Riverkeeper Says ‘Don’t Let It Happen Here’ One Year After Fukushima

One year ago on March 11, an earthquake and tsunami the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants in northeast Japan and caused a nuclear meltdown and release of radiation. The disaster displaced hundreds thousands and the immediate area surrounding Fukushima remains a ghost town today. As the world reflects on the catastrophic events and the people affected by them this month, we will be bring you updates about Entergy's  nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York and its opponents. Here is the first article in a series of several.

As Riverkeeper discussed the devastating effects of the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plant meltdown last year, it announced its launch of “Don’t Let It Happen Here,” campaign. The campaign reiterates Riverkeeper’s position that Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan is not safe and should not be relicensed. The group partnered with Clearwater, citizen activist group Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC) and a Japanese activist currently working to clean up the Fukushima plant and discussed its campaign and concerns at a media roundtable Friday morning.

“Before Fukushima, very few people thought that Indian Point would close…that the plants would be relicensed,” said Paul Gallay, President of Riverkeeper. “As people become concerned of what we have lost as a society due to Fukushima, people ask questions,” Gallay said, adding that they believe it is now likely that Indian Point will close. He noted a that said that Indian Point (IPEC) could close with little effect to energy rates and reliability. Gallay also referenced Riverkeeper’s contentions filed with the NRC on Indian Point’s license renewal, including concerns about corrosion, metal fatigue and environmental issues.

“Indian Point’s days are numbered. The region will have a truly sustainable energy future, built to last,” Gallay said.

After reviewing Entergy’s license renewal application submitted in 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff reported that it believed IPEC could continue to operate safely for another 20 years. However, various groups have filed numerous contentions, and the NRC staff’s findings are not the final word. The NRC’s Atomic Licensing Board will hold hearings on these contentions, most likely this year, and rule on the contentions (which can then be appealed) before making any final renewal or denial.

Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Action Director for Clearwater, said “the NRC staff is in bed with Entergy and we as a society have to do something about that.” She added that she does not think this is so of the Atomic Licensing Board that will hear the contentions, which she finds encouraging.

Greene, Marilyn Elie and Gary Shaw of IPSEC, also discussed their groups' contentions filed against Indian Point’s License Renewal Application, currently under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“When our guests from Japan came, a lesson we learned is one cannot prepare for a nuclear disaster, even with the best possible precautions,” Green said. She explained Clearwater’s environmental justice contention that states that in the case of emergency, information will not be delivered to everyone equally and people do not have the same opportunities to evacuate. She said there are language barriers and discrepancies over personal transportation because not everyone has their own transportation.

Elie reiterated that point and added that Indian Pont’s surrounding area is much more populated than the Fukushima area was and includes New York City.

Noriyuki Kitajima, known as Saburo, is a Japanese activist who traveled to the Fukushima Prefecture following the disaster and spent six months volunteering his time to help families affected. In September, 2011 Saburo managed to land a job with a contractor working to clean up the disaster site. At Friday’s meeting he described a situation that Riverkeeper is referring to when they say “Don’t Let It Happen Here.” 

“In the Fukushima Prefecture 2 million people evacuated and in the Tokyo metropolitan area the population is 37 million. A quota of the whole Japanese population is now living in that metropolitan area,” Saburo said through a translater, Professor Akiva Murakami from Akito University in Japan.

Saburo explained that in Japan the maximum level or radiation that people can be exposed to is 20 millisieverts a year and up to 100 millsieverts in five years. If people absorb 100 millsieverts in the first six months they cannot work near radioactivity and are out of a job for another four-and-a-half years.  

“I expect no immediate health effects but am almost sure I will have some kind of disease like cancer in the future, and other people will too,” Saburo said when asked if he was worried about his personal health. He also explained that the energy plant has a group of people considered to be from the lowest echelons of society (according to the Japanese stratification system) doing the most dangerous clean up work. He said that those people are so poor they will never be able to pay for health care he says they will almost certainly need later in life.

IPSEC’s Gary Shaw elaborated on the current condition of the immediate area around the Fukushima plant. “There is an inability to clean up the area…they are power washing to get dust off buildings but the wind comes and blows it over again.” Shaw said that there is “basically nothing to do with the radioactive debris and particles.”

The serious conversation ended with a closing thought from Saburo: “If reactors are really safe, then reactors should be built in the middle of Manhattan.”

Riverkeeper and Clearwater will continue to protest license renewal for Indian Point and defend their contentions whenever the Atomic Licensing Board holds its hearings.

To read more about Riverkeeper’s campaign, visit their website.

To read more about the license renewal process, read our article .

This is just one article in a series of several articles about Indian Point, to be published surrounding the March anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. Read more about Indian Point here.

Also, sign up for Patch to receive all the latest updates on Indian Point.

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