Nukewatch Plans Walk For a Nuclear-Free Future

Please let everyone you know about the upcoming walk between the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station and Point Beach Nuclear Facility. The event will start at noon, April 23, just North of the Kewaunee reactor and it will end after ten miles at the North end of Point Beach State forest with a potluck picnic. Thousands have protested these facilities in the past. We would like several thousand to walk with us again.

All three reactors are at the end of their design life. In their original plans, they were supposed to be decommissioned by now, resulting in millions of pounds of radioactive waste. Operators recently pursued license extensions and increases of maximum allowable electricity production levels. Both threaten Lake Michigan and millions of people with their continued operation and on-site waste storage.

Clean energy technologies exist to offset the 20.7% of Wisconsin energy that is generated at these facilities. The extraordinary amount of corporate welfare that continues to flow to these facilities needs to end. Conservation alone could eliminate the need for these old and ill-conceived electric generating stations. The on-site nuclear waste storage at these two facilities alone could render much of Northeast Wisconsin useless for farming and human habitation for many, many years.

I am personally planning to get out to the Lake Michigan Shore early in the day. Just north of the starting point along Lake View Drive is a wonderful beach that folks need to see to believe. During the ten mile walk, from Noon to 3PM, we will be sharing the wonderful company of others who believe that is time for us to move beyond nuclear energy in light of the recent developments in Japan as well as the twenty-five year anniversary of Chernobyl, which government officials believe has led to over thirty-five million deaths. This rally was planned long before the recent earthquake and tsunami that unleashed the worst ecological catastrophe in the history of the nuclear industry. The next twenty five years will make clear the ultimate injustice of nuclear energy production on innocent people whose only crime was to live near a reactor, but at this time, even our leaders are trying to put a good face on the mayhem, death and destruction created by the Japanese power stations that are failing right now.

You can bet that with a President in office from Illinois, where they currently have the fifth highest nuclear energy percentage of any state, the well-heeled lobbyists have beaten a path to the White House. In fact, there are currently afoot in Congress, plans to extend even more government backed (guaranteed)loans for future growth of this dastardly industry. The very use of the term industry makes one sick. The idea behind industry is to create something useful and ideally, socially benign. Wisconsin's history has proven that corporations who undertake splitting the atom for power have a very bad track record for doing it safely and responsibly. The talk about nuclear energy being "green", or carbon neutral are complete and utter fabrications. In fact, the admissible levels of radiation have been doubled in the United States recently, no doubt an early nod to further contamination of our environment by shameless and conscious-less corporate outlaws who seek to shift attention away from this dangerous activity.

Only four "Red Findings" have ever been issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Three of them were issued for hazardous situations at the Point Beach Facility. The two Point Beach reactors have recorded at least ten hazardous events since 1995. The Kewaunee reactor has had eight hazardous situations, including the exposure of a worker and groundwater contamination during that time. The managing corporation of these facilities has changed several times and the operators have felt compelled to lie to inspectors and fail to carry out emergency planning required by law.

These nuclear reactors were aggressively pushed on local citizens with plenty of political power. Ratepayers are ultimately responsible for this capricious form of "development" and are told little about the true nature of the threat that the nuclear reactors pose along some of the most beautiful shoreline in Northeast Wisconsin. As we progress into a more sustainable future, revoking the "rights" of corporations to endanger millions of unsuspecting citizens for the prize of corporate profits has got to end. Please let everyone you know about the need for people to show up for this event. Standing up for what is right and good must be undertaken if we are to guide future policy that has such lasting negative effects.

Contact nukewatch1@lakeland.ws for more information