Ea O Ka Aina: Shutdown

Showing posts with label Shutdown. Show all posts

Private party in New Jersey

SUBHEAD: After closing public parks and beaches Gov. Christie takes his family to state beach park for some fun.

By Abby Zimet on 3 July 2017 for Common Dreams -
(https://www.commondreams.org/further/2017/07/03/thats-just-way-it-goes-these-people-are-grotesque)

Image above: Aerial photo of Island Beach State Park in New Jersey where Governor Chis Christie took wife, family and security detail for some fun in the sun after he closed public and state parks on Monday of this Fourth of July weekend. Photo by Andrew Mills. From original article.

[IB Publisher's note: This is the end of Chris Christie's career. First he was fired by Trump and now this pathetic self inflicted wound.]

Talk about your profanely perfect metaphor: This hot and sunny weekend, big-time New Jersey cretin and governor Chris Christie closed down the state's parks and beaches due to a budget stalemate.

Then he hopped into his State Police helicopter and took his entire family to the 10-mile, now blissfully pristine Island Beach State Park, which thanks to the closing they had to themselves.

All day, meanwhile, police posted at the park's gates turned away the hot and frustrated peasants who pay Christie's salary as a, lest we forget, so-called public servant. Later, the family and their friends hunkered down in the palatial residence provided there by - yes! - also us.

Asked about it at a press conference later in the day, Christie - who boasts a 15% approval rating, or the lowest of any governor in the country - first lied that he hadn't gotten any sun that day. When confronted by photos from an enterprising photojournalist, his spokesman conceded “the governor was on the beach briefly” but "he had a baseball hat on.”

Because one middle finger to his public wasn't enough, Christie added another when asked if this was fair: “That’s just the way it goes,” he said. “Run for governor and you can have a residence there.”

Welcome to the class war, where Christie and the big orange creep and their entitled ilk have no more fucks to give as long as they can get away with it. Soon, let them eat sand.

Image above: Video still of NJ Governor Chis Christie with wife watching the press helicopters capturing his "private" beach jaunt. Taken by Andrew Mills. From (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/gov-chris-christie-unapologetic-beach-photos-48431133).

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Fukushima cleanup cost doubles

SUBHEAD: The estimated cost of cleaning up the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has doubled to $190 billion.

By Mari Yamaguchi on 9 December 2016 in the Garden Island News -
(http://m.thegardenisland.com/news/world/japan-doubles-cost-estimate-for-fukushima-cleanup/article_dce56c40-7035-54cd-8973-3a3664d1509f.html)

Image above: A member of the media tour group wearing a protective suit and a mask looks at the No. 3 reactor building at TEPCO's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. From original article.

The estimated cost of cleaning up Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has doubled to nearly 22 trillion yen ($190 billion), with decommissioning expenses expected to continue to increase, a government panel said Friday.

The estimate raises the decommissioning part of the total costs to 8 trillion yen ($70 billion) from the current 2 trillion. Costs for compensation, decontamination of the area and waste storage have also grown significantly.

The plant suffered multiple meltdowns following a massive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Officials say its decommissioning will take several decades. Rising cost estimates mean an increased burden on consumers.

Kunio Ito, a Hitotsubashi University professor of commerce who heads the panel, said it is inevitable that the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, will pass on to customers part of the costs.

He said the estimate for decommissioning is sketchy, but is needed to show the public how much the national project will roughly cost. The estimated increase of 6 trillion yen ($53 billion) is modeled after the example of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant cleanup in Pennsylvania following its 1979 partial meltdown.

The TMI cleanup took five years and nearly $1 billion to remove 136 tons of melted fuel from one reactor. The Fukushima plant has twice as much melted fuel in each of three damaged reactors, meaning six times as much melted fuel must to be removed, the government-funded decommissioning and compensation organization said.

It came up with the figure of $53 billion by factoring in the more extensive development of robotics and other equipment needed at Fukushima. The estimate does not include the cost of final waste management.

The panel has been discussing ways to keep TEPCO alive so it can cover the cost that it is responsible for. TEPCO has already received a government bailout, and the panel recommended that Fukushima cleanup-related operations effectively stay under state control until the next review in 2019.

The 10-member panel commissioned by the Trade and Industry Ministry plans to urge TEPCO to undergo a drastic restructuring and reforms, possibly with a new business alliance with companies in and outside Japan, to stay afloat. The panel will submit its recommendations in a final report to Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko later this month.

"This is a chance for innovation and cost-cutting to push forward Fukushima's reconstruction," Seko told reporters. "We expect TEPCO to fulfill its responsibility."

TEPCO President Naomi Hirose, who was summoned to parliament Friday, pledged to live up to expectations.

See also:

Reporting pipeline shutdown a felony

SUBHEAD: Filmaker Deia Schlosberg was arrested and charged with felonies with up to 45 years in prison.

By Nika Knight on 15 October 2016 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/15/filmmaker-faces-45-years-prison-reporting-dakota-access-protests)

Image above: Deia Schlosberg accepting Emmy Awaard in 2014. Photo by Danny Moloshok. From original article.

In an ominous sign for press freedom, documentary filmmaker and journalist Deia Schlosberg was arrested and charged with felonies carrying a whopping maximum sentence of up to 45 years in prison—simply for reporting on the ongoing Indigenous protests against fossil fuel infrastructure.

Schlosberg was arrested in Walhalla, North Dakota on Tuesday for filming activists shutting down a tar sands pipeline, part of a nationwide solidarity action organized on behalf of those battling the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The filmmaker was held without access to a lawyer for 48 hours, her colleague Josh Fox wrote in the Nation, and her footage was confiscated by the police.

Schlosberg was then charged Friday with three felonies, the Huffington Post reported: "conspiracy to theft of property, conspiracy to theft of services and conspiracy to tampering with or damaging a public service. Together, the charges carry 45 years in maximum prison sentences."

"They have in my view violated the First Amendment," Fox told the Huffington Post, referring to the state's Pembina County Sheriff's Department. “It’s fucking scary, it knocks the wind of your sails, it throws you for a loop. They threw the book at Deia for being a journalist."

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden observed that Schlosberg faces more years in prison than he does for leaking secret documents about the NSA's mass surveillance program in 2013 tweeting

"This reporter is being prosecuted for covering the North Dakota oil protests. For reference, I face a mere 30 years."

"Deia isn't alone," observed Fox in an op-ed in the Nation. "The arrest of journalists, filmmakers, and others witnessing and reporting on citizen protests against fossil-fuel infrastructure amid climate change is part of a worrisome and growing pattern."

Indeed, the news of Schlosberg's arrest followed Democracy Now's Amy Goodman announcement earlier this week that she will return to North Dakota to combat charges she faces as a result of reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline protest last month.

"Goodman, whose camera crew filmed a private security team attacking peaceful Native American protesters with dogs and pepper spray, faces charges of criminal trespassing—which many have said amounts to an assault on press freedom," as Common Dreams reported.

It also emerged late Saturday that a North Dakota state prosecutor has dropped the trespassing charge and is seeking instead to charge Goodman with participating in a "riot," Democracy Now reported.
"I came back to North Dakota to fight a trespass charge. They saw that they could never make that charge stick, so now they want to charge me with rioting," said Goodman. "I wasn't trespassing, I wasn't engaging in a riot, I was doing my job as a journalist by covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

A warrant for Goodman's arrest was issued September 8th.

Meanwhile, actor Shailene Woodley was arrested Monday while live-streaming a prayer action at a Dakota Access construction site. "She was singled out, the police told her, because she was well-known and had 40,000 people watching live on her Facebook page," Fox wrote. "Other filmmakers shooting protest actions along the pipeline have also been arrested."

"Journalism is not a crime; it is a responsibility," Fox said in a press statement about this pattern of arrests. "The actions of the North Dakota Police force are not just a violation of the climate, but a violation of the constitution."

Supporters have created a petition calling on the authorities in North Dakota to drop charges against Schlosberg, Goodman, and other journalists arrested for doing their work and reporting on the protests against Dakota Access.

Neil Young, Mark Ruffalo, Daryl Hannah, and other celebrities have also signed an open letter to President Barack Obama and North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, calling on the leaders to intervene and for Schlosberg's charges to be dropped. The charges were "unfair, unjust, and illegal," the letter said, according to Reuters.

"This is not only about reporting on the climate-change movement," Fox argued in the Nation. "Journalists have also been arrested reporting on Black Lives Matter, the movement for Native rights, and many other important movements the corporate media fails to cover. The First Amendment and the Constitution are at stake in this case. If we lose it, we lose America too."

Shutdown of all tar sands pipelines

SUBHEAD: Ten activists are in jail for shutting down all tar sands pipelines entering the United States.

By Lauren McCauley on 11 October 2016 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/11/my-act-love-climate-activists-shut-down-all-us-canada-tar-sands-pipelines)

Image above: Some of the activists involved with shutting down the tar sands pipelines for #ShutItDown. From original article.

Five activists shut down all the tar sands pipelines crossing the Canada-U.S. border Tuesday morning, in a bold, coordinated show of climate resistance amid the ongoing fight against the Dakota Access

The activists employed manual safety valves to shut down Enbridge's line 4 and 67 in Leonard, Minnesota; TransCanada's Keystone pipeline in Walhalla, North Dakota; Spectra Energy's Express pipeline in Coal Banks Landing, Montana; and Kinder-Morgan's Trans-Mountain pipeline in Anacortes, Washington.

The activists, who planned the action to coincide with the International Days of Prayer and Action With Standing Rock, expressed feeling "duty bound to halt the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels...in the absence of any political leadership" to address the withering goal of keeping global temperature increase beneath the 2°C climate threshold.

"I have signed hundreds of petitions, testified at dozens of hearings, met with most of my political representatives at every level, to very little avail," said 64-year-old mother Annette Klapstein of Bainbridge Island, Washington, who was arrested just before publication.

"I have come to believe that our current economic and political system is a death sentence to life on earth, and that I must do everything in my power to replace these systems with cooperative, just, equitable and love-centered ways of living together. This is my act of love."

Fifty-nine-year-old Ken Ward of Corbette, Oregon, who was also arrested, said, "There is no plan of action, policy or strategy being advanced now by any political leader or environmental organization playing by the rules that does anything but acquiesce to ruin.

Our only hope is to step outside polite conversation and put our bodies in the way. We must shut it down, starting with the most immediate threats—oil sands fuels and coal."

The action comes two days after a U.S. federal court of appeals lifted an injunction on the Dakota Access project, to the dismay of the Indigenous water protectors and their supporters across the U.S. and Canada.

"Because of the climate change emergency, because governments and corporations have for decades increased fossil fuel extraction and carbon emissions when instead we must dramatically reduce carbon emissions; I am committed to the moral necessity of participating in nonviolent direct action to protect life," added activist Leonard Higgins, 64, from Eugene, Oregon.

The activists are all members of the group Climate Direct Action, which is providing live updates on the coordinated shut-downs on its website and Facebook page. Others shared statements in support, as well as images and videos of the actions on social media with the hashtag #shutitdown.

Tim DeChristopher's Climate Disobedience Action Fund is also supporting the action and has set up a legal fund for the activists' defense.

Image above: Michael Foster, 52, pictured here, said, "All of our climate victories are meaningless if we don’t stop extracting oil, coal and gas now." From original article.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Time for Direct Action on CO2 10/12/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Why Standing Rock is test for Obama 10/8/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Why we are Singing for Water 10/8/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Labor's Dakota Access Pipeline Crisis 10/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Standing Firm for Standing Rock 10/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Contact bankers behind DAPL 9/29/16
Ea O Ka Aina: NoDAPL demo at Enbridge Inc 9/29/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Militarized Police raid NoDAPL 9/28/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Stop funding of Dakota Access Pipeline 9/27/16
Ea O Ka Aina: UN experts to US, "Stop DAPL Now!" 9/27/16
Ea O Ka Aina: No DAPL solidarity grows 9/21/16
Ea O Ka Aina: This is how we should be living 9/16/16
Ea O Ka Aina: 'Natural Capital' replacing 'Nature' 9/14/16
Ea O Ka Aina: The Big Difference at Standing Rock 9/13/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Jill Stein joins Standing Rock Sioux 9/10/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Pipeline temporarily halted 9/6/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Native Americans attacked with dogs 9/5/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Mni Wiconi! Water is Life! 9/3/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Sioux can stop the Pipeline 8/28/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Officials cut water to Sioux 8/23/16
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Last California nuclear plant to close

SUBHEAD: Pacific Gas & Electric and Friends of the Earth have an agreement on Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant.

By I. Penn and S. Masunaga on 21 June 2016 for LA Times -
(http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diablo-canyon-nuclear-20160621-snap-story.html)

Image above: Humpback whale surfaces in front of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. From (http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article34133706.html).

One of California’s largest energy utilities took a bold step in the 21st century electricity revolution with an agreement to close its last operating nuclear plant and develop more solar, wind and other clean power technologies.

The decision announced Tuesday by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to close its beleaguered Diablo Canyon nuclear plant within the next decade runs counter to the nuclear industry’s arguments that curbing carbon emissions and combating climate change require use of nuclear power, which generates the most electricity without harmful emissions.

Instead, PG&E joined with longtime adversaries such as the Friends of the Earth environmental group to craft a deal that will bring the company closer to the mandate that 50% of California’s electricity generation come from renewable energy sources by 2030.

PG&E’s agreement will close the book on the state’s history as a nuclear pioneer, but adds to its clean energy reputation. California already leads the nation by far in use of solar energy generated by rooftop panels and by sprawling power arrays in the desert.

“California is already a leader in curtailing greenhouse gases,” said Peter Bradford, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Now they’re saying they can go even further. That’s potentially a model for other situations.”

Under the proposal, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County would be retired by PG&E after its current U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses expire in November 2024 and August 2025.

The power produced by Diablo Canyon’s two nuclear reactors would be replaced with investment in a greenhouse-gas-free portfolio of energy efficiency, renewables and energy storage, PG&E said. The proposal is contingent on a number of regulatory actions, including approvals from the California Public Utilities Commission.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, built against a seaside cliff near Avila Beach, provides 2,160 megawatts of electricity for Central and Northern California — enough to power more than 1.7 million homes.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after a long debate over the fate of the plant, which sits near several earthquake fault lines. The Hosgri Fault, located three miles from Diablo Canyon, was discovered in 1971, three years after construction of the plant began.

Calls to close Diablo Canyon escalated after a 2011 quake in Japan damaged two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant there, leading to dangerous radiation leaks. In the aftermath of that disaster, state and federal lawmakers called for immediate reviews of Diablo Canyon and the San Onofre nuclear plant in San Diego County, which was still in use.

The San Onofre plant was shut down for good in 2013 as a result of faulty equipment that led to a small release of radioactive steam and a heated regulatory battle over the plant's license.

In documents submitted to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission as recently as last year, PG&E said Diablo Canyon can safely withstand earthquakes, tsunamis and flooding.

Daniel Hirsch, director of the program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz, said PG&E’s agreement was thoughtful.

“It is not simply a decision to phase out the plant, but to replace it with efficiency and renewables,” he said. “So it is a very strong net gain for the environment.”

As the state boosts its energy efficiency goals and plans for renewables, including solar and wind power, Hirsch said, Diablo Canyon is “getting in the way.”

PG&E Chief Executive Tony Earley acknowledged the changing landscape in California, noting that energy efficiency, renewables and storage are “central to the state’s energy policy.”

“As we make this transition, Diablo Canyon’s full output will no longer be required,” he said. That eventually would make the nuclear plant too expensive to operate, Earley said during a conference call with reporters.

Hirsch tempered his approval with caution, saying that as long as the plant remains in operation, safety risks remain.

“Diablo really does pose a clear and present danger,” he said. “If we had an earthquake larger than the plant was designed for, you could have a Fukushima-type event that could devastate a large part of California.”

State senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) echoed Hirsch by saying nuclear energy is “inherently risky, and the Diablo Canyon Power Plant is vulnerable to damage from natural disasters that could threaten the well-being of millions of Californians. This transition will make our energy sources less volatile, more cost-effective, and benefit the air we breathe.”

In the mid-2000s, the nation’s utilities had anticipated a nuclear renaissance that would usher in a new age of centralized power plants. Power companies submitted proposals to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 31 new reactors. President George W. Bush pushed federal loan guarantees to hasten nuclear plant construction.

However, instead of a renaissance, the nuclear industry began to unravel.

Duke Energy announced in February 2013 that it would close the Crystal River, Fla., nuclear plant after a steam generator replacement project led to cracks in the concrete reactor containment building. The plant became too costly to fix.

In May 2013, Dominion Resources Inc., permanently shut down the Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin after the power company said it was no longer affordable to operate the facility.

A month later, Southern California Edison permanently closed the San Onofre plant after the determining that fixing the new but faulty steam generators would prove too expensive.

Perhaps the biggest problem for the nuclear industry was the vast amount of natural gas that became available in the United States because of fracking.

Natural gas plants now are far cheaper to build and operate than a nuclear plant. A natural gas facility runs at about 8 or 9 cents a kilowatt hour compared with twice that much for a nuclear plant.

And the push for renewable energy has turned attention to solar and wind power to help reduce emissions and combat human-caused climate change.

“The unraveling of the renaissance was not a surprise to anyone who understood the workings of the power markets,” said Bradford, the former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member. He serves as an expert witness in legal proceedings across the nation.

Bradford said PG&E’s plan for Diablo Canyon shows the flaws in arguments by the nuclear industry that a clean-energy network requires nuclear.

“It’s a very tough day for people who have been advocating for massive nuclear subsidies,” Bradford said.

Even after Diablo Canyon closes, Southern California will still get a small percentage of its electricity from Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant. Among the owners of the 4,000 megawatt nuclear plant in the Arizona desert are Southern California Edison, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Southern California Public Power Authority, whose members include municipal power companies supplying Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank and Anaheim.

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Indian Point Nuclear Accident

SUBHEAD: Operator unable to prevent its highly radioactive coolant from leaking into groundwater.

By Admin on 26 February 2016 for ENE News -
(http://enenews.com/uncontrollable-radioactive-flow-coming-nuclear-plant-nyc-actual-releases-trillions-times-higher-reported-during-latest-leak-cracks-multiple-spent-fuel-pools-intense-investigation-underway-be)

[IB Publisher's note: Emphasis below provided by ENE News Admin. Indian Point Nuclear Plant provides about one quarter of the regions electrical power and includes New York City. There is no politically or economically acceptable way to shut it down - at this time.]

Image above: Smoke rises from the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, New York, where last May an explosion and fire led to thousands of gallons of transformer fluid being released into the Hudson river. Photograph by Ricky Flores/AP. From (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/11/indian-point-nuclear-reactor-shut-down-blast-fire)

Inhabitat on 26 February 2016
No matter where you live, “uncontrollable radioactive flow” is not a phrase that you want to hear in relation to your local water source … According to the Huffington Post’s report, for more than a decade, the Indian Point plant has been unable to prevent its highly radioactive reactor and spent fuel pool coolant from leaking into groundwater routes that eventually lead into the Hudson River. Entergy, the operator of the plant, seems to zero in solely on tritium… The most recent leak, however, according to an assessment by the New York Department of State as part of its Coastal Zone Management Assessment, contains a variety of radioactive elements such as strontium-90, cesium-137, cobalt-60, and nickel-63 in addition to tritium…

Huffington Post on 15 February 2016
For more than a decade, it has been impossible for operators of the Indian Point nuclear power plant to stop highly radioactive reactor and spent fuel pool coolant from leaking into the groundwater and migrating to the Hudson River… there is no indication that the company has developed the ability to prevent the latest uncontrolled leaks from following the underground waterway into the Hudson. And because the river is a tidal estuary flowing as much as 20 miles above and below the nuclear site, radioactive contaminants may be sucked into the drinking water systems of several river towns… Entergy representatives declined to comment on planned and unplanned radioactive discharges into the environment. The sequence of events leading to leaks of radioactive liquids from Indian Point 2 is the subject of an intense investigation… to determine how the leak occurred and whether or not it can be stopped… In the past, the Coastal Zone Management report states, “radioactive releases have been detected at the Indian Point facility from cracks in two different spent fuel pools. Leaks of radioactive liquids from the Indian Point 2 spent fuel pools have reached the Hudson River”…

See also: CBS: Radiation leak "getting worse" at nuclear plant near NYC -- Levels increase over 120,000%, almost 15 million pCi/L -- Governor: "Extremely disconcerting" -- Expert: I don't think they know where it's coming from -- Radioactive Antimony now being detected (VIDEO)
Watch a local news broadcast on the most recent leak here

Previous Reports on Indian Point

SUBHEAD: Indian Point Plant contaminates the Hudson River with uncontrollable radioactive flow.

NY Daily News 11 February, 2016
Cuomo to launch probe into troubled Indian Point power plant as radioactive leak gets worse — The amount of radioactive tritium leaking from the Indian Point nuclear power plant is growing, officials said… New samples from groundwater monitoring wells show 80% higher concentrations of tritium compared with when the leak was first reported Saturday… Wednesday, [Cuomo] ordered a more sweeping investigation… “Last week the company reported alarming levels of radioactivity at three monitoring wells, with one well’s radioactivity increasing nearly 65,000%,” Cuomo said… “The news just keeps getting worse,” said Paul Gallay, president of the watchdog group Riverkeeper.

The Journal News 11 February 2016
Tritium levels reported last week were the ‘highest that they’ve seen to date‘ at the plant

WAMC 11 February 2016
Tritium Levels Spike In Groundwater… Additional testing has turned up higher levels of radioactive tritium in groundwater than what was reported last week at the Indian Point nuclear power plant… One reading showed an 80 percent increase in tritium levels over the 65,000 percent increase initially reported… [An NRC spokesman said] “So given the migration of that water, we would expect those to continue to go up for a period of time… Our specialist inspector will be there… tasked with trying to better understand exactly what happened”…

Associated Press 10 February 2016
New testing has shown that the amount of tritium in the groundwater below the Indian Point power plant in Buchanan, New York, is about 740 times the amount allowed in drinking water… Entergy Corp., which operates the plant at the edge of the Hudson River, said Wednesday that the latest samples from monitoring wells found tritium at a level of 14.8 million picocuries per liter [up from 12,300 pCi/L, a 120,000% increase]. The [EPA] has set a limit of no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking water… [C]ritics of nuclear plants said the mere fact of the leak’s occurrence is cause for concern, partly because investigators had yet to pinpoint how it happened. “There a leak somewhere, and I don’t think they know where it is,” said Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and former industry executive… Gundersen said he was concerned that other, potentially more problematic elements could also have leaked out… [Indian Point spokesman Jerry Nappi] said testing had also found elevated levels of antimony, at about 5,500 picocuries per liter… “It’s like an old car ready to fall apart“… said Assemblyman Tom Abinanti…

Reuters 10 Feb 2016: Entergy said it continues to look for the source of the tritium leak…

CBSNY/AP 10 February 2016
The radioactive water leak at the Indian Point Nuclear power plant is getting worse. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday that the level of radioactive tritium-contaminated water that leaked into the groundwater at the nuclear facility has increased by 80 percent since last week’s initial report… Cuomo called it “extremely disconcerting.” “Today, I have further directed that the three agencies integrate their investigations to thoroughly explore whether the operational problems that are suspected to have caused the uptick in unexpected outages of the plant may also be causing the leak of radioactive water into the environment”… the New York governor said.

WAMC 10 February 2016
Additional testing has turned up even higher levels of radioactive tritium than what was reported last week…

Watch FOX 5 NY’s broadcast here

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Activists shutdown big coal mine

SUBHEAD: "Here and No Further" activists storm coal fields and shutdown Europe's biggest polluter.

By Lauren McCauley on 17 August 2015 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/17/no-further-activists-storm-coal-fields-shut-down-europes-biggest-polluter)

http://www.islandbreath.org/2015Year/08/150818baggerbig.jpg

Image above: Activists place their bodies before a Bagger 288 digger, "the heaviest land vehicle in the world," halting operations, and stopping over 700,000 tons of dirty lignite coal from being extracted. Photo from 350.org. Click to embiggen. From original article.

People want a future free of climate change and that if you're not going to solve it for us, we're going to solve it for you,' said 350.org global managing director Payal Parekh.

In a stirring act of mass civil disobedience, roughly 1000 protesters stormed the gates of RWE's coalfields in Rhineland, Germany on Saturday, successfully shutting down operations for Europe's biggest carbon polluter.

Under the banner Ende Gelände, which means "here and no further," activists descended on the mine to send a direct message to officials that such extraction will no longer be tolerated amid the encroaching climate crisis.

"This action very clearly sent the signal to governments and the fossil fuel industry around the world that people are fed up and that people want a future free of climate change and that if you're not going to solve it for us, we're going to solve it for you," said 350.org global managing director Payal Parekh.

According to reports, early Saturday morning, an estimated 1,500 faced off with police wielding batons before roughly two-thirds of the protesters broke through and managed to enter the opencast lignite, or brown coal, mine. Lignite is a particularly dirty fossil fuel due to its high moisture content.
"Lignite is the number one climate killer worldwide," one activist said, "what's emitted from the lignite here is having a direct impact on the climate."

In an effort to evade security, the group approached in different "fingers." While police worked to remove much of the present media, a number of the protesters managed to climb atop the massive diggers, halting operations for the day. Others were rounded up and arrested by police and RWE security, who reportedly relied on pepper spray and excessive use of force.

While providing a rolling update on the action, 350.org noted the significance of these shut downs. Known as the Bagger 288, these machines are "the heaviest land vehicle in the world and it is built for no other purpose than ripping open the land in order to extract dirty coal," mining as much as 240,000 tons of coal every day.

"By stopping three of these diggers for the day the participants in this action have potentially prevented over 700,000 tons of dirty lignite coal from being extracted," the group wrote. "That is what we call keeping it in the ground!"

After breaking through the gates, one protester said she was happy to have made it down into the pit, adding, "but also it's shocking." RWE operates four large opencast mines in the region, covering roughly squared 2,500km. Activists say the total amount of RWE's extractions make it the continent's biggest polluter. Saturday's action took place at the Garzweiler facility.

"No matter the outcome of the climate negotiations in Paris this year, people are building power to accelerate the unstoppable energy transition and keep the fossil fuels we simply cannot burn in the ground," 350.org's Parekh told RTCC after the action.

Image above: The climate action group produced this video of the mass action and shared a number of dramatic images from the day. From (https://youtu.be/vC5Faqbw0Hg)

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Family Dollar Down

SUBHEAD: The government shutdown is wreaking havoc the poor and discount stores that service them.

By Kim Bhasin on 12 October 2013 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/12/family-dollar-shutdown_n_4086208.html)

Image above: A Family Dollar clearance sale banner. From original article.

The ongoing government shutdown is taking its toll on Americans at the margins, the chief executive of Family Dollar said this week.

"The threat of the shutdown, the uncertainty regarding some of the government assistance ... the uncertainty around job growth are very real to our customer every day," said Howard Levine, the CEO of the discount retail chain, in a Wednesday call with analysts and investors.

"Over half" of Family Dollar's customers are on some sort of government assistance, Levine said in the call.

Levine also said that the company expects high unemployment levels, higher taxes and "continued uncertainty" in Washington to continue to clamp down on consumers' income.

Family Dollar has been growing in recent years as more Americans struggle to afford basic necessities. The company, with its network of more than 7,000 stores, is one of three dollar store chains (along with Dollar General and Dollar Tree) aggressively expanding across the country. These stores thrive on low-income shoppers -- but not no-income shoppers.

Levine is bracing for shutdown pain, he said, as he doesn't expect his customers to recover any time soon. "We expect that many of the headwinds faced by our customers will persist," he said. "We have repositioned the company for the tough sales environment."

Low-income Americans have been caught up in Washington's funding impasse. Several states have scaled back or halted the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants and Children, which aids 9 million moms and babies across the country. Some states shuttered Head Start programs, affecting more than 7,000 children, until philanthropists stepped in with funding to cover the rest of the month. Arizona halted welfare checks for 3,200 families, until Gov. Jan Brewer (R) reversed the decision on Monday.

Around 800,000 government employees have been furloughed during the shutdown, and that number doesn't include private-sector employees affected by the congressional standoff. While some workers have been called back -- including most of the nearly 400,000 Pentagon workers -- there's still no guarantee of back pay for some employees.

But dollar store chains have also played a role in squeezing low-income consumers by forcing down wages, leading to some lengthy legal battles from employees who claimed mistreatment.

The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, sent a personalized letter to each member of the Senate and House of Representatives earlier this week, calling for an end to the shutdown and a measure to raise the debt ceiling.

"There are warning signs that an extended shutdown will have serious repercussions for the U.S. economy," wrote Matthew Shay, the president and CEO of the NRF. He cautioned that the shutdown comes at the "worst possible time" for retailers -- in the run-up to the important holiday season. Holiday spending accounts for 20 percent of the industry's annual sales, according to the NRF.

"Retailers already have more than 4 million cargo containers of merchandise on their way to store shelves for the holidays," wrote Shay. "Even if Customs and other agencies can get that merchandise off the docks without a hitch, shutdown-fueled consumer worries over the economy could leave that merchandise sitting on shelves well past Christmas."

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Peak Walmart 9/30/13
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