Group items tagged

BRIDGMAN - Fire crews were called to battle a small fire at the Cook Nuclear Plant, along Red Arrow Highway in Bridgman. Firefighters were called to put out the fire in a nonnuclear part of the plant, said Cook spokesman Bill Schalk late Saturday.

Let's assume for a moment, despite the recently revealed book-cooking and data-dumping, that the anthropogenic global-warming crowd is on to something. If we're really going to cook within 20 years, we better do more than commit economic suicide at the upcoming Copenhagen speechfest. Instead, let's use the threat of imminent roastage to institute a full-throttle, all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred campaign to develop new sources of energy. "The equivalent of war," to borrow a phrase from a former president. And let's see how many of those currently finger-wagging over our production of greenhouse gasses are willing to go along. The following are a few of the steps which will be required - if we're serious.

Let's assume for a moment, despite the recently revealed book-cooking and data-dumping, that the anthropogenic global-warming crowd is on to something. If we're really going to cook within 20 years, we better do more than commit economic suicide at the upcoming Copenhagen speechfest. Instead, let's use the threat of imminent roastage to institute a full-throttle, all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred campaign to develop new sources of energy. "The equivalent of war," to borrow a phrase from a former president. And let's see how many of those currently finger-wagging over our production of greenhouse gasses are willing to go along. The following are a few of the steps which will be required - if we're serious.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at the DC Cook Nuclear Power Station to review circumstances around a turbine generator fire and degradation of the fire suppression system. The two-unit plant is operated by American Electric Power and is located in Stevensville, Mich. On Sept. 20, 2008, a malfunction in the Unit 1 turbine generator resulted in a fire and caused the operators to manually shut down the reactor. The turbine generator transforms steam into electricity. All nuclear safety systems functioned as expected and were not affected by the fire which occurred in a building separate from the nuclear reactor. The utility declared an unusual event, the lowest of NRC's four emergency classifications, when the fire could not be extinguished within 15 minutes. The fire was extinguished 25 minutes after it started. There were no injuries and no hazard to the public.

BRIDGMAN, Mich. (AP) - Investigations of security practices at American Electric Power Co.'s Cook Nuclear Plant in southwest Michigan have led to the suspensions of six people who work at the facility. The Herald-Palladium in St. Joseph reports Saturday that investigations by AEP and security provider Wackenhut Nuclear Services found two "brief and isolated instances" of officer inattention and inappropriate use of security cameras.

American Electric Power Co. says a damaged reactor at its Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant will not be back in service until at least next September or perhaps even sometime in 2010. The plant is near Bridgman in Berrien County's Lake Township. One of its two reactors was shut down on Sept. 20 after severe vibrations caused by broken low-pressure turbine blades damaged the main turbine and generator, causing a fire.

Chairman Boxer, Ranking Member Inhofe, distinguished members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on some of the crucial issues surrounding the licensing process for the proposed facility for long-term storage of lethal, long-lived nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. My name is Kenneth Cook and I am president of Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit environmental research and advocacy organization that uses the power of information to protect public health and the environment. EWG has offices in Washington, DC and Oakland, California.

"Port Penn resident Julie L. Harrington is surrounded by nuclear reactors. So is Dae Y. Kwak in Hockessin and Carl Cook in Middletown. In fact, no region in America has so many people living within the overlapping, 50-mile planning areas of so many nuclear power reactors as northern Delaware and nearby areas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, according to a review of nuclear sites and Census Bureau statistics by The News Journal."

For those Vermonters not living in the immediate vicinity of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, it is possible that the issues of safety and liability seem to be someone else's problem. However, with the restructuring plan cooked up by Entergy and supported by Gov. Douglas, this will not be the case in the future.

With Wall Street unwilling to finance new nuclear plants, U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and John Warner of Virginia have cooked up a scheme to provide $544 billion -­ yes, with a "b" - in subsidies for new nuclear power plant development. Their move will be debated on the floor of the Senate Tuesday, June 3.

With Wall Street unwilling to finance new nuclear plants, U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and John Warner of Virginia have cooked up a scheme to provide $544 billion-yes, with a "b"-in subsidies for new nuclear power plant development.

Eliza Johnson knows that all the money in the world can't raise her husband and daughter from their graves. If it could, she'd find a way to earn, beg, borrow or steal enough to see Fruitie Johnson and Deborah Lawhorn again. She'd love to know how good it would feel to talk to them once more, to laugh, to have a reason to cook a big meal and lay it out on the empty table in her wood-paneled dining room. To Johnson, that would be a victory, not a check from the companies she holds responsible for the cancers that killed them and others in Apollo, Leechburg, Vandergrift and Parks Township.

In an era when the corporate media and the corporate politicians and the corporate military men gang up together and denounce and threaten other countries because of their nuclear related activities, they should spend much of that rhetorical energy by cross-examining themselves in a mirror. North Korea's latest nuclear test received much more attention than its earlier 'possible' test because of its greater power and the strategic message sent by its politically timed Taepodong II rocket launch. Iran has moved a little bit off the radar screen as its elections have proven more interesting than its nuclear 'threat' but it is under increasing scrutiny as it reaches weapons potential. When placed in relation to this "cautionary history", North Korea and Iran are acting only as all other nuclear powers have acted in the past, for the main theme behind In Mortal Hands is that of lies, deceit, deception, cover-ups, and secrecy to cover up the real issues with the nuclear industry. The real issue as reiterated constantly and perceptively by Stephanie Cooke is that of an industry whose central purpose is to create fissile material for weapons production regardless of and in spite of all other attempts to equate nuclear energy with peaceful purposes and with the 'greening' of the energy industry.

"Dr. Helen Caldicott, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, will speak at St. Michael's College at 6 p.m. March 29 on the medical hazards of the nuclear age. The 71-year-old activist, pediatrician, author and grandmother of seven spoke via telephone from Spain a few days ago, where she had traveled to lecture at an international conference. Caldicott grew up in Australia and spends her free time there in a house in a small fishing village on the coast of New South Wales. She enjoys cooking and puttering in her garden, where kangaroos and exotic birds add to the beauty. She lectures and travels widely, and among her other projects is establishing a new nonprofit that will use social media to spread the anti-nuke message. Here's an account of her conversation with Free Press reporter Molly Walsh."

" "We, the people must return to our very effective battle that shut down nuclear reactors as an energy source in the 1970s and 1980s. We did it before and we can do it again." - Les Blough In early March, European media outlets picked up a shocking story about nuclear power - a story so horrifying, it seemed as if Halloween had come early this year. This news, in fact, stands to jeopardize the health and safety - the very lives - of Europeans and others throughout the world... including, quite sadly, those living in the US. The mainstream media, long considered the mouthpiece for corporate and government interests, has failed to cover this macabre-yet-real life news. As such, few Americans seem to have any clue about the catastrophic danger now being cooked up from coast to coast - and many points in between. And even though we may not know it yet, Europeans are keenly aware of this clear and undeniable danger. And by danger, we're talking about nothing less than the next Chernobyl-in-the making."

-With no end in sight to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan's neighbors are increasingly stepping up efforts to curb food imports, both fresh and processed, from parts of Japan. South Korea has temporarily banned vegetables from Fukushima and four other prefectures. In addition, the Seoul government on Thursday announced a new measure that calls for government-issued documents for all food products -- mostly processed foods -- from Tokyo, Miyagi and six other prefectures certifying safe levels of radioactive iodine and cesium. The new requirement takes effect May 1. South Korea is also requesting that products from 34 other prefectures be accompanied by documents identifying their origin. As the Japanese have yet to decide whether to accede to the request, importation of such familiar Japanese products as sake rice wine, snacks and cooking sauces, is expected, in effect, to come to a halt starting next week. Another neighbor, Taiwan, has also prohibited food imports from five prefectures, including Fukushima. In addition, all fresh produce and some processed foods from Japan must be tested for radioactivity when they arrive.