Poll On Closing Down Entergy's Indian Point Reactors

Entergy and the NRC are wrongfully trying to force the community that plays host to the aging and decrepit reactors that are the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant to accept a re licensing of the facility...this was not what we had agreed to in the first place, and with the serious problems at the facility, including rapidly failing spent fuel rod storage tanks that are leaking radioactive materials into the Hudson River, citizens need to take action. To that end, we are putting up this poll to get and idea of what kinds of civil protests people would be interesting in taking part in.

Almost $300 Million For Entergy While Victims of Hurricane Katrina SUFFER Still

This just in from our Washington Scandal Blog...While individuals and families struggle to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, our taxes reimburse Entergy 90 cents on the dollar! What is wrong with THIS PICTURE? Meanwhile, they could have skipped their plan to BUY BACK STOCK to the TUNE OF $400 Million, and covered their OWN LOSSES. If Entergy gets 90 cents on the dollar in losses reimbursed, where is THAT SAME TREATMENT for the citizens?

Tuesday, December 26, 2006
After Hurricane Katrina, Little Money For Poor To Rebuilt Homes While Entergy Gets HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS!

Cost of Nuclear Energy Subsidized By Our Taxes While Families In New Orleans Do Without...

We all know the mistakes made in New Orleans, and other areas of the South in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, or do we? Let us pose a hypothetical question to America, and more importantly to those who have NOT BEEN ABLE TO REBUILD after Hurricane Katrina.

Imagine if you could have two choices...in the first choice, you could have your monthly utility rates go up as much as $48.00 a month, but in exchange for that increase in your utility rates, there would be and additional amount of grant money available in the form of block grants of over $300 MILLION dollars. In the second choice, your utility rates will still be increased by at least $15.00 per month, there will be no money for individuals to return to their homes and rebuild, but ONE COMPANY will recieve almost $300 Million in BLOCK GRANTS...which would you choose?

Sadly, you do not GET A CHOICE, government made it for you. In two states, Entergy has been awarded almost $300 MILLION in those very block grants...this becomes even more of a rape of victims of Hurricane Katrina when you realize Entergy has been quietly buying back stock with $400 MILLION they had set aside for that very purpose. They have $400 MILLION for stock buy backs, but want OUR TAXES to cover their losses from Hurrican Katrina? We are all in the wrong business! In short, the government has decided they have the money to COVER ENTERGY'S LOSES from Hurricane Katrina, but not your losses! Where is the public OUTCRY? Sure you will fine the excepts below from Entergy's Earnings Call to their key players very enligtening.


Entergy Q3 2006 Earnings Call Transcript
Posted on Oct 31st, 2006 with stocks: ETR

http://utility.seekingalpha.com/article/19624

*

Good morning. We know many of you are preparing for the financial conference. We’re also aware that many [of you] are releasing earnings and holding teleconferences this week. With these activities in mind, I will try to keep to the highpoints, particularly on storm recovery. As a result of Governor Barbour's decisive timely actions, Entergy Mississippi has received Community Development Block Grant Funds in the amount of $81 million. The money is now officially in the bank. That’s equivalent to $0.90 on the dollar for Katrina's restoration cost just as Governor Barbour promised from day one.

*

And in New Orleans, two major milestones were reached last week when Entergy New Orleans filed its proposed plan for reorganizations with the US Bankruptcy Court and reached agreement with the New Orleans City Council on a rate plan.

Starting with the plan of reorganization, I'm particularly pleased to report that it anticipates full compensation to all Entergy New Orleans stakeholders. The proposed plan represents the combination of extensive efforts with federal, state, and local regulators, and law makers to gain support for Community Development Block Grants, rate relief, and insurance proceeds, each of which is critical to Entergy New Orleans emergence. The plan would enable Entergy New Orleans to emerge in a manner that ensures Entergy New Orleans customers are served by an ongoing financially viable entity, pay those creditors, and protects the rights of investors. Certainly, the plan is approved by the Bankruptcy Court and the creditors, Entergy New Orleans could emerge from bankruptcy before the end of 2007 following the completion of the precedent that are set forth in the plan. Perhaps the most important of these conditions is the receipt of the $200 million of community development block grant that was approved in mid- mid October by Louisiana Recovery Authority. We are pleased that Govern Blanco and members of the LRA recognized that community development block grants will help make Entergy's New Orleans customer rates more affordable than otherwise it would be, something that is clearly is important to the economic recovery of the city and of the state.

Other conditions call for reaching acceptable agreement with the New Orleans City Council on post storms filing that were made in June including creating a storm reserves to provide liquidity to meet future potential needs and receiving assurances that expected insurance claim proceeds of approximately $250 million for New Orleans.

On the regulatory recovery front, Entergy New Orleans reached a settlement agreement that was unanimously approved by the New Orleans City Council last Friday on a phased-in electric and gas base rate plan to be fully implemented by January 1, 2008, consistent with the [traditions] of the plan of reorganization that have been filed with the bankruptcy court.

The council also approves the creation of a $75 million storm reserve to be collected over a period of 10 years and establish emergency rate relief provisions to ensure that Entergy New Orleans will obtain a expedient rate relief to have the means, to maintain liquidity, and receive timely payments should a Hurricane Katrina-type event occur in the future, let's hope not.

Entergy Stock Holders...You Should Be Asking Questions

So, this just in from a little bird.........

Could Entergy be shorting changing it's SHARE HOLDERS by keeping dividends down? Here is the skinny on it, and you be the judge, as it is not a stock to own if you ask me.

Seems that the dividends were again kept WAY DOWN...meanwhile, seems that Entergy is very quietly BUYING BACK THEIR OWN SHARES...to the tune this year alone according to minutes found online of $400 MILLION.

Now, this may be good down the line for those who still have stock, but ask yourselves this...if they were using that money to PAY DIVIDENDS, would your price be going up? In short, it does seem like they are using coming profits to shrink the pool of investors, rather than distributing said profits to those already in the loop, and by keeping dividends well below the industry averages, would that NOT KEEP YOUR SHARE PRICE DOWN just when they are wanting to buy a lot of it back up?

WOW....Christmas Day Video SLAMS Indian Point Relicensing

Just in from Washington Scandal, a new hard hitting video on the deploring and decaying Indian Point Reactors, and the Entergy wrong sighted plan to have the NRC relicense these nuclear accident time bombs. The time has come for concerned citizens, as well as all ANTI NUKE groups to unite under the common cause of SHUTTING DOWN INDIAN POINT...to that end, Entergy Watch invites ALL groups opposing Indian Point that would like a link on this site to email said link to roycepenstinger@aol.com so that we can get you listed on our side bar. Further, we call on John Hall, Maurice Hinchey and any other Congressman members with a heart, and with concern for human health and the environment to hold IMMEDIATE CITIZEN HEARINGS in the affected CIRCLE OF DEATH, or as it has now been dubbed, the Triangle of Death (representing the three reactors).

Monday, December 25, 2006

Entergy's Indian Point-A Christmas Day Video Present...SHUT THEM DOWN
With the recent accident involving a truck load of Fuel Grade Enriched Uranium Oxide from Kurihama Japan this past week, the time has come for America to wake up to the REALITY that we are one accident away from our own Nuclear Holocaust, a nuclear death zone of biblical proportions, far worse than Chernobyl or even Hiroshima. Indian Point's spent nuclear fuel rod storage facilities ARE LEAKING, and NRC records and Entergy's own documents admit to cracks in the reactor domes...yet, they want to relicense them. The time has come to just say no.

Another NRC Accident Cover Up?

This from the Washington Scandal Blog...Global Nuclear Fuel (GE) would have us all believe that the accident involving a truck carrying 6,500 pounds of fuel grade uranium from Japan was NO BIG DEAL...we disagree. Further, how many people are aware of the deal that was penned between Entergy (owner of the decrepid Indian Point Reactors) and Global Nuclear Fuel for the next ten years...the biggest deal so far for Global Nuclear Fuel. Anyone out there know the 10 CFR rules on Global Nuclear Fuel potentially mixing spent fuel into the process, thus comingling of materials, as word on the street says the materials from Japan were being returned to America for reprocessing?

Reactor Grade Uranium Fuel Accident...MORE BREAKING NEWS.

First, before I break what I have uncovered so far, find it interesting that the Pro-Nuke People RACED to this blog to put up a PROPAGANDA PIECE. Now, let's share what I have found out so far.


Did We Just Dodge A Nuclear BULLET?

What's wrong with the story that there is no story in the National News when a flat bed truck carrying a container of Fuel Grade Uranium Dioxide tips over coming down the exit ramp at the intersection of I-95 and I-40 in Johnson County, North Carolina? The story briefly broke on Anderson Cooper's 360 last night with a singular photo of the truck laying over on it's side, and Anderson Cooper telling us that a truck hauling uranium fuel had tipped over, more details to follow. Problem is, those details never came forward, the story is almost NON-Existent in the news loops. Speaking with an unidentified staffer in Congressman Hinchey's office, they said they could find nothing on the accident, and only had what I had sent them.

As a grassroots person opposed to the re licensing of Entergy's failing nuclear reactors at Indian Point here in New York, the story instantly caught my attention, and when no additional reporting was forthcoming, I started to tract the story down myself...what is being found out is very disturbing, and raises serious concerns about both the NRC, and our National Security Response in the case of a NUCLEAR INCIDENT. They (NRC) seem to have dropped the ball in their own response to the accident (there was NONE) and the people at Homeland Security apparently took DRASTIC STEPS to kill the story, keep it out of the news cycle.

Lee Cox with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Health provided much of the base details of the incident and it's aftermath to me over the phone today. According to Mr. Cox, the driver of the truck (Ken Brotsche who is 63) stated in his statement on the accident, that as he began coming down the ramp the brakes went out, and when he tried to shift gears to correct the problem he over compensated and the truck went over. In speaking with David Bennett and Donny Lester of Tri-State Border Transport (They said this was the first accident of its type in the 55 years they have been hauling radioactive materials for the nuclear industry and DOE) said this was the first they had heard of the drivers comments, and suggested that there was a terminology mix up in how the driver described things. Their contention is that the driver went to apply the Jake Brake while the driver was in neutral, and that a Jake Brake will not work if the truck is in neutral. They went on further to state their oldest trucks are 2003 Peterbilt's, and that Ken Brotsche was driving a 2004 Peterbilt at the time of the incident. The driver went on to say that his wife Nancy had been sleeping in the back bunk, and though removed to a local hospital she had only received minor injuries. So, did the brakes go out suggesting inadequate maintenance, or was this driver error...where is the truck, and who is examining it?

Lee Cox went on further to state, that the materials on said truck were high level powdered uranium and not within the jurisdictional control of North Carolina as an Agreement State with the NRC, but within the control of the NRC. However because the NRC had not dispatched any one to the scene, the North Carolina Environmental Health people had acted as lead agency for the safety of their citizens and the environment of North Carolina. In short, they COVERED NRC's ASS. This was/is interesting, as when NRC's emergency response people were contacted last night around 10:30, they, when pressed, admitted that the accident had indeed occurred, but that they were not investigating it as it was the responsibility of the state of North Carolina as a Agreement State to act as lead agency. Simply put, WRONG. Once uranium becomes ENRICHED, it is the NRC's duty and responsibility...which is why the NRC in a phone conversation with Lee Cox this morning said they would be taking over as the lead agency. What is disconcerting in this, is that the NRC had a MAJOR INCIDENT going on with one of their licensee's, and never put one boot on the ground in North Carolina. What is more alarming, is this was not just ANY Nuclear Fuel, but spent fuel from a Japanese reactor...more on that later.

Digging further, it was learned that the licensee charged with the safety for these materials was Global Nuclear Fuel (GE) out of Wilmington, North Carolina. The person handling DAMAGE CONTROL is one Alan Mabbry and I believe Tom Rumsy, who admitted the truck was carrying Reactor Grade Uranium Fuel in powdered form, but that the container was not breached. Or was it? Donnie Lester from the trucking company admitted this set of facts to be the case, stating that the container had been locked down onto the flat bed trailer, and though tipped over on it's side, it had never broke lose from the lock down mechanism...the trailer was hoisted right side up by not one, but two cranes, and eventually the container of high level fuel was placed onto another flatbed. Alan Bennett said that East Bound I-40 had been shut down for safety reasons, and that the response team for this incident involved several hundred emergency responders...any one at this point wondering where video at eleven is, or something in the way of video first thing this morning? This should be FRONT PAGE NEWS across the entire United States, so who is sitting on this story? More on this later in the article, as it would take all day for that answer to emerge.

Bennett was not overly forth coming with information, and suggested I contact the trucking company...they were very frank and honest, and as I spoke with them, more details came out about the incident, and the materials in question. The materials had been picked up in Portsmouth, Virginia, and we are talking some seriously LETHAL STUFF HERE. You see, what this truck was hauling, was SPENT FUEL being sent back to Global Nuclear Fuel for REPROCESSING...but wait a minute, we do not reprocess our fuel here in the United States...Donnie Lester explained that one for me...the spent fuel was from OVER SEAS, had been shipped into America on a cargo vessel for reprocessing from some foreign country. They would not, or could not identify the country of origin for these materials, so I called back Lee Cox who verified that the material was from a reactor in Kurihama, Japan...now, explain this one to me....Lee was adamant that it was not spent uranium from the reactor, yet agreed it was here for reprocessing. Seems you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Maybe someone from the NRC who so far has had no comment, though I left my number with three people could clarify this for us?

I was still confused (as I stated earlier) though on how such an accident could occur, that CNN could briefly break it, then have the whole thing POOF up into thin air...enter Homeland Security, one incident Commander, and Lt. E Mark Dalton of the North Carolina Highway State Patrol, first on the scene. This axis of security is a perfect example of the Bush Administration's desire to keep us in the general public STUPID. These three in some combination as yet unknown, though Lee said Lt. Dalton made the call, decided to throw up and implement and EXCLUSION ZONE...now, this is a scary thing in a free society...you see, the press was CUT OFF, denied access to the scene.

Lt. Dalton so far has refused to comment, refused to let me know if this Exclusion zone included aerial access to the area, though looking at the size of the on the ground force involved in the cover up (I mean clean up), one has to assume it included keeping aerial equipment away from the scene...otherwise, how does one explain no follow up on CNN? A spokesperson for the North Carolina Highway State Patrol verified that numerous members of the press were denied access to the area, were not allowed to get even close to it. Which is odd, since Lt. Dalton had also made the decision that there had been NO BREACH of the CONTAINER, decided there was no need to evacuate any one in the general area...if it was so SAFE, why was the press kept away, other than someone(s) trying to cover up the whole event, keep it from becoming MAJOR NEWS. Was this the ACCIDENT that the Nuclear Industry and NRC have tried to convince us for years could never happen...did we just miss a disaster of biblical proportions?

There is a SKUNK in the wood pile here, and this blogger does not have the tools or manpower to get to all of it, though have uncovered what I can. To that end, I am listing here all the contacts I have so far been able to dig up, in the hopes that someone out there can get this story the coverage it deserves.

Lt. E. M. Dalton 1 (800) 412-9532 I tried this number, but it is a limited area access number than cannot be reached from my area. (fax# 919 737 9528)

Alan Maybry (With Global Nuclear) 910 675-5601

Donnie Lester and David Bennett Tri-State Motor Transport Company (417) 621-2658

Lee Cox and Beverly Hall (North Carolina Division of Environmental Health 919 571-4141

North Carolina Emergency Response Hot Line (Verified the accident) 800 858 0368

Tom Rumsy 910 646-6004

Number to access North Carolina Public Relations Department 919 733 5027

Labels: Entergy, failing reactors, Global Nuclear Fuel, Homeland Security is a joke, Indian Point, Kurihama Japan, NRC, politics, Uranium Oxide

Entergy...Keeping Them Honest

Living within the the five mile CIRCLE OF DEATH that is the hideously dark and fetid shadow of Indian Point 2 and 3, and knowing that re licensing is not good for us as citizens, this blog has been prepared to A) keep Entergy Nuclear North East honest, B) hold the NRC accountable, and force them to protect the public instead of their licensees, and C) provide people information on the decrepit failing facilities that are Buchanan's failing reactors known collectively as Indian Point without the bias and conflict of interest exhibited by people earning a living and/or benefiting financially from the continued unsafe operation of these facilities. It is believed that citizens should have access to facts NOT CLOUDED by greed and corporate bottom line profits, so that they can form opinions based on unbiased information, rather than manipulated half truths, or worse information formed in a fashion to mitigate true risks to our health and the environment. The TIME HAS COME to share the ugly truth about Nuclear Power, time to hold Entergy and the NRC to their promise of closing the failing and flawed facilities when their license expires in 2015...we need decommissioning, not re licensing. Our area of the Hudson River Valley has been raped and pillaged long enough, and the time for action to shut this facility down is upon us.

Entergy Watch-Royce Penstinger