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Shut It Down: Close Indian Point Now

By Charles Keil

Denial is not a river in Egypt. Denial is flooding the USA these days. But wake up calls can be heard here and there too. The Hudson is a river in New York State that runs south toward New York City. And on its banks about 30 miles North of NYC there sits a genuine weapon of mass destruction, just in case you were beginning to wonder what one actually looks like. Wake up. It's not hidden. It's not over there. It's right here.

There is enough radioactive material in the so-called "spent fuel pool" (believe me, it ain't "spent," and there's enough nasty stuff in there to keep millions of people downstream and downwind of it moving away from the area for a century or two if it should suddenly be distributed in a big way out of the "pool" and into the air, water and soil) enough to damage the genes and chromosomes of all species for many millenia. Spent Fuel Pools = Spent Gene Pools! All 7 or 8 millions species, large and very small, experience varying degrees of gene damage when a nuke plant chrenobylizes. The worst damage depends on which way the radiation "plume" goes, of course. Who and what will the "fallout" fall on? Only God knows. But all of Gaia will feel an increase in suffering over a long time. This is not a one day 9/11 deal with deep and painful memories. The actual damaging goes on and on and on and on, perhaps magnifying over generations.

The state's governor, Pataki, must be pretty wacky by now because he comes from a town near the Indian Point plant, and he knows in his heart of hearts, if not in his brain, that he is partially insane. It's crazy to keep the plant open, and he knows it. But he is well rewarded to stay "partially insane" for the duration. Can't be easy. I suspect most days the winds are from the West, heading south and east from Albany, most days any accident or terrorism at Indian Point will produce a plume that floats away from Pataki and legislators in Albany. Probably it will be people in New York City and southern Connecticut or a part of New Jersey who will have to leave their homes forever, never to return. Whichever way the wind blows, any Patakis still in Peekskill will have to leave for sure. They will sit in the certified-adequate-evacuation-plan traffic jam and get fried sure as hell. Most days Pataki doesn't worry about it much. Too busy. But on those days when it's misty, humid, light breeze coming up river it's possible that Pataki imagines what Albany will look like after it has been empty for a century: reforested, green, suprisingly beautiful like Ankor Vat in Cambodia, a ruin in the jungle, a boonduks or no man's land, but a few men go there in defiance of the law just to feel the sadness, the loneliness, the gradual reclaiming by a damaged but recovering Nature of what had been the state capital so long ago. What will New York City be a hundred years from now if the winds take the radiation plume down stream? If the weather conditions are "exactly wrong" on the fateful day, NYC and vicinity could be uninhabitable for hundreds of years.

Take a little time to try imagining Pataki's state of mind, or Cuomo's before him, because some part of the buck or denial or partial insanity stops there in the Governor's office. Will we the people allow the governor to play the hero on the day after Indian Point "goes"? The joke of an evacuation plan will have failed miserably. If the breeze is down the Hudson, 3 million people rather than 3 thousand will be wondering how much radiation they are absorbing as they flee and they will be discovering that this "9/11" is not just for a day, but forever. Not a few buildings but all buildings in the path of the plume. Not some people, but all people. Will we be angry at ourselves for not doing more to close Indian Point? Will we quickly forgive the governors for going along with business as usual during the years when we could have closed the plant and heavily fortified the "spent fuel pool"?

I try to imagine the governor's mind working, because quite frankly, I can't imagine what is going on in the mind of you the reader. If you have gotten this far you are about to sigh, and turn the page. I know what the sigh of dispair sounds like, because I heard it yesterday over the phone when I talked to a policeman in the Central Park precinct. I was asking about the parameters for demonstrations, finding out that more than 20 people assembled count as an "event" and need a permit, figuring out that a small acoustic brass band passing out leaflets might be just under the permitted decibel level, telling him that we will "stroll" and never get to be more than 20, etc. when I mentioned in passing that we would be urging people to shut down Indian Point, that nuclear power plant upstream from New York City. He sighed. And his sigh was so sudden and heartfelt that it stopped my mind. I think the sigh was about "another 9/11 only much, much worse." What can a good cop on duty do about non-symbolic terrorism? How are we supposed to protect citizens from an atomic bomb heavier with radiation than 100 Hiroshimas (anniversary coming up Aug. 6th)? And we went on to talk more about who I could call for info, which parks were easier to make music in; he was very helpful and I think he too would probably like to see Indian Point closed and better fortified.

Food for thought. Unradiated food for thought. Anyone who is able to think about Indian Point for more than a minute wants it closed and fortified. Give yourself a sigh of dispair, but stay engaged, like the officer at Central Park Precinct.

S14, the energy bill now before the Senate has a provision to build new nuclear power plants with taxpayer dollars! No US capitalists will invest in one. No one will sell insurance for one. And we the people have already been stuck with owning the "waste" that has been created the past fifty years, forever. And no one knows what to do with it. It's crazy. It's extremely costly, and getting more costly by the minute. Sane people don't believe this plan can go forward. But perpetual war, preemptive strikes, empire and nation building are also crazy and very costly and burdening future generations with pollution and debt - what's wrong with a little more pollution and public debt for a centrally controlled alternative to oil and coal?

Indian Point is on the Hudson 30 miles from New York City.

Winds are blowing down the Hudson much of the time.

Over 20 million people live within 50 miles of this plant.

The recently recertified "evacuation plan" certifies the insanity of the certifiers.

Nothing physical and obvious has been done to increase the shields around spent fuel pools at over 100 nuclear power plants in the USA. People might get scared and want to stop using nuclear power altogether when they see what it takes to protect a "spent fuel pool" from a mortar attack, never mind a big plane.

Bush, announced to the world in one state of the union speech that there are 1000s of Al Qaeda on the loose and that they have the plans to our nuclear power plants! An early version of "Bring em on!"? Unfortunately it only takes one American loonie with a mortar on the other side of the river to spend the spent fuel, so to speak.

Or an accident. Indian Point is old, troubled, has had a poor safety and security record for a long time.

See Playboy feature story, http://www.pogo.org/m/ep/ep-playboy-2003.pdf

Get the pamphlet from Riverkeeper, "The Truth about our Nuclear Neighbor" that explains the trillions of dollars in devastation that a meltdown will cost, why the evacuation plan will not work, why we do not need Indian Point's electricity, why Indian Point is much safer closed than operating. Read it and sigh, and weep, and then, if you value your own sanity and serenity, get active.

What you can do with 20 minutes a week to Close Indian Point:

1. call Pataki AGAIN (518) 474-8390 or 212-681-4580 (takes about 40 seconds)
2. call your Congressperson's helper AGAIN (get better acquainted)
3. try something different like calling a radio station or a newspaper, or. . . . . .
4. call another friend and ask them to give 20 minutes a week to it
5. after you finish buying groceries spend 10 minutes of your "CIP20" with an Indian Pt. petition and/or some postcards hoping to find one (1) complete stranger who will pledge 20 minutes a week to closing Indian Point (stay in touch with them)
6. call up an artist, poet, musician or comedian you admire and ask them if they have done anything that addresses the actual Weapon of Mass Destruction in our lives
7. call Riverkeeper (845-424-4149) or Clearwater or any organization you know that is working on closing Indian Point and thank them for their work
8. call the person who coaxed a pledge of 20 minutes from you just to say you're keeping your word and hoping that they are still on it.

At the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest last weekend I spent a few hours with the Berkshire Stompers 12/8 path band (128path.org) passing out "The Truth about our Nuclear Neighbor" and a postcard that asks "what exactly do WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION look like?" (photo of Indian Point) A lot of people wouldn't look me in the eye or respond at all when I offered to talk with them about shutting down Indian Point; so much for the folksiness of about a third of the folk festers passing by. I discovered during the course of the afternoon that a lot of curious young people don't know that there is an old nuke plant nearby, don't know that Indian Point is on the Hudson, don't know how dangerous it is, haven't a clue as to what they might do to close it. Another substantial number of people gave me a "been there done that" shrug, some saying they lived fairly close to the plant, as if that explained how they were able to stop worrying about it, and wished us luck! About one person in 25 or 30 was already an activist of some kind, would think about signing on for 20 minutes a week of CIP work, and I have seven people who gave me their contact information and want to help Close Indian Point. I'm going to snail mail them a copy of this piece. And next weekend I hope to find another 3 or 4 "CIP 20" pledgers.

This may not be America's Solidarnosc, but maybe it will do until the real thing comes along. IF this regime can commit us to building new nuclear power plants for a transition from centrally controlled fossil fuels to centrally controlled nuclear energy then nuclear fleets, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear arms proliferation, nukes in space to power lasers that zap the next axis of evil, a nuke based empire capable of plundering the planet will seem plausible to many and a way for the rich to stay in power and get richer as all of us begin to glow in the dark. (The rich may find ways to glow slower, or glow less, but radiation once released is hard to contain or defend against.) IF we can stop nuclear power one Indian Point at a time, then all the other issues that have been raised by environmentalists, working people, the oppressed and disenfranchised of the planet, have a chance to be raised and resolved in favor of a sustainable future and social justice. IF we can't close old nukes and stop new ones, the people and their issues will both become radioactive toast.

From November, 2003

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