EPA does the investigation then Rivercreeper jumps on the lawsuit. As for Pete Seeger he has you thinking the Government does nothing so you have to rely on him and the organizations he recommends. Of course he plants his little communist seed in your head early. Notice how young school children go on his boat and get educated about how bad corporations are. Then they can grow up not to trust corporations and not to trust government regulators to over see them. Let’s ignore all the good corporations do. Also if the corporations are doing so much bad, and putting so much bad stuff in the air and waters. THEN HOW COME WE ARE LIVING LONGER AND BETTER LIVES?

[b tween]

Oh come on Tom. A corporation has one mission, no matter what they sell, and that's to maximize profit. Sometimes the people who run them try to be good citizens, but just as often, they collectively agree to sell Pintos despite the danger of a rear-ender.
We live longer because the drug companies realize profit when they develop and sell life-saving drugs.
We live longer because food producers sell more food when it's higher quality. Look at the organic food phenomenon for proof of that. Who could have imagined that tomatoes that cost twice as much would just fly off the shelves?
We live longer because we know more about how to stay healthy. We wash our hands after we use a lavatory! Know how many lives alone that saves?
But no thanks to the "corporations" that try to cut corners by putting garbage in our food, like nitrites, MSG, mercury, lead, hydrogenated oil, and so on.

I had no intention of listing every lawsuit Riverkeeper has been involved in. They've done good work over the years. Even ren said as much above ^^^

I want to add, I haven't said a word about IP in a while, because there are things going on and I want to see how they play out before I open my mouth.

Lots of bad press, and new legislative rumblings by the local pols - all of which I'm sure you're aware of.

I'm really curious to see what Entergy's next move is. I have to say I noticed a shift in Steets' statements of late, which implies to me that the beast is awakening from its slumber. Or maybe it's just that he's using more words and fewer .

My prediction is that we'll see some real action on this ISA topic pretty soon, and I have a guess on how it'll play out, but we'll see.

On another topic, my subscription to the Nuclear Waster Newsletter was abruptly and inexplicably cancelled! Did you guys rat me out to them???

And yet another topic: uranium spot price is $120/lb, and the new uranium futures that began trading on Nymex hit $146/lb for June delivery, but pulled back to the mid 130s today. That means we'll see a big jump in the spot price over the next couple months.
I also noticed that Entergy was represented at the Nymex "Uranium Futures 101" classes they held a couple weeks ago. They're waking up to the possibility of $1000/lb 308, finally.

[b tween]

oh, by the way, $20 million for an ISA?
Not a daunting figure when you consider Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard raked in $17,785,075 in total 2006 compensation!

[b tween]

I'm gonna say it again: I have my ear on the rail, and I hear a 300-car freight train coming toward the bend. Will Entergy be the stalled car on the tracks or will they be in the engine helping drive?

So far, they're in the car arguing whether they're out of gas or popped a belt, while the train is gaining speed for the hills.

From a press release today:

"Riverkeeper joins a bi-partisan Congressional delegation in demanding EPA involvement. In a letter sent to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson today, U.S. Representatives Eliot Engel (D-NY), John Hall (D-NY), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Christopher Shays (R-CT) repeated their call for an EPA investigation into the leaks, which were first discovered in August 2005..."

Big election coming, sexy issue, and I believe it's getting to a point where the *truth* (whatever THAT is) won't matter a bit.

[Tom Clegg]

So what you’re saying is let’s look at the Pintos and say we can’t trust any corporations no matter what good the other corporations do or what bad one corporation does let’s just lump them together and call them bad. By the way Riverkeeper is a corporation run by a lawyer. Talk about questioning trust. By the way do you know what you get when you combine a lawyer and an addict? You get someone who is addicted to lying (can you guess who I’m talking about?) Yet you also say that you can trust the pharmaceutical corporations. The same pharmaceutical corporations that have government over sight. Can we trust that government over site? Is it only the NRC we can’t trust. That is unless they give Indian Point unit 2 a red rating. Then you can trust the NRC. I have an idea. All these people calling for ISA. If it doesn’t find cause to shut down Indian Point. These politicans, newspapers and organizations should pay the bill out of there own pockets! Then we would see how fast they would be calling for an ISA. Let us remember why they are calling for an ISA. They think that is what closed Maine Yankee (they are wrong). So talk about not trusting people. I can’t blame Entergy for not wanting to agree. By the way organic food is just a fad. There is no scientific proof that it makes you any healthier or that it makes you live longer. As for your cancellation of nuclear waster newsletter. When my name, my home address, and my phone was posted on an anti nuke web site I NEVER ACCUSSED YOU OF GIVING THEM THAT INFORMATION. So when you accuse me of doing that I take it as an insult! I may disagree with you but I would NOT stoop to that. I do think that when someone in a corporation makes a diction that hurts or kills people (Pinto, firestone tires) that person or persons should be found and sent to jail. But I also think that some corporations are given a bad rap. Also some organizations are given credit for things that they really didn’t do.

[B Tween]

Tom, first things first: I was just kidding about that. I'm sure the NWN is just ending up caught in my spam filter or something. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was accusing you and/or ren of that. I think you're both decent guys, even though we disagree about things.

[B Tween]

Second: there are literally thousands of studies that show organic food is 1) more nutritious than conventionally grown foods, up to 39%, and 2) remove the presence of pesticides from the bloodstream after relatively short periods of eating only them, and 3) taste better.

I'll be happy to provide you with links to the studies if won't take my word for it and want to read them. The British Academy of Science did a study of 400 separate studies and published the conclusions. Interesting read.

And I *never* said I trust the pharmas.

Look, one of the main architects of the modern neo-conservative movement, Grover Norquist, said he wanted "to drown the government in a bathrub". Those guys have gone pretty far in doing that. Almost every governmental regulatory body is run by people who came from the industries they are supposed to regulate. The NRC and the FDA are not exceptions. So no, I don't trust them.

Corporations are not benevolent Santa Clauses who operate for the good of society. Their ONLY purpose is to make as much money as possible.

That is why the people need to government to conduct oversight, because companies do not operate with a social conscience. They seek only to maximize profit.

When the people who are given the responsibility of oversight seek to protect the industries' best insterests over the best interests of the people, they can't be trusted.

There are thousands of examples of this system failing, and when the people feel unprotected, and abandoned by the government, they start groups to lobby and make noise.

Whether the strontium 90 in the fish was background radioactivity, and the tritium in the sewer is a coincidence, and whether the cracks in the spent fuel pools exist or not, and so on are REAL or IMAGINED threats, the people seek assurances from a body they trust.

The NRC, FDA and other governmental regulators have lost that trust because their mission was hijacked by a presidency that hated them.

So here we are.

Articles, editorials, legislation and so on. Entergy has to respond or they're going to lose the ability to defend themselves and will get steamrollered.

[B Tween]

I read a statistic today that said the average age of a nuclear power plant worker is 48 years old, and that about half of the existing nuclear workforce will be retiring by 2010. To compound the problem, nuclear engineering has been a pariah discipline in schools, so the US lacks qualified people to replace the workers who will be retiring.
My question is this:
Who will run Indian Point if that license gets renewed?

[b tween]

when I heard this song, I thought of you guys:

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal