NUCLEAR POWER

Entergy sues over waste

Owner of Plymouth nuclear plant says federal government responsible for spent fuel.

The owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station has filed a suit against the federal government, looking to recover costs and exact damages for being forced to continue storing highly radioactive spent fuel at the Plymouth site.


By Christine Legere
clegere@capecodonline
Posted Jan. 5, 2015 @ 7:54 pm

PLYMOUTH - The owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station has sued the federal government, looking to recoup costs and exact damages for being forced to continue storing highly radioactive spent fuel at the Plymouth facility.

Entergy Corp. contends the government reneged on its obligation to build a federal repository for nuclear waste in the case filed Dec. 30 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.

Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act enacted by Congress in 1982, the U.S. government was required to begin disposal of commercially-generated spent fuel in federal repositories no later than January 1998, in return for some hefty fees paid by the owners of the nuclear energy operations.

Entergy has paid $167 million into the waste fund since buying the Pilgrim plant from Boston Edison in 1999, to help cover the costs of building and operating a federal repository, according to court documents.

The suit is the second Pilgrim-related case Entergy has filed against the U.S. government. A previous suit, relating to costs incurred between 1999 and December 2008, netted the company $4.1 million for costs incurred and $27,000 for legal expenses.

This latest suit seeks to recover money spent between December 2008 and September 2014, and Entergy's attorney said the company will be looking for considerably more money.

“In the first case, we got paid for the spent fuel pool racks and some Nuclear Regulatory Commission fees,” said L. Jager Smith, Jr, a Mississippi lawyer. “This time, we’ve built a dry field storage area.”

Most of these types of suits have prevailed, according to Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the commission. The Department of Energy, which is responsible for the storage of spent nuclear fuel, did not respond to a request for comment.

Currently about 3,300 radioactive spent fuel assemblies are being stored in a large pool at Pilgrim’s nuclear reactor. The pool was originally designed for about 800. Special racks were installed to accommodate the larger number, but the pool is now at capacity.

Within the next few weeks, 204 rod assemblies will be moved into three heavy concrete dry casks that will be stored outdoors on the site. The transfer, along with costs to prepare the site and install a concrete pad, totals $65 million.

There has been some public protest of the planned location of the casks, which environmental groups say is too close to Cape Cod Bay.

Entergy meanwhile blames the federal government for storage-related problems.

“The government has failed to perform its reciprocal obligation to dispose of spent nuclear fuel, and currently has no plan to meet these obligations,” Entergy lawyers wrote in court documents. “Entergy Nuclear Generation Co. has incurred and will continue to incur costs associated with procuring additional spent fuel storage capacity, and other damages, as a result of the government’s failure to comply with its contractual obligations.”

Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, has been eyed for a nuclear waste repository since 1987, but continued resistance from legislators in that state and environmental concerns have kept any plan from coming to fruition. The licensing process for the site halted in 2009 when funding was cut from the budget by Congress, at the urging of the Obama administration.

Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @ChrisLegereCCT.

In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ordered the licensing process to resume. Since then, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been working on a lengthy study of Yucca Mountain, but Sheehan said Monday his agency has exhausted all its funding. The report can’t be finished or the required hearings held until Congress authorizes more funds.

In any case, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn’t concerned over the current storage arrangement, based on the controversial “Waste Confidence Rule” it recently issued.

“We didn’t see any impediments to storing the material safely at the individual sites,” Sheehan said. “The casks would probably have to be replaced, but it could be stored on the sites for as long as 160 years.

Attorney Smith said Entergy currently has suits pending to recoup expenses for all its nuclear plants.

“We have 11 reactors on nine sites,” he said. “The Department of Energy is not performing, and we’re going to continue to pay.”

Smith predicted the Pilgrim court case would take no longer than 1 ½ years to settle, since it was assigned the same judge who handled the previous suit related to the plant.

Earlier this year, Entergy filed a similar suit over storage at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which recently shut down permanently. Storage of all the spent rods on that site will require 45 dry storage casks. Entergy was awarded $88 million in 2012 for an earlier Yankee-related suit over spent fuel storage.


http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150105/NEWS/150109702/101015/NEWSLETTER100

Cape Downwinders to host nuclear power forum November 1 in Hyannis

Group determined to shut Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth down

Article | News | October 29, 2013 - 7:29am | By CapeCodToday Staff

 

On Friday, November 1, Cape Downwinders will continue their efforts to shut down the Pilgrim Nuclear Station in Plymouth at an educational forum in Hyannis. The group's Barnstable Educational

Forum will be held at 7 p.m. at the Hyannis Youth and Community Center on Bassett Lane.

The forum panel includes Cape Downwinder members David Agnew and Nina Trepper. State Rep. Brian Mannal (D-Barnstable), Stephanie G. Wall, MD and Cape Cod Bay Watch member Karen Vale will round out the panel.

The forum comes four days before Barnstable voters weigh in on Ballot Question 1 during the November 5 general election.

 

Question 1 calls on Governor Patrick to shut down Pilgrim and maintains in the event of a nuclear incident, Cape Codders are not safe and will not be able to effectively and safely evacuate.

Question 1 is not binding and reads:

"Whereas, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Director
Kurt Schwartz has acknowledged that Cape residents and visitors are "in
harm's way" in the event of a radiological accident at the Pilgrim Nuclear
Power Station in Plymouth;

Whereas, MEMA has determined that Cape residents and visitors will not be
evacuated but plans to relocate Cape citizens after exposure to dangerous
radioactive materials released in an accident;

Whereas, citizens of the Town of Barnstable find this State response to
Pilgrim's threat to our health and safety unacceptable and in violation of the
public trust;

Therefore, we the people of the Town of Barnstable respectfully request
Governor Deval Patrick to call upon the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
uphold their mandate to shut Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in

Plymouth because the public safety, particularly Cape and Islands residents and visitors, cannot be assured.

According to Cape Downwinders, Barnstable is the only town on Cape Cod that has yet to vote and pass the ballot question.

 

Rep. Mannal, a supporter of the ballot question said, "If there is a nuclear accident or a terrorist attack at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant, then the residents of Barnstable will be left to their own devices to evacuate because, quite frankly, there is no evacuation plan for us. If you think that there are traffic problems with getting on and off of Cape Cod on a holiday weekend, just imagine the chaos that would ensue in the event of a nuclear catastrophe."

 

http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/10/29/22428-cape-downwinders-host-nuclear-power-forum-november-1-hyannis

 

 

Updated: Pilgrim Nuclear Station taken offline Monday night

Because of the Republican Government Shutdown, information about the Pilgrim Nuclear shutdown remains vague.

Pilgrim Nuclear and Vermont Yankee, both operated by Entergy, are of the same age and same General Electric design as Fukushima.

No evacuation plan exists for Pilgrim.

Plymouth nuke plant offline after electric line goes down

By HEATHER WYSOCKI

hwysocki@capecodonline.com

October 16, 2013

 

PLYMOUTH — The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station ran on generator power after one of two power lines went down Monday night but NStar's equipment was expected to be brought back online by 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to an NStar spokesman.

 

The plant automatically went offline at 9:21 p.m. Monday after it lost one of its two 345-KV lines, owned by NStar, which provides off-site power to the plant, according to a statement from Carol Wightman, the spokeswoman for Entergy, the company that owns and operates the Pilgrim plant.

Related Links

• Related Times stories on the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station

 

The shutdown occurred after an NStar pole at a substation in Carver, which was installed in May, broke, NStar spokesman Michael Durand said.

 

A large area of eastern Massachusetts, including some customers on Cape Cod, experienced flickering power after the pole went down, but there were no power outages. The transmission lines and equipment damaged Monday were expected to be fixed by 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and brought back on line by 8:30 p.m., Durand said.

 

Last week, NStar removed the other line from use as part of a coordinated "routine, seasonal" maintenance project with Pilgrim and National Grid, he said.

 

Wightman would not comment on the operating level of the plant while it was under maintenance.

 

But a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the Times he believed the plant reduced power output to below 50 percent while it flushed organic material off the water condensers for the reactor in a process called "thermal back-washing."

 

The plant was running on its emergency diesel generators, which "immediately started and are safely powering the plant," Wightman's statement Tuesday read. There is no impact on the health and safety of employees or the public from the shutdown, she added.

 

While the plant is shutdown, workers will "take advantage of this time to perform maintenance that cannot be done while the plant is operating," she said.

 

Pilgrim has been shut down several times in the past few months for various reasons.

 

A heat wave in July reduced the plant's output by 15 to 25 percent when water temperatures in Cape Cod Bay, which is used to cool Pilgrim's systems, went above those allowed under the plant's federal license.

 

Then, starting Aug. 22, there was a monthlong trend of shutdowns and partial power-downs. The plant wasn't restored to full service until Sept. 18.

 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131016/NEWS/310160340/-1/NEWSLETTER100

Pilgrim Nuclear Station taken offline Monday night

Auto shutdown occurred after offsite power to plant was lost

Article | News | October 15, 2013 - 11:19am | By Maggie Kulbokas

 

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth was automatically shutdown Monday night at 9:21 p.m. according to a statement from Entergy, the plant's owner. The shutdown occurred when one of the two 345-kV lines that provides power to the plant from offsite was lost, according to Entergy spokesperson Carol Wightman.

 

The other 345-kV line was removed from service by NStar last week for planned maintenance, Wightman said.

Pilgrim will be brought back online when NStar restores the offsite power lines. In the meantime, Wightman said engineers will perform maintenance at the plant that can only be done when the station is offline.

When the offsite power stopped, the plant's emergency diesel generators kicked in and will power the plant until NStar power is restored.

The nuclear power station has been taken offline manually twice since August.

 

Related Content:

Pilgrim Nuclear Station taken offline Monday night

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant back online

Pilgrim nuclear power station manually taken offline Thursday

Pilgrim Nuclear Plant back online

 

http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/10/15/22197-pilgrim-nuclear-station-taken-offline-monday-night

 

 

 

Pipeline Explosion Forces Evacuation

When was the last time wind turbines or solar collectors forced an evacuation?

Bold Nebraska shared 350.org's photo.

A gas line exploded last night in Rosston, Oklahoma. No injuries or deaths reported, citizens within 2 miles were ordered to evacuate. The line is owned by Omaha-based Northern Natural Gas. #NoKXL

 

Last night a gas pipeline exploded in the town of Rosston, Oklahoma. This is what it looks like when you let pipeline companies build out of control. Click LIKE and SHARE to help send the message: Pipelines. Are. Dangerous. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/oklahoma-pipeline-explosion_n_4068377.html

See More

Task force: Cape Cod nuclear accident strategy lacking

 Pilgrim Nuclear and Vermont Yankee, both operated by Entergy, are the same age and design as Fukushima.

Task force: Cape Cod nuclear accident strategy lacking

By CHRISTINE LEGERE

clegere@capecodonline.com

October 01, 2013

 

Truro Police Chief Kyle Takakjian said Monday that Cape residents and their public safety leaders are "woefully and inadequately prepared" should there be a radioactive release at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, whether residents decide to stay in their homes or area emergency centers or make a break for the bridges.

 

As Charles Noyes, Bourne's emergency management coordinator, put it, "there's nothing in place for Cape Cod."

Related Links

• Related Times stories on the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station

"We've never been a part of the planning process," Noyes said during a meeting of the Barnstable County Regional Emergency Planning Committee's task force on Pilgrim.

 

Although the Cape has a traffic plan to use in weather emergencies, it does not have a plan related to a nuclear incident.

 

Planning committee members discussed results of a recent phone survey of Cape residents, conducted by KLD Engineering, a New York-based firm that specializes in traffic patterns and evacuation planning.

 

The survey, paid for by Entergy Corp., owner and operator of the 41-year-old power plant, revealed most Cape residents had no idea whether their communities fell within the emergency planning zone — a 10-mile radius around the Plymouth plant considered at highest risk in a nuclear incident.

 

Getting residents who live in the emergency planning zone to safety would be the priority after a radioactive release. None of the Cape is in that priority zone.

 

About 70 percent of the 500 Cape survey respondents said they would evacuate if told residents in the emergency planning zone were evacuating. About 50 percent of the respondents said they would clear out even if they were told they lived beyond the emergency planning zone.

 

The survey responses negate assumptions made when emergency evacuation plans for the area around Pilgrim were drawn up. Those plans assumed no more than 20 percent of Cape residents within 15 miles of the bridges would decide to evacuate.

 

The survey, however, put half the 222,000 year-round Cape residents — and that population doubles in tourist season — in their cars, snarling traffic on the Cape as well as on main roads being used to channel South Plymouth residents west to safety.

 

Noyes said survey results confirmed what Cape public safety leaders have believed for years: "People out there are going to try to get out of Dodge."

 

Noyes blames state emergency planners for the Cape's lack of knowledge regarding appropriate actions during a radioactive release.

 

"Public education is critical, and it should have come from (the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency)," Noyes said. "They really dropped the ball."

 

Barnstable Deputy Police Chief Craig Tamash predicted residents would simply panic in a nuclear event. "Even if we're not covered with a plume of radioactive material, you're not going to convince all the people there's no danger."

 

Sean O'Brien, emergency preparedness coordinator for the regional committee, said the survey could serve as a starting point. "It gives us a number — a percentage to work with," he said.

 

KLD will provide more data in the next year, including some analysis of the Cape's road network. According to Takakjian, it will be up to Cape public safety leaders to use the data to develop plans for evacuation.

 

Diane Turco, founder of an antinuclear group called Cape Downwinders, serves on the task force.

 

"The team here may have to consider there is no way to evacuate the Cape, and that's the reality of it," Turco said. "This group is professional and conscientious, but it might be an impossible job."

Noyes said Cape public safety leaders would produce a plan, whatever it takes.

 

"I'd be surprised to see any public safety official throw up their hands and say, 'Oh, well,'" Noyes said. "Nobody's going to say, 'We can't protect you.'"

 

 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131001/NEWS/310010350/-1/NEWSLETTER100

 

 

No-nuke activists to get day in court

5.3-magnitude earthquake hits Fukushima prefecture 19 Sep 2013 A 5.3-magnitude earthquake has hit the Japanese prefecture that is home to the wrecked nuclear power plant. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck early Friday at a depth of about 13 miles (22 kilometers) under Fukushima Prefecture and about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday ordered TEPCO to scrap all six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and concentrate on tackling pressing issues like leaks of radioactive water. Officials have acknowledged that [daily, hundreds of tons of] radiation-contaminated groundwater has been seeping into the Pacific Ocean since soon after the meltdowns.

Japan's Abe orders surviving Fukushima reactors scrapped, pledges safe Olympics 19 Sep 2013 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the scrapping of two Fukushima nuclear reactors that survived the 2011 tsunami. He also said he stood by his commitments to the International Olympic Committee of insuring a safe 2020 Summer Games. Abe, speaking to reporters after a tour of the plant on Thursday, said he told Tokyo Electric Power Co to set a time frame for dealing with leaking contaminated water. "...I have directed them to decommission the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors that are now halted," Abe said.

Radioactive leak found at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear plant 16 Sep 2013 (PA) PPL Corp.'s Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County declared an "unusual event" Sunday after radioactive water was discovered leaking inside a room in the plant's Unit 2 reactor building. An unusual event is the first of the four emergency classifications established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nuclear power plants. The plant declared the unusual event at 11:38 a.m. after operators received indications of the water leak. The unit had already been shut down at the time of the declaration.

No-nuke activists to get day in court

By CHRISTINE LEGERE

clegere@capecodonline.com

September 20, 2013

 

PLYMOUTH — A group of Cape Downwinders remains on course to stand trial next spring for trespassing on the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station property after protest rallies.

 

 

 

And that suits members, who have been pressing for their day in court, just fine.

 

A March 18 date for trial was set Wednesday during a status hearing at Plymouth District Court.

 

"It's our aim to be judged by a jury of our peers, because we believe continued operation of the Pilgrim plant represents criminal negligence for endangering the public safety," said Diane Turco, a Harwich resident and co-founder of the Downwinders. She is among 13 defendants connected to trespassing incidents.

The arrested

The list of those arrested after a May rally also includes Margaret Rice-Moir of Brewster; Douglas Long of Orleans; Janet Azarovitz, William Maurer and Joyce Johnson, all of Falmouth; Femke Rosenbaum of Wellfleet; Debra McCulloch of Truro; and Sarah Thacher of East Dennis.

 

The defendants contended they were trying to deliver a letter to Entergy Corp., the company that owns and operates the Plymouth power plant.

 

Downwinders arrested and charged after a March trespassing incident were Susan Carpenter of South Dennis, Mike Risch of Falmouth, Paul Rifkin of Cotuit and Elaine Dickinson of Harwich.

Not their first day in court

These latest infractions don't mark the first attempts by the anti-nuclear group to take a stance publicly in court.

 

Earlier this year, Downwinders were disappointed when similar trespassing charges were dismissed shortly before a scheduled trial. "We had expert witnesses ready to offer testimony," Turco said.

 

The list included Dr. Helen Caldicott, an internationally known Australian physician and anti-nuclear activist, and Cambridge scientist Gordon Thompson, who has written about dangers related to spent fuel rod pools.

 

"We're hoping to get them back this time," Turco said.

 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130920/NEWS/309200336/-1/NEWSLETTER100

 

 

Pilgrim Nuclear: “That is not what we signed up for. It is not the legacy we want to leave for our children.”

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station owners claim difference between Pilgrim and Yankee plant

“That is not what we signed up for. It is not the legacy we want to leave for our children.” - Sen. Dan Wolf.

 

Article | News | August 30, 2013 - 2:28pm | By Andy Metzger, State House News Service

 

ENTERGY OFFICIAL DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN PILGRIM, VERMONT NUKE PLANT

Company says “It’s really comparing apples and oranges"

While anti-nuclear activists were heartened this week by news of the planned closure of the Vermont Yankee power plant and what it might portend for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, the plant’s owner,
Entergy, says the two facilities are in very different situations.

“It’s really comparing apples and oranges,” said Entergy lobbyist Tom Joyce. He said, “There’s really no impact on Pilgrim from Vermont.”

Entergy owns both plants

Both plants are owned by the Louisiana-based energy company and both were opened about 40 years ago, though Pilgrim has a larger power output and operates under a different regulatory environment.

Less than a month before announcing plans to decommission the Vernon, Vermont plant along the Connecticut River, Entergy won a U.S. Appeals Court ruling, allowing the plant to remain open despite the state government’s attempts to shut it down.

“I think it surprised everybody,” Joyce said of Entergy’s announcement Tuesday that it would decommission the plant, and convert it to a storage space for spent fuel using the bulk of the $582 million set aside to pay for such a closure.

Activists predict closing of Plymouth plant as well

Mary Lampert, an activist who has attempted to force the closure of the nuclear plant located in Plymouth, said she was not surprised by the Vermont Yankee closure plans and predicted future closures of Pilgrim and Entergy facilities in New York.

Pilgrim has $680 million in trust for an eventual decommissioning, well more than the roughly $575 million required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Joyce said.

The plant received a 20-year license renewal last year and is a vital producer for the electrical grid, according to Joyce, who could not say whether the plant would be around to seek another license renewal in 2032.

“Twenty years ago we had a lot of coal plants operating and the big idea then was coal gasification and clean coal. We were just getting away from oil plants,” Joyce said. “I have no idea what’s on the horizon.”

Because the federal government has not selected a central repository for spent power plant nuclear fuel, the old rods are kept on site at decommissioned plants. The Yankee Rowe Nuclear Facility was permanently shut down in 1992 and the decommissioning was completed in 2007, according to the plant’s web site.

Demonstration at the Sagamore Bridge on Monday

The activist group Cape Downwinders plan to call for closure of the plant on Monday by holding a rally in the Christmas Tree parking lot on Route 6 in Sandwich. See the details in the story below.

“The legacy that we’re going to be leasing our children is a 60-year-old nuclear waste dump,” Sen. Dan Wolf, who has suspended his campaign for governor as he attempts to reconcile his ownership of Cape Air with Ethics Commission requirements, said in a video of an anti-Pilgrim protest posted online. “That is not what we signed up for. It is not the legacy we want to leave for our children.”

Gov. Deval Patrick has put a focus on boosting alternative forms of energy production, increasing the state’s solar energy capacity from just over 3 megawatts when he took office to 281 megawatts, surpassing the goal of 250 megawatts by 2017.

Patrick questions the need for the Pilgrim facility

On Wednesday, Patrick questioned the need for Pilgrim, which has been the target of both environmental activists and the site of union picketing during contentious contract negotiations that included a lockout last year.

“It's not clear to me that we need Pilgrim in order to meet all of our electrical needs. So we're going to have to have the conversation about how we meet all those needs and whether this aging nuclear facility is a necessary part of that formula,” Patrick said of the roughly 40-year-old plant along the shore of Cape Cod Bay.

“There still is a need for the system, for the grid to buy power whatever the cost may be, and it’s certainly competitive,” Joyce said. He said, “The cost of solar, you know, it’s so highly subsidized by grants and by credits that are paid for, in large part by the distribution companies… people don’t see it, what the real cost is.”

Plymouth plant supplies electricity for 550,000 homes

According to Pilgrim’s website, the nuclear plant’s boiling water reactor generates 680 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 550,000 homes.

Both Patrick and Joyce have said there are efforts afoot to assist workers at the Vermont plant, just over the border from Northfield. Joyce said about 25 percent of the plant’s 630-employee workforce lives in Massachusetts.

Joyce also argued Pilgrim has benefits beyond its power production, with about 700 permanent employees, a $50 million to $60 million annual payroll, a roughly $2.5 million contribution toward emergency planning,

Related Content:

Pilgrim Nuclear owners to close VT nuclear plant

Protest at Sagamore Bridge on Labor Day, demand immediate closing of Pilgrim Nuclear

Patrick questions need for Pilgrim Nuclear - Plans a Tech Tax summit - Honors King

Cape Cod and Plymouth residents plead with Beacon Hill to widen the radius for nuclear power plant emergency measures from 10 to 20 miles

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant back online

 

http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/08/30/21449-pilgrim-nuclear-power-station-owners-claim-difference-between-pilgrim-and-y

 

 

Global Petroleum: Jeopardizing Public Safety Across Massachusetts

Global Petroleum's proposal jeopardizes Massachusetts communities from West to East!

Please add your name to this new petition below:

Stop Ethanol Trains through Densely Populated Neighborhoods

Target: Governor Deval Patrick

Sponsored by: Jovanna Garcia Soto

I am a tax-paying stakeholder and am deeply concerned about Global Petroleum’s proposal to bring large volumes of ethanol by train to their Revere facility (60-120-car trains, two to three times per week, 280.8 million to 468 million gallons annually).

There are hundreds of thousands of residents, businesses, organizations, churches, health care institutions, schools and other important community resources along the proposal's routes. More than fifty cities and towns are likely to be affected including Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Chelsea, East Boston, and Revere.

Ethanol is highly combustible and an accident in densely populated neighborhoods would put thousands at risk, without possibility of evacuation from a resulting fire.

We call on you, the Governor of Massachusetts, to listen to the concerns of the Commonwealth’s taxpayers and STOP THIS PROPOSAL.

PETITION

Previous articles:

Inferno fears halt ethanol train - Speak Out!

Ethanol in your neighborhood

Are Ethanol Trains Coming To Your Community?

Ethanol in your neighborhood?

Boston and Albany Railroad
	
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_and_Albany_Railroad

 

 

 

Under a plan by Waltham-based Global Partners LP, about 1.7 million gallons of ethanol would be carried on a freight train that is 60 cars long twice a week through two dozen communities, including Cambridge, Somerville, East Boston, Everett and Chelsea, ending at a waterside shipping center in Revere.

 

A 2011 study commissioned by the state Department of Environmental Protection found ethanol is now the most hazardous substance being transported by rail in the United States.

On July 11, a 98-car train carrying ethanol partly derailed and exploded north of downtown Columbus, Ohio. The train was reportedly traveling below the speed limit in the middle of the night, and just two people were hurt. Investigators are trying to determine the cause.

 

Fukushima Enough is Enough!!

Interesting presentation.....

Dr. Helen Caldicott speaks in Plymouth

"Fukushima Enough is Enough!! The Medical Consequences of Nuclear Power."

Article | March 26, 2013      | By Paul Rifkin

 

Dr. Caldicott and Cape Downwinders' Diane Turco.

Paul Rifkin photo.

 

 

Cape Downwinders and Pilgrim Watch sponsored Dr. Helen Caldicott in Plymouth 104 concerned citizens gathered at the First Parish Church in Plymouth on March 25. The Unitarian Universalist church, downtown on the town square, was founded by the Pilgrims in 1620. It is the oldest church congregation in the U.S. in continuous operation. We were there to learn from Dr. Helen Caldicott, a renowned physician and scholar.

Dr. Caldicott has devoted her life to educating the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age.

The Smithsonian called Dr. Caldicott "one of the most influential women of the 20th Century. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

She gave a riveting presentation about the health dangers of nuclear power---in particular the threat
posed by the Pilgrim Nuke Plant in Plymouth.

Some of the things Dr. Caldicott said:

Pilgrim is a cancer factory. It is medically indicated to shut it down! Companies like Entergy are long-term murderers.

• You are sitting on top of a nuclear weapon.
• Nuclear power is evil.
• I believe we can close down this nuclear plant and stop global warming and become moral and spiritual human beings---we can----but will we?
• This is your country. You are the leaders.

Happiness is derived from serving others.

Think about who you love the most. Your children and grandchildren. We must protect them with the ferocity of a lioness protecting her cubs.

That is why we must shut Pilgrim down.


http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/03/26/17881-dr-helen-caldicott-speaks-plymouth


 

Evacuation!

Don't Frack New York shared Frack Action's photo.

Today's 30 Days of Fracking Regs topic deals with open venting in fracking operations.

Comment today! http://www.thirtydaysoffrackingregs.com/dec23reg.php

 

Last night, 200 families in Phoenix, NY were forced to evacuate their homes and a major highway was shut down due to a gas leak. http://j.mp/UU1xDf

The families have since been allowed to return, but there is now a cloud of of "vented gas" that police are warned not to drive through, which is "drifting with the winds across the highway."

Like & Share to tell Governor Andrew Cuomo that this isn't "clean and safe" energy.