Mark Your Calendars: Pilgrim Coalition Meeting Jan. 9
Start off the New Year by coming out to our Pilgrim Coalition meeting Jan. 9. Join us to learn more about the issue of protecting our region from the threats of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and how you can help while having fun, meeting new people and becoming more active in our community. There are many ways to get involved. We're still working out the time and location and will update you by e-mail soon. But mark your calendars and we hope to see you!
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State and Federal Officials: We Want to be Kept Informed About Construction
Thanks to Pilgrim Coalition member Paul Rifkin for this recent aerial shot of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth. Unlike the carefully cropped photos provided by plant owner Entergy of Louisiana, this one shows homes close to Pilgrim. It also shows construction which may be the concrete pad for the dry cask storage containers that Entergy needs because the spent fuel pool is running out of space. We would like public officials to explain what's going on with this new construction. As the crow flies, it's about 45 miles to downtown Boston from here.
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Attend the Next Plymouth Nuclear Matters Committee Meeting
 Another way to become involved is to attend meetings for the Town of Plymouth's Nuclear Matters Committee. Our best information is the next meeting will be held Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. at PAC-TV, 4 Collins Ave., but see below for how to confirm as the date approaches. We will also send an e-mail if we learn the date changes.
The Board of Selectmen appoints this committee of residents to make recommendations on key topics such as safety procedures and Plymouth's payment in lieu of taxes agreement (PILOT) with Entergy. The town is currently negotiating a new PILOT agreement.
The meetings are open to the public. They are often attended by Plymouth selectmen, town emergency officials and aides to state senators and representatives. As Pilgrim Coalition members, we can attend, listen, show our concern, learn. ask questions and be of help to the coalition in our work to protect the region.
Following the Committee's Meeting Schedule
For a meeting schedule, you can contact the Plymouth Town Clerk at (508) 747-1620 ex. 169. The office posts the town's public meeting schedule, but the meeting is not posted yet. The state public meeting law only requires meetings be posted 48 hours in advance, excluding weekends and legal holidays.
You can also click here for the town's online meeting calendar.
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NUKE MATTERS: America's Hometown Goes Nuclear
The first in a new series of ongoing articles from Cape Cod Bay Watch of Plymouth. Published by the Old Colony Memorial newspaper and the Wicked Local Plymouth website.
By Karen Vale
Campaign Coordinator
Cape Cod Bay Watch
In the late 1950s, the peaceful use of atomic power became a symbol of progress and a hopeful future to Americans - a solution to impending shortages of fossil fuels, an icon of scientific achievement and a way to promote cooperation among nations. The first U.S. commercial power station opened in 1958 in Pennsylvania, and within 20 years there were 58 nuclear power facilities in operation in the U.S.
By the 1970s, however, safety and environmental problems associated with nuclear reactors gained increasing attention. This became especially true after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear disasters in 1979 and 1986, respectively. Click here to read the rest of this article. |
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MEMA Has No Plans to Evacuate Cape Cod Residents in Event of Emergency at Pilgrim Nuclear
MEMA Now Seeking Input on its Emergency Plan
Submitted by Cape Downwinders
Click here for the 21-page transcript.
Also available at capedownwinders.org.
MEMA director Kurt Schwartz recently met with the Barnstable County Regional Emergency Planning Committee on 10.3.12 to present the status of safety plans for Cape Cod in the event of a radiological accident at Entergy Nuclear Co's Pilgrim reactor in Plymouth. The plans MEMA/Entergy have for us involve two efforts: traffic control and communication. There is no evidence of plans to evacuate Cape residents instead, MEMA plans to order us to relocate after we take the hit from deadly radioactive fallout. The traffic plans include shutting both bridges and blocking access to Route 6. The communication is for us to stay put and not interfere with the evacuation of our neighbors over the bridges. This is a government agency making false assumptions about population response to a catastrophic nuclear accident at Pilgrim. We believe that for MEMA/Entergy/NRC to find putting the population at such risk in order for a corporation to make profit is immoral and criminal, and an abdication of the government's responsibility to provide for the public safety.
While the current plans include traffic control points in Sandwich and Bourne, none of the emergency planners on Cape Cod, were made aware of the plans and their impact on the Cape. In May, Cape Cod residents brought attention to the long-standing MEMA plan which called for closing the bridges in the event of an emergency at Pilgrim. In response, MEMA announced that was not the case; the bridges would be open and traffic would be allowed to flow freely. MEMA has attempted to minimize the public's knowledge and awareness of the serious consequences of a radiological accident.
Comments by Dir. Schwartz at the BCREPC presentation:
* "So if you are on Cape Cod, and there is a release from Pilgrim, there [is] not a circumstance that I am aware of in which, as director of MEMA, I am contemplating calling for an immediate evacuation of the Cape...So let me repeat that. There is not a situation in which we would be contemplating calling for an immediate evacuation of the Cape..." p. 8
* (Within 50 miles) "there is a very significant and deadly risk from long term ingestion of radioactive materials." p. 9
*"The plan is to send people into these areas with protective clothing and help everybody relocate out. We would move animals and anything living we move out. And the unfortunate reality, which is what Fukushima faces today, is that this area may well be closed to anyone for years to come." pp. 9-10
*"We need to figure out a better way to communicate with local officials and the public to try to convince people not to self-evacuate and follow the directions of public safety officials. These are our two challenges." p. 13
*"You are going to be in harms way. You will be in the ingestion danger zone and you will relocate." p. 15
MEMA is now looking for input into the plans. Removing the threat is a more realistic plan that relocating a population. We call for an immediate and safe shutdown of Pilgrim and the prompt transfer of all the high level radioactive waste to dry cask storage. Cape Downwinders calls upon all public officials in the state of Massachusetts to withdraw support for the Entergy/MEMA emergency plans in the event of a nuclear accident at Pilgrim Nuclear power Station and demand that the NRC use their mandate and authority to 'take action, including shutting down any reactor deemed not to provide reasonable assurance of the protection of the public health and safety'. We hold our public officials accountable. Given the stated plans from MEMA, public safety on Cape Cod is not assured at all.
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News Coverage: Fukushima Operator Warns Clean-Up May Cost $125B
By Kyoko Hasegawa (AFP)
TOKYO - The cost of the clean-up and compensation after Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster may double to $125 billion, the plant's operator warned Wednesday. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said decontamination of irradiated areas and compensating those whose jobs or home lives have been affected would cost much more than the five trillion yen it estimated in April.
"There is a view that we may need the same amount (again) of additional money for the decontamination of low-level radiation areas and costs of temporary facilities for storing waste," the company said in a statement.
Click here to read the full story.
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