Deadline For Filing Contentions Fast Approaching

Contrary to the reports in the newspaper, citizens still have five days left to Intervene in the License Renewal process for Indian Point. It is promising to be quite the party, as the State Attorney General weighed in on Monday strongly supporting the closure of the plant. Most of the key players have weighed in, so it is doubtful that there will be any major surprises, as everyone knows PHASE (Susan Shapiro's new organization) will coming running into the fray at the very last minute, basically filing a rehash of everything that FUSE USA has already filed.

Meanwhile, we have Entergy and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board doing everything in their power to keep FUSE USA, and more specifically Sherwood Martinelli from having a seat at the table. The latest from their bag of tricks, is to threaten to toss both FUSE USA and Sherwood Martinelli out of the process because he had the audacity to call the board a bunch of Pro-Industry Pricks...forget the fact the charge as leveled is true. They feel such a statement is disrespectful to them as JUDGES...well EXCUSE ME. If FUSE USA has their contentions tossed, it might work out best...would give us an instant ACCESS into the courts for a review, and that in turn could mean the court gets to decide which of our contentions has merit, instead of the NRC making the decision.

The late breaking news today...Buchanan, home town of Entergy's Indian Point was denied status as an intervenor. Saw that one coming, as they did not make a claim that fell within Scope. The same decision should rightfully be handed down on both NY AREA, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

FUSE USA Seeking Petition Co-Signers

Hi All:

As some of you know, and some do not, I have been working very hard on the issue of Indian Point, trying to either A) stop it's relicensing for a period of 20 more years, or B) if said plant is relicensed, have some of the serious safety issues addressed before it is relicensed. (Examples would include for instance the strontium and tritium leaks on the Indian Point site that are finding their way into the ground water, and into the Hudson River, lack of any mention in the Environmental Report of Refurbishment-even though Entergy has two reactor vessel heads on order, as well as health concerns related to Entergy's continued operation.)

Right now, I am putting the final touches on a Petition to Intervene, and Formal Request for a hearing that will be sent off to the NRC. Said Petition raises 17 Contentions specifically related to Indian Point 3, and I and FUSE USA are looking for a few people concerned with our environment to co-sign this petition today. Do apologize for such short notice, but sometimes time is of the essence. If you would like to support this effort by co-signing, all you need to do is send your name and address for inclusion. Send it by the end of the day to roycepenstinger@aol.com Also, please feel free too forward this email to any and all of your friends that might be interested in supporting this important cause.

If you would like to read a copy of the Petition, please email me off list, and I'll be happy to send it off to you.

Respectfully,

Sherwood Martinelli
FUSE USA

Sherwood Martinelli Files Formal Request For Extension

Press Release

Sherwood Martinelli of FUSE USA has just filed a Formal Request for and Extension of Time to file Petitions to Intervene, and Requests for Hearing in Entergy's License Renewal Application Process. This is the second such request filed, with the first one successful in moving the deadline back until November 30th, 2007.

The Formal Request for and Extension became necessary when Sherwood Martinelli of FUSE USA ran into numerous difficulties in gaining access to necessary documents needed to review Entergy's License Renewal Application for Indian Point. Many of these difficulties are a result of the DOE and NRC review processes that greatly slows their ability to make documents public in a timely fashion.

Be Ready For Christmas Attacks By Entergy

Sure the NRC would deny it, but seems that Entergy has convinced the right people to get a board up and ready for some serious legal actions starting on December 1st. So, all of those who are planning on filing contentions, be prepared to start defending them right in the middle of the Christmas Season, as Entergy would love nothing more than to play the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Read the NRC Press release over on Green Nuclear Butterfly.

FUSE USA Vice President in Hoyoka Magazine

ENVIRONMENT

Sherwood Martinelli is on the Board of directors of FUSE USA and is in a legal battle with the Indian Point nuclear power plant to stop its relicensing. He has almost 20 years of experience in taking on large polluters, and the utility industry. As founder of Save Wills Creek Water Resources Committee, played instrumental roll in seeing a $70 Million clean up of the Shieldalloy site in Ohio, including remediation of over 200 radioactively contaminated homes. As founder of the Guernsey County American Free Tree, he distributed over 400,000 trees to local schools and civic groups. Sherwood has a blog [ www.greennuclearbutterfly.com ].

Sherwood Martinelli, Vice President of FUSE USA is featured in the latest edition of Heyoka Magazine.

Read the article: http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.9SherwoodMartinelli.2.htm

NIRS Executive Director Defends FUSE in Letter to New York Post

Breaking update on New York Post editorial which attacked FUSE USA. Michael Mariotte, the Executive Director of NIRS has sent a letter to the New York Post, which we have posted below.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

NIRS replies to New York Post

Michael Mariotte
NIRS

The New York Post is living in a nuclear industry fantasyland if it truly believes environmentalists consider nuclear power to be "clean." In just 5 weeks, more than 400 environmental groups (and 4,000+ people) have signed a simple statement: "We do not support construction of new nuclear reactors as a means of addressing the climate crisis. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power." And more signatures arrive daily. The Post’s argument doesn’t mesh with the facts.

The Post is also off-base when it claims no one ever has died from nuclear power in the U.S. Try that line on the Navajo people, many of whom gave their lives in the dirty business of uranium mining, and see how seriously you get taken.

Nuclear power remains what it always has been: dangerous, dirty and uneconomic.

FUSE is attempting to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do what it refuses to do: ensure adequate oversight of the aging, unsafe Indian Point nuclear facility. New Yorkers should be applauding FUSE.

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Takoma Park, MD

Note to editor: you can see the statement referred to above, as well as the signers, at www.nirs.org

New York Post Editorial Discusses FUSE NRC Filing

Everyone knows that the NY Post is very pro nuclear, pro Entergy, and rarely allows anti-nuclear sentiments to grace the pages of their rage sheet. So, when and anti-environmental group captures their attention enough to warrant and Editorial, they must be doing something right. So, it is with great pleasure that FUSE USA announces the mention of our organization in today's New York Post. It will be interesting to find out from the New York Post if they are going to allow FUSE a chance to have our views on this important subject published on their Editorial Page...it seems only fair, since they mention us in the below Editorial.

THE ANTI-NUCLEAR MENACE article here

October 2, 2007 -- In facing its energy challenges, is New York heading in the complete opposite direction as the rest of the country - and, indeed, parts of the world?

Last month, an anti-nuclear group, Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE) filed papers opposing the relicensing of one of the Indian Point nuclear reactors. A three-judge panel must now consider FUSE's claims that the federal government hasn't exercised enough regulatory oversight on the Westchester plant.

The same month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission received applications to build and operate new reactors in Texas. The applications from NRG Energy Inc. were the first submitted in 31 years.

Nuclear-plant construction came to a screeching halt in the wake of the Three Mile Island incident in 1978 - even though America has never experienced a fatality, or even serious injury, attributable to nuclear power.

NRG submitted what are the first of what is expected to be a flood of applications in coming months for as many as 29 new reactors in 20 sites across the country, mainly in the South.

Such ventures don't happen in a vacuum: A company won't go forward with an application if investors aren't on board. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, U.S. power companies are now prepared to invest as much as $90 billion in nuclear power.

Even some environmentalists are having second thoughts about their longtime adamant opposition to nuke plants.

They understand that nuclear power is "clean": Unlike coal or oil, it doesn't create the greenhouse gases that many see as contributing to global warming.

Meanwhile, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy calls nuclear power "the energy of the future" and has urged Germany to rescind its plan to phase out nuclear plants. France relies on nuclear power for 78 percent of its energy.

But, as the FUSE filing shows, New York - notwithstanding its own soaring energy needs - seems poised to retreat from the working, safe, nuclear reactors it has running, just as other states consider building new ones.

If New York is to be so foolish, it shouldn't be surprised if businesses move to places better able to fill their energy needs down the road.

Have Entergy Plumes Reached the Hudson River?

Entergy did their best to keep NEW maps of the underground plumes out of the public arena until after the original deadline for filing contentions in their License Renewal Application for Indian Point. Is this map submitted to the NRC with their well testing report proof that the radioactive waste streams at the site have almost reached the Hudson River...the suggested outlines of the plumb areas would indicate such. The citizens of Westchester County need to call for the release of the latest maps IMMEDIATELY so that we can have the truth about this important contaminant issue at the Indian Point plant.

FUSE USA Makes Headlines

FUSE USA filed its first set of contentions in opposition to the wrongful relicensing of Entergy's Indian Point IP2 nuclear reactor located in the town of Buchanan, New York this past Friday, September 21, 2007. The filing was picked up by Matt Wald of the New York Times.

September 24, 2007
Indian Point Faces New Challenge From Opponents

By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — An antinuclear group filed legal papers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday evening opposing the relicensing of the Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor in Westchester County.
As a result, a panel of judges must consider the validity of the assertions — setting the stage for a long and contentious new chapter in the dispute over the plant and its companion, Indian Point 3.

There is already strong opposition to the relicensing of other nuclear power plants, including Oyster Creek in southern New Jersey and Vermont Yankee, which is on the Connecticut River just north of the Massachusetts border. Panels of three administrative law judges are studying those applications as well. Click here for rest of story.