Mr. Blumenthal: Honor your duty! Stop the radiation poisoning!
December 13, 2005
Dear Attorney General Blumenthal:
We thank you for the opportunity to introduce Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass to your legal staff yesterday.
Dr. Sternglass explained to your staff attorneys, Associate Attorney General Joseph Rubin and Assistant Attorney General Robert Snook, during the two-hour meeting why the data assembled by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection provides clear evidence that the Millstone Nuclear Power Station is poisoning a former goat pasture at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford with its radioactive fallout. Dr. Sternglass explained why the ruse concocted by DEP - that the high strontium-90 levels found in goat milk sampled from that location is merely "background radiation" - is, in his words, a "deliberate deception" and a major government "cover-up" of the truth.
Dr. Sternglass identified the various mechanisms by which strontium-90 is released to the air by Millstone. He stated that it is not possible to eliminate strontium-90 emissions during plant operations. He referred to Millstone's past history as the highest recorded emitter of radioactive releases to the environment of all nuclear power plants in the United States. We reminded your staff that Millstone's corporate leaders pleaded guilty in 1998 to the felony charge of falsifying their environmental records. Please recall Millstone whistleblower Jim Plumb's revelations that these corporate leaders simply turned off environmental monitors while releasing deadly chemicals in violation of the Millstone Clean Water Act permit, among other criminal acts.
As Dr. Sternglass explained, strontium-90 is a deadly biological agent. As strontium-90, it invades bone and bone marrrow to cause bone cancer, leukemia and failure of the body's immune system. As its decays into even more deadly radioactive "daughters," it invades soft tissue, such as the lungs, the pancreas, ovaries and breasts. It is an insidious killer. The community surrounding Millstone suffers from the highest rates of cancer in the state. Gestating children and young children are most at risk.
The information which Dr. Sternglass shared with your staff attorneys is not new. Dr. Sternglass testified before Congress in 1978 as to elevated cancer levels from Millstone emissions. For the 35 years during which Millstone has released record quantities of deadly radioisotopes into the surrounding environment - often while radiation detectors were non functional or absent, by Millstone's own admissions in its environmental sampling reports - Connecticut's DEP and Department of Public Health have been privy to the damning data reported by Millstone. They have ignored the data while the radiation has brought a plague of death, disease and human suffering. In our view, in their silence, officials at these public agencies have committed acts of criminal negligence.
We hold the State of Connecticut accountable.
We appeal to you to seek judicial relief without delay to close Millstone and thereby achieve a cessation of the continuous releases of insidious radiation to the surrounding community the only way possible.
In this cause, be assured you have the support of each and every mother and mother-to-be in the entire State of Connecticut. Honor your duty to these women.
We understand that you have stated that you intend to take no action until you are in receipt of additional information from the DEP and the Department of Public Health.
We request that you provide us with whatever information you receive from these agencies and allow the opportunity for Dr. Sternglass and the Coalition to provide feedback. Dr. Sternglass has assured us he is available to meet again with your staff attorneys to share his knowledge and insights developed over a lifetime of pursuit of the public interest.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Please respond to:
Nancy Burton
147 Cross Highway
Redding Ridge CT 06876
Tel. 203-938-3952
DEP's Wilds Engages in "Deliberate Deception" to Cover Up Millstone Radiation Poisoning
Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell directed the state Department of Environmental Protection to investigate why goat milk sampled five miles north of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station has revealed consistently high levels of strontium-90, a deadly radioisotope.
Strontium-90 is continuously released from Millstone's onsite radiation stack into the environment. The NRC allowed Millstone to discontinue strontium-90 monitoring at the stack in 1997. Millstone relies on goat milk samples to monitor its releases of strontium-90 into the environment.
On December 8, 2005, DEP's Edward Wilds told a newspaper reporter that Millstone is definitely NOT the source of the high strontium-90 levels in the goat milk.
What did he say was the source?
"Background radiation."
Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass is a pioneering scientist who is an expert in the health effects of low-level ionizing radiation such as is released by Millstone. He is professor emeritus in physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Sternglass has reviewed the information DEP collected on strontium-90 in goat milk 5 miles from Millstone.
According to Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass, Wilds' statement is a "deliberate deception and cover-up of the truth.”
“This complete deception is a desperate move in the hope that no other scientist looks at this data or is willing to talk about it. It is assuming the public is ignorant.”
“The very information DEP reviewed provides overwhelming evidence that Millstone is the source.”
Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass has made himself available to meet with Attorney General Richard S. Blumenthal, Dr. J. Robert Galvin, Commissioner of Public Health and Regina McCarthy, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, to explain how Wilds’ comment is a deliberate deception and cover-up.
Governor M. Jodi Rell: Are you listening?
Congratulations Beth Hogan
On Your Election as East Lyme First Selectwoman! Continue to
embrace the women and children of East Lyme and cease East Lyme's embrace
of Millstone.
Begin with these steps:
1. Remove the photograph of Millstone that appears in the Selectmen's
meeting room and replace it with photographs of East Lyme's children.
Their welfare should be your first priority, not Millstone's welfare.convert
2. Warn mothers of the risks to themselves, their children and their unborn
children from swmming at East Lyme's public beaches on Niantic Bay from
exposure to Millstone radioactive and toxic waste releases. We donated
signs to East Lyme. Now post them!
3. Participate in proceedings before the state DEP to stop Millstone radiological
and toxic releases to the Long Island Sound and Niantic Bay.
4. Advocate to replace Millstone's dirty electricity with green, clean
renewables. Advocate for energy conservation.
When the Town of East Lyme begins to put children first, prosperity will
follow.
Millstone
Whistleblower Exposes Unlicensed Work;
NRC's Response: "Have a nice day."
In October, a Millstone whistleblower, whose name we are withholding to
protect his privacy, asked State Rep. Christopher Donovan to investigate
why Dominion is allowed to employ unlicensed ventilation workers at Millstone
when state law requires they be licensed for non-nuclear work. (Read the
whistleblower's letter below.) Rep. Donovan, wrongly, told the whistleblower
the state has no jurisdiction. Of course the Department of Consumer Protection
has jurisdiction: it licenses all state workers who perform ventilation
work. Nevertheless, Rep. Donovan referred the whistleblower to U.S. Sen.
Chris Dodd, who referred the whistleblower to the NRC. The NRC's response?
Have a nice day! In other words, the NRC blew the whistleblower off!
Our response: Senator Dodd and Rep. Donovan: Do your job! Investigate
unsafe and illegal conditions at Millstone! Bring Dominion to its knees
until it complies with state law.
Study:
children’s cancer up
N-plant, CDC say they have no knowledge of report
By Susan Morse smorse@seacoastonline.com
SEABROOK - Childhood cancer deaths in the last two decades increased by
19 percent in communities surrounding Seabrook Station, according to the
group awarding the nuclear power plant a Dirty Dozen award on Tuesday.
In a released statement, Paul Schramski of the Toxics Action Center in
Massachusetts said the information came from a study by the Center for
Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.
However, neither CDC spokeswoman Susan Asher nor Seabrook Station spokesman
Al Griffith had any knowledge of such a study, they said.
Further information released by Schramski said the research was done by
Joseph Mangano, an epidemiologist with a master’s degree in public
health who is the national coordinator for the Radiation and Public Health
Project.
Its Web site says the project is "a nonprofit educational and scientific
organization, established by scientists and physicians dedic ated to understanding
the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health."
Mangano, reached at his office in Norristown, Pa., on Wednesday, said
he used CDC statistics in his study. Anyone can access the same information
at wonder.cdc.gov, he said.
Infant death rates in four counties surrounding Seabrook Station increased
by 4 percent from the two years prior to the plant going on line in 1989,
to two years after, he said.
The childhood cancer death rate increased by 19 percent between 1981 and
2002, he said.
The CDC’s Asher said on Wednesday that the federal center does release
statistics on race, gender, age, and how people died.
She could not confirm the results obtained by Mangano.
The CDC does look into the veracity of any study, she said, when it gets
a request to do so.
"The CDC gets involved when it gets a petition to get involved,"
she said. "We just don’t go out on our own. It can come from
anyone."
"We’ve never had a request to go out to the Seabrook place,"
Asher said.
Mangano said the impetus for his research came from Guy Chichester, a
Rye resident who co-founded the Clamshell Alliance. The alliance opposed
the building of the Seabrook plant.
Mangano and Chichester are also working on a study to determine the level
of strontium 90 found in baby teeth. Strontium 90 is one component of
ionized radiation and is like calcium in that it heads for teeth and bone,
said Mangano.
So far Mangano has gathered 4,500 teeth nationwide. He expects to release
his results in 2006.
Of his cancer study, Mangano admits factors other than the nuclear power
plant may play a role in the increased statistics.
Similar studies of cancer rates in areas surrounding other nuclear power
plants have yielded similar results, he said.
"Seabrook should be put in a list of factors," he said. "The
general trend is, open a plant, the rate goes up, close a plant the rate
goes down."
Mangano looked at infant death rates for the years 1987 to 1988, and after
the plant started operating, from 1989 to 1990, in four counties near
Seabrook Station: Essex County in Massachusetts; Rockingham County; Strafford
County; and York County in Maine.
"In the four-county area it went up by 4 percent," he said.
"In the rest of the three-state area - Massachusetts, New Hampshire
and Maine - it was down 7 percent. In the rest of the U.S. it was down
by 5 percent."
He then looked at long-term changes in the childhood cancer death rate,
of children dying before the age of 15 in the same four counties.
Mangano compared the CDC statistics for the years 1981 through 1989 and
1990 through 2002.
"The change in the rates increased by 19 percent," he said.
"Elsewhere in the three states it was down by 23 percent and in the
U.S., down 26 percent."
The Radiation and Public Health Project is not an advocate organization,
he said.
NRC:
Radiation Leak Caused Unit 3 Shutdown;
Dominion Caught in a Lie - Again;
The New London Day Spins Millstone Peril
On December 1, 2005, Millstone Unit 3 experienced an unplanned shutdown
following violent vibrations in a newly installed turbine. Millstone’s
PR man, Peter Hyde, told The New London Day: “No radiation was released
during the shutdown and no one was injured.” The Day reported Hyde’s
remark without attempting independent verification.
Turns out The Day reported a lie, again.
On December 6, 2005, under pressure from The Connecticut Coalition Against
Millstone, The Day ran a correction. See article below.
Turns out a leak of deadly radiation from the reactor - involving the
most toxic atomic byproducts known to humankind - triggered the sudden
violent shutdown.
Still, The Day puppeted Dominion’s and the NRC’s lies by reporting:
“[T]he radiation release was minor and never posed a threat to the
public.”
Here’s the truth: A leakage of radiation particulates from an operating
nuclear power plant is among the most serious threats to human health
and safety known. Minute particles of radiation, when ingested, disrupt
cellular structure and function and lead to cancers and premature mortality.
Millstone’s workers took a life-threatening hit when they entered
the reactor building. Radiation can escape to the environment from the
cracks in the reactror building walls.
The Day’s reckless and irresponsible reporting - its service as
an unquestioning mouthpiece for Millstone and suppressor of the truth
about Millstone’s perilous operations- - must stop.
What you can do: Make a complaint about The Day’s Millstone-biased
reporting to the New England Press Association: Contact Brenda Reed, director,
b.reed@nepa.org.
The Coalition has filed a Freedom of Information request with the NRC
for all files and records of the Unit 3 shutdown. We will post the results
on this website.
Together we must close this menace to our health and safety.
Radiation Leak At Millstone Called ‘very Low'
CONNECTICUT
COALITION AGAINST MILLSTONE
mothballmillstone.org
November 23, 2005
Hon. Richard S. Blumenthal
Hon. M. Jodi Rell
Hon. Regina McCarthy
Re: 120 Dayton Road, Waterford CT
Dear Mr. Blumenthal, Governor Rell and Commissioner McCarthy:
We understand from news media reports that Mr. Blumenthal and Governor
Rell have asked the Department of Environmental Protection to conduct
a “comprehensive technical review” of goat milk sampling data
collected in 2001, 2002 and 2003 at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford. Please
refer to the article which appears in today’s The New London Day
(below).
This response to our urgent calls for public scrutiny of this issue is
truly appreciated.
However, in order to truly conduct a “comprehensive technical review”
of the concentration of strontium-90 found in goat milk sampled at this
location and others, the DEP’s review should be broadened to analyze
all the years of Millstone operations during which goat milk sampling
occurred as a component of the station’s environmental monitoring.
There is nothing magical about the years 2001, 2002 and 2003 — other
than the very high concentrations of strontium-90 reported. We have focused
on those three years in our recent alerts because the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission limited its review, during recent relicensing proceedings,
of Millstone strontium-90 emissions to the environment to only these three
of the 35 years to date during which the nuclear power station has operated.
Our focus is broadening to examine the entire period of Millstone operations.
Radionuclides such as strontium-90 bioaccumulate in the environment and
in human bodies.
We also wish to share with you a variety of baby goat skeletal remains
which we have obtained from the 120 Dayton Road site to aid in your comprehensive
technical analysis. We are selecting samples for our analysis of strontium-90
contamination by an independent laboratory. As you know, baby goats, in
common with human babies, crave calcium for their growing bones and teeth
and their bodies cannot distinguish between healthy calcium and calcium-mimic
strontium-90. Strontium-90 levels detected in these specimens will be
very telling of environmental and radiological conditions at this site.
We have baby goat skulls, spines, rib cages and jawbones with teeth which
would aid your scientific analysis.
Please advise.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Please respond to:
Nancy Burton
147 Cross Highway
Redding Ridge CT 06876
Tel. 203-938-3952
Featured in Health
DEP Probing Radioactivity In Goat's Milk
Anti-nuke coalition leader sought study of Waterford data
Dear
Ms. Burton:
I write in reply to your several recent emails to my office regarding
your concerns about reported high levels of Strontium 90. Such levels
apparently were found in 2001 in the milk of a goat that had grazed in
a field in Waterford, along with other levels of possible concern in the
two following years.
My Office is concerned about this report, as we are about any threat to
human health or safety, or to the environment. We intend to work with
the Department of Environmental Protection , which is reviewing the information
you have provided. Completing this technical review is a necessary first
step to determining whether and what action is warranted. Should DEP request
my assistance in initiating any type of enforcement action, I will be
prepared to assist vigorously and promptly.
You also refer to possible action by the local inland wetlands commission.
This office has no legal or supervisory authority over municipal wetlands
agencies, although we sometimes speak with local officials about legal
issues.
Sincerely,
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL
Earth
to Connecticut: Why are you gutless when it comes to Millstone?
Take a lesson from New Jersey:
Asbury Park Press 11/19/2005
DEP: Prove plant is safe
State unsure if Oyster Creek can handle attack, metal fatigue
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/19/05
BY TODD B. BATES
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER
New Jersey is seeking a federal hearing on the application for a 20-year
license extension for the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, saying it
falls short in dealing with aircraft attack risks and "metal fatigue"
issues, among other contentions.
"Public assurance that Oyster Creek's continued operation does not
represent an unnecessary risk to the citizens of New Jersey is essential,"
state Environmental Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell wrote in a letter
to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday.
Rachelle Benson, a spokeswoman for the Lacey plant, which is run by AmerGen
Energy Co., said "we'll be sending in our own responses to all those
issues" in the state Department of Environmental Protection's request.
NRC spokesman Neil A. Sheehan said in an e-mail that the NRC will have
to decide whether the DEP petition should be reviewed by an Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board panel.
If the NRC decides to refer the petition to that panel, it will have to
"decide, A, whether or not the state has standing and, B, whether
or not the (state's) contentions warrant further review," Sheehan
said in an interview.
If a hearing is granted, the panel would "say whether or not it thinks
the contentions have validity," and the matter would go back to the
NRC, which can agree or disagree, he said.
The DEP wants a hearing on several issues, including:
Attack risks. Before the NRC decides whether to extend Oyster Creek's
operating license, "the plant's vulnerability to aircraft attacks
and in particular the spent fuel pool vulnerability must be analyzed,"
Campbell's letter says.
Metal fatigue. The plant's application "uses a nonconservative assumption
regarding metal fatigue for the additional 20 years that the plant would
be in service," the letter says.
Backup power. At issue are the long-term availability, maintenance and
aging management of two combustion turbines, which are owned and operated
by FirstEnergy Corp., an AmerGen competitor, according to the letter and
a document listing the DEP's contentions. The turbines are a "backup
power supply to essential safety systems at Oyster Creek," the document
states.
This story includes material from previous Press stories.
Is Connecticut still ‘Corrupticut’ when it comes to Millstone?
The
Connecticut Siting Council had an opportunity to close Millstone Unit
2 last year. Millstone had run out of space to store its spent nuclear
waste from Unit 2 and needed the Siting Council’s approval to store
the waste onsite in “dry casks.” The Siting Council could
have said no, requiring Unit 2 to shut down. Instead it said “Yes!”
The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone was a party to the case but
we did not know until after the vote that Dominion had made a secret deal
with Governor John G. Rowland to clear the way for the approval.
Read this September 20, 2002 email written by Edward Wilds, DEP’s
radiation chief, who sat on the Siting Council and advocated and voted
in favor of Millstone’s plan in 2004 (The email was withheld from
us until long after we filed a Freedom of Information request):
I received notice late 9/13/02 that Dominion Nuclear of Connecticut, owner
of Millstone [Nuclear Power Station] Point, has made arrangements through
the Governor’s Office for State of Connecticut and Town officials
to tour the horizontal spent nuclear fuel dry cask storage facility at
the Susquehanna nuclear power station in PA on Friday, 9/20/02. At the
present time Millstone Point is the only facility in CT considering this
storage system as an option to address the spent fuel storage capacity
problem until Yucca Mountain is opened. The travel is a gift to the state
[from Dominion] as determined by the Ethics Commission and is relevant
to my duties as the Director, Division of Radiation. This dry cask spent
nuclear fuel storage system will directly impact radioactive material
security in Connecticut. Attendance at this tour is essential to ensure
that the State’s security and safety concerns are addressed. This
meeting is essential to the performance of my job and is at no cost to
the state.
Was the Siting Council approval “fixed” by Governor Rowland
before an application was even filed with the Siting Council?
To find out, we subpoenaed Rowland on the steps of the U.S. District Court
in New Haven on March 18, 2005, on his way to be sentenced for corrupting
his public office. He got a light sentence - a year and a day. Is that
why he is smirking? Why, a few days later, did Connecticut Superior Court
Judge George Levine quash the subpoena - which otherwise would have compelled
Rowland to answer our questions at a deposition - without a hearing?
Richard
Blumenthal: Save the Children!
Open Up Your Ears and Eyes!
Stop the Radiation Poisoning from Spreading!
CONNECTICUT
COALITION AGAINST MILLSTONE
www.mothballmillstone.org
November 17, 2005
Hon. Richard S. Blumenthal
Attorney General
State of Connecticut
55 Elm Street
Hartford CT 06106
Dear Mr. Blumenthal:
We write to further request that you investigate without delay whether
the state’s Inland Wetlands Act has been properly followed with
regard to the property located at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford. (Please
refer to our earlier correspondence of this date.)
As you know, the Inland Wetlands Act, in Section 22a-38(7), defines “waste”
as “sewage or any substance, liquid, gaseous, solid or radioactive,
which may pollute or tend to pollute any of the waters of the state.”
(Emphasis added.)
The Act defines “pollution” as “ . . . the contamination
or rendering unclean or impure of any waters of the state by reason of
any waste or other materials discharged or deposited therein by any public
or private sewer or otherwise so as directly or indirectly to come in
contact with any waters.”
Clearly, any strontium-90 deposited on 120 Dayton Road which is subject
to being carried off in a rainfall event to watercourses and wetlands
downslope must be considered a form of “waste” which may cause
“pollution” within the meaning of the Inland Wetlands Act
and it must be regulated trough the permitting process.
The Waterford municipal inland wetlands agency which reviewed an application
to subdivide the radiologically contaminated goat pasture into 14 residential
building lots was never provided with information about the radiological
characteristics of the site, even though the site has used for radiological
monitoring by the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
Would it not be prudent - indeed, legally compelled - for the municipal
inland wetlands commission to require the submission for its evaluation
of the complete and comprehensive radiological characteristics of the
site, and, if not the municipal wetlands agency then the Commissioner
of the Department of Environmental Protection herself?
We await your reply with great interest.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Please respond to:
Nancy Burton
147 Cross Highway
Redding Ridge CT 06876
Tel. 203-938-3952
CONNECTICUT
COALITION AGAINST MILLSTONE
www.mothballmillstone.org
November 20, 2005
Hon. Richard S. Blumenthal
Attorney General
55 Elm Street
Hartford CT 06106
Dear Mr. Blumenthal:
We have a videotape and photographs to share with you which we believe
establish at least one undocumented watercourse on the property at 120
Dayton Road in Waterford which has received a wetlands approval for subdivision
into 14 residential lots. (Please refer to our earlier correspondence
on this subject.)
The watercourse has potential to carry radioactive particles, including
deadly strontium-90, into the inland wetlands of the state and thereby
pose a public health and environmental emergency.
Please call us to set up a time when we can meet with you and your environmental
staff without delay.
We note that your office has failed to respond to our prior urgent communications
on this subject.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Please respond to:
Nancy Burton
147 Cross Highway
Redding Ridge CT 06876
Tel. 203-938-3952
Paul
Eccard’s Nuclear Legacy:
A Legacy of Lies and Cover-Up
Waterford’s departing First Selectman, Paul Eccard, leaves behind
a legacy of chronic and long-term nuclear poisoning of his community.
At every turn, save one (the tax appeal), he served as a puppet of the
Millstone Nuclear Power Station and a traitor to the public interest.
Mr. Eccard’‘s nuclear legacy includes:
1. A permanent high-level nuclear waste dump. Waterford’s own Conservation
Commission voted to restrict onsite storage of high-level spent fuel.
Mr. Eccard did not champion their cause. The Waterford Zoning Regulations
prohibit long term storage of high-level nuclear waste. Mr. Eccard joined
hands with Dominion to make Waterford a nuclear outlaw with a new target
for terrorism and continuous releases of radiation.
2. Millstone’s routine operations generated 500 pounds of plutonium
every year during Mr. Eccard’s term. Plutonium is the most deadly
man-made creation. A speck of it contains enough poison to give a lethal
dose to every living person in the entire world. There is no place to
store it safely for the thousands of years it will remain deadly. Think
about that!
3. Millstone’s routine operations, without a legal permit, dump
radioactive waste and toxic chemicals every minute of every day into the
Long Island. These poisons wash onto Waterford’s shorelines and
public beaches where they bioaccumulate in the food chain and cause cancer
in those who swim and play in these waters and ingest sea spray.
4. Mr. Eccard lied to The New London Day following the Millstone Unit
2 fire in the turbine building in January which disabled station security
and forced a sitewide evacuation. Mr. Eccard deliberately misled the community
when he told The Day that Millstone’s perimeter security was never
jeopardized, even as he knew Waterford police were hastily assigned to
provide emergency security.
5.During Mr. Eccard’s reign as Waterford First Selectman, a Waterford
High School student was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. An epidemic of
cancer and early infant mortality in children appeared. It has been reported
to us that all the teachers who have retired from Southwest Elementary
School - the playground there has a view of Millstone - have died of cancer.
We begged Mr. Eccard to support a health survey of the community. He said
no. Did he not read the obituary pages?
6. For years, goat milk sampled in Waterford five miles north of Millstone
has tested excessively high levels of strontium-90, a deadly radioisotope
routinely released into the air by Millstone. Millstone discontinued monitoring
strontium-90 releases from the station stack in 1997. Since then, Millstone
has relied on goat milk samples for environmental monitoring.
On November 18, 2005, we asked Mr. Eccard to do the right thing and host
a public meeting so that the community can hear the truth about how routine
Millstone operations are sickening them and harming their children. He
said no.
Mr. Eccard is leaving public office to write about global energy policies
with a special interest in Russia and China, tyrannical governments which
are keen to develop nuclear power. We hope he has not obtained a grant
from the Nuclear Energy Institute to write his book. We ask him to dedicate
all proceeds of his book to the families of all the children of Waterford
who were stillborn or born deformed or born with life-threatening diseases.
Mr. Eccard: your nuclear legacy is one of death, despair and public corruption.
May you see the light as you ride off into the nuclear sunset.
Katie the Goat Leaves Her Poisoned Pasture to Go to Hartford to Meet the Governor
November 17, 2005
Hon. M. Jodi Rell
Governor
State of Connecticut
State Capitol
Hartford CT 06106
Dear Governor Rell:
We write to request the opportunity to meet with you without delay regarding the radiation "hot zone," identified through Millstone Nuclear Power Station sampling of goat milk, at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford. This site has been identified as "Location 22" in goat monitoring reports submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection by the owners and operators of Millstone.
Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc., Millstone's current owner, has identified the site as a radiation "hot zone" in that levels of strontium-90 concentrations in the goat milk as sampled by Dominion during the period 2001, 2002 and 2003 have on at least one occasion exceeded by 50 to 100 times the levels of strontium-90 in cow's milk sold commercially at various locations across the country, as measured in 2003 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The 55 picoCuries per liter of strontium-90 measured in a goat milk sample taken in September 2001 exceeds by twice the highest level of strontium-90 measured in cow’s milk commercially sold in Connecticut during the height of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1963. Please refer to the attached Declaration of Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D. dated November 16, 2005. At virtually every sampling, strontium-90 levels have exceed national norms.
Just as canaries have been used in coal mines to warn workers of potentially deadly conditions, goat milk is a reliable indicator of radiation “hot spots.”
The goats at 120 Dayton Road have grazed upon a large, lush pasture and adjoining woodlands. Strontium-90 is a radioisotope which is routinely released by Millstone to the air and water. It settles to the ground as a particulate which cannot be seen, smelled or tasted or detected without sophisticated equipment. It may be ingested through inhalation or in the process of eating contaminated food or water. Gardening in a radiation “hot spot” especially exposes one to harm because strontium-90 is known to be absorbed by root vegetables such as beets and carrots. Children playing in the outdoors - and especially infants during the stage when they are prone to indiscriminately putting anything, including blades of grass, in their mouths - are also at risk. As in the irradiated region surrounding Chernobyl in the Ukraine, trees at 120 Dayton Road absorb strontium-90 through their roots and concentrate it in their trunk and limbs and release it in falling leaves. Once ingested, strontium-90 settles in teeth and bone tissue, setting off a continuous release of X-ray-like energy to surrounding cells which continues through the lifetime and, in the case of an embryo, during the gestation of an individual and afterward. It is very, very deadly. Symptoms of disease may not manifest themselves for years. According to a report filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Millstone’s owner, monitoring strontium-90 releases to the air from the station’s stack was discontinued in 1997. Thus, Millstone relies entirely on environmental sampling, and particularly sampling of goat milk, to monitor its strontium-90 releases to the air.
The property at 120 Dayton Road has been sold and has been approved for a 14-lot residential subdivision.
The former owner of the goat farm was never informed of the results of the goat milk sampling by Dominion nor the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission nor the Department of Environmental Protection - both recipients of the goat sampling measurements - nor the state Department of Public Health nor the Town of Waterford. He therefore assumed the goat milk was safe to drink, which it was not, and he drank it.
Dominion’s environmental sampling establishes that the site at 120 Dayton Road is not safe for goat grazing. Is it fit for human habitation? We know that radiation dispersion does not confine itself to property lines. How vast an area is contaminated with strontium-90? We understand an adjoining neighbor to the goat-farm site recently died of leukemia, a disease known to be triggered by damage to bone marrow cells by an invasion of strontium-90, which mimics calcium in its chemical properties and is readily absorbed in the teeth and bones. We are aware of at least two other recent cancer fatalities in the immediate area. We have commenced a health survey of the immediate area to determine the extent of incidences of bone cancer, leukemia, immune deficiency diseases, diabetes and other medical conditions which are known to be associated with exposure to strontium-90.
In light of the information submitted to the NRC and the DEP by Dominion, we have grave concerns about the habitability of any lands within five miles of Millstone - as 120 Dayton Road is - which includes the nearby Cohanzie Elementary School. Children are particularly vulnerable to harm from exposure to strontium-90 because their growing bodies crave calcium.
Based on the information provided by Dominion itself regarding strontium-90 contamination at 120 Dayton Road, as analyzed with the assistance of Dr. Sternglass - a towering figure in radiation health who was mentored in his youth by Albert Einstein himself - we request that you set aside the time to meet with us to share additional information about this public health emergency. Dr. Sternglass is available to attend such a meeting.
On November 15, 2005, we presented your staff with our press release regarding Katie the Goat’s visit to the Capitol and supporting documents.
We requested a meeting with you on November 15, 2005 but we were told you were unavailable for the remainder of the day.
Mr. Bright, your executive secretary, suggested we contact Carolyn Caggiano, your scheduling clerk, to set up a meeting. We have attempted to reach her by telephone and have left several messages, but she has not returned our calls.
Katie the Goat’s milk is not safe for her baby goats to drink. Are young mothers within Millstone’s radiation “hot zone” feeding their babies breast milk contaminated with strontium-90? If so, they are exposing their children to avoidable risk which may be life-threatening.
You are a mother and a breast cancer survivor. We trust you fully appreciate your awesome power to spare women and children - those most vulnerable to radiation risks - from avoidable death, disease, disability and wrenching heartache.
We trust that you will contact us without delay to meet with us and that you will take all appropriate action to address this critical public health emergency.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Poisoned Pasture - unfit for human habitation
Date: November 15, 2005
Contact: Nancy Burton 203-938-3952/Cell203-545-9252
Hartford - The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone is asking Governor Jodi Rell to investigate whether a goat pasture in Waterford - where goat milk samples have registered sky-high concentrations of radioactive strontium-90 - is fit for human habitation.
The 20-acre goat farm at 120 Dayton Road - located in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school five miles north-northeast of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station - has long served as an environmental monitoring location through sampling of milk collected from goats which graze on a grassy pasture there.
In 1997, Millstone discontinued sampling strontium-90 emissions from its station-based venting stack and since then has relied upon environmental sampling of milk to measure its strontium-90 releases, according to its environmental reports, said Nancy Burton, a Coalition leader.
In 2001, the goat milk collected at 120 Dayton Road measured a strontium-90 concentration of 55.5 picoCuries per liter, a staggeringly high amount, the Coalition said.
Such a reading is an “extremely large concentration, close to twice the highest concentration measured in Connecticut milk at the height of nuclear weapons testing in 1963 of 23 picoCuries per liter,” according to Dr. Ernest Sternglass, professor emeritus of radiology specializing in radiation physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Other measurements of strontium-90 concentrations in milk collected from the Dayton Road goats have been very high.
Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope routinely released by Millstone to the air and water. It is one off the most toxic byproducts of nuclear fission because it mimics calcium and is readily absorbed in teeth and bones. Once lodged in human tissue, it acts like a constantly running tiny x-ray machine, sending off high-energy radiation which destabilizes cellular structure, ultimately leading to bone cancer, leukemia and diseases of the immune system. Young children are particularly vulnerable to its effects.
Released into the atmosphere from the Millstone stack, the strontium-90 settles out where it is deposited wherever the winds carry it.
120 Dayton Road is squarely within the direction of the prevailing winds from Millstone.
“This data strongly suggests that Millstone’s daily operations exceed the permissible dose of radiation to the public,” said Nancy Burton a Coalition leader. “We believe the available data submitted by Dominion for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003 prove that routine operations of Millstone are in violation of federal health standards and are illegal.”
The Coalition charged the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission with attempting to cover up the truth about Millstone radiation releases by concocting a scientifically unsound theory.
The Coalition reported the super-high strontium-90 concentrations to the NRC on March 2, 2005 in comments opposing Dominion’s application to extend the Millstone operating license for an additional 20-year term.
In a response published in its Final Environmental Impact Statement in July 2005, the NRC stated:
Dominion [Millstone’s owner] believes that the goats sometimes begin to nibble the roots of the pasture grass. Along with the grass roots, the goats may also ingest some soil that contains Sr-90 left in the environment from atmospheric nuclear testing [ from the 1960s]. . . . The NRC inspected the monitoring programs at Millstone and reviewed Dominion’s annual reports and came to the same conclusion.
Coalition members were told by Allen Moran, the goats’ owner, that his goats do not nibble to the roots of pasture grasses, nor did Dominion or the NRC ever observe his goats nibbling to the roots.
“Goats are notoriously fastidious feeders prized as pastureland grazers precisely because they do not uproot the grass, unlike cows, sheep and horses,” Burton said.
“Besides, these goats enjoyed a nearly 20-acre pasture-and-wooded habitat,” she added. “Our inspection of the land and the goats’ eating habits bears this out.”
The goat farm has just changed hands. A developer has obtained approval from Waterford land-use agencies to subdivide the goat pasture into 14 residential building lots.
The three remaining goats - one of whom, Katie, has provided the bulk of the milk sampled by Dominion - have been adopted by the Coalition and are living temporarily on a farm within 10 miles of Millstone.
“With the sale of this goat farm, the community around Millstone has lost its invaluable radiation monitors,” Burton said. “The community will be dosed with dangerous and unmonitored radiation from Millstone.”
According to Dr. Sternglass, evidence of strontium-90 deposited at the Dayton Road location represents a “significant threat to human health.”
“When strontium-90 is absorbed by the bone, it interferes with the process by which bone marrow creates our white blood cells, which act like the policemen of our immune systems,” Sternglass said.
“When a police force in a major city goes on strike, we have seen huge crime waves occur,” he added. “Similarly, white blood cells lose their ability to protect the body’s immune system.”
Edard Wilds, Bureau of Radiation, DEP
CONNECTICUT COALITION AGAINST MILLSTONE
www.mothballmillstone.org
November 17, 2005
Hon. Richard S. Blumenthal
Attorney General
State of Connecticut
55 Elm Street
Hartford CT 06106
Dear Mr. Blumenthal:
We write to request that you investigate without delay the conduct of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the state Department of Public Health (DPH) with regard to property located at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford, Connecticut.
This site has been identified as "Location 22" in goat monitoring reports submitted to the DEP by the owners and operators of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
Further, Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc., Millstone's current owner, has identified the site as a radiation "hot zone" in that levels of strontium-90 concentrations in the goat milk as sampled by Dominion during the period 2001, 2002 and 2003 have on at least one occasion exceeded by 50 to 100 times the levels of strontium-90 in cow's milk sold commercially at various locations across the country, as measured in 2003 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The 55 picoCuries per liter of strontium-90 measured in a goat milk sample taken in September 2001 exceeds by twice the highest level of strontium-90 measured in cow’s milk commercially sold in Connecticut during the height of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1963. Please refer to the attached Declaration of Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D. dated November 16, 2005. At virtually every sampling, strontium-90 levels have exceed national norms.
Just as canaries have been used in coal mines to warn workers of potentially deadly conditions, goat milk is a reliable indicator of radiation “hot spots.”
The goats at 120 Dayton Road have grazed upon a large, lush pasture and adjoining woodlands. Strontium-90 is a radioisotope which is routinely released by Millstone to the air and water. It settles to the ground as a particulate which cannot be seen, smelled or tasted or detected without sophisticated equipment. It may be ingested through inhalation or in the process of eating contaminated food or water. Gardening in a radiation “hot spot” especially exposes one to harm because strontium-90 is known to be absorbed by root vegetables such as beets and carrots. Children playing in the outdoors - and especially infants during the stage when they are prone to indiscriminately putting anything, including blades of grass, in their mouths - are also at risk. As in the irradiated region surrounding Chernobyl in the Ukraine, trees at 120 Dayton Road absorb strontium-90 through their roots and concentrate it in their trunk and limbs and release it in falling leaves. Once ingested, strontium-90 settles in teeth and bone tissue, setting off a continuous release of X-ray-like energy to surrounding cells which continues through the lifetime and, in the case of an embryo, during the gestation of an individual and afterward. It is very, very deadly. Symptoms of disease may not manifest themselves for years. According to a report filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Millstone’s owner, monitoring strontium-90 releases to the air from the station’s stack was discontinued in 1997. Thus, Millstone relies entirely on environmental sampling, and particularly sampling of goat milk, to monitor its strontium-90 releases to the air.
The property at 120 Dayton Road has been sold and has been approved for a 14-lot residential subdivision.
The former owner of the goat farm was never informed of the results of the goat milk sampling by Dominion nor the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission nor the Department of Environmental Protection - both recipients of the goat sampling measurements - nor the state Department of Public Health nor the Town of Waterford. He therefore assumed the goat milk was safe to drink, which it was not, and he drank it.
Dominion’s environmental sampling establishes that the site at 120 Dayton Road is not safe for goat grazing. Is it fit for human habitation? We know that radiation dispersion does not confine itself to property lines. How vast an area is contaminated with strontium-90? We understand an adjoining neighbor to the goat-farm site recently died of leukemia, a disease known to be triggered by damage to bone marrow cells by an invasion of strontium-90, which mimics calcium in its chemical properties and is readily absorbed in the teeth and bones. We are aware of at least two other recent cancer fatalities in the immediate area. We have commenced a health survey of the immediate area to determine the extent of incidences of bone cancer, leukemia, immune deficiency diseases, diabetes and other medical conditions which are known to be associated with exposure to strontium-90. In light of the information submitted to the NRC and the DEP by Dominion, we have grave concerns about the habitability of any lands within five miles of Millstone - as 120 Dayton Road is - which includes the nearby Cohanzie Elementary School. Children are particularly vulnerable to harm from exposure to strontium-90 because their growing bodies crave calcium.
Based on the information provided by Dominion itself regarding strontium-90 contamination at 120 Dayton Road, as analyzed with the assistance of Dr. Sternglass - a towering figure in radiation health who was mentored in his youth by Albert Einstein himself - we request that you immediately investigate why neither the DEP nor the DPH alerted the former owner of the goat farm and his neighbors of the high strontium-90 levels known to have contaminated 120 Dayton Road during 2001, 2002 and 2003.
We trust that you will contact us without delay for further information and take all appropriate action to address this critical public health emergency.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Declaration of Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D. (November 16, 2005)
DECLARATION:
I, Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D., do hereby declare as follows:
1. I am a professor emeritus in radiology with a specialty in radiation physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
2.I also serve as scientific director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.
3. I have reviewed data recently compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding its measurements of levels of strontium-90 in milk sold commercially at various locations in the United States.
4. The source of such data is “Environmental Radiation Data, quarterly report #115, July to September 2003, and it contains EPA measurements of strontium-90 concentrations in milk as follows, all in picoCuries per liter:
San Francisco CA July 8, 2003 0.73
Dover DE July 22, 2003 0.19
Atlanta GA July 30, 2003 0.59
Wichita KA July 15, 2003 0.42
Grand Rapids MI July 8, 2003 0.45
Syracuse NY July 10, 2003 0.53
San Antonio TX July 7, 2003 0.02Spokane WA July 8, 2003 0.13
5. I have also reviewed data submitted to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection by Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc. with regard to its samplings and analysis of the levels of strontium-90 found in goat milk sampled at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford, Connecticut, during the years 2001, 2002 and 2003. This data includes reported concentrations of 55.5 and `13 to 14 picoCuries of strontium-90.
6. Comparison of the EPA data with the Dominion data
reveals: The data reveals that for 8 other locations across the nation the
levels of radioactive strontium-90 in milk are 10 to 100 times smaller than
those measured near the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant , in particular the55.5 picoCuries per liter measured in 2001 in the goat milk collected at 120
Dayton Road, 5 miles north-northeast of the plant. This is an extremely
large concentration, close to twice the concentration in Connecticut milk at
the height of nuclear weapons testing in 1963 of 23 picoCuries per liter.
7. It is my opinion that the evidence of strontium-90 levels in goat milk sampled from such location strongly suggests that the Millstone Nuclear Power Station releases excess levels of strontium-90 to the surrounding environment and that such emissions expose the community to a significant health risk which dictates closure of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant as a matter of public health.
I hereby declare that the statements above are true and are submitted under penalty of perjury.
_________________________
Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D.
Dated: November 16, 2005
New York, New York
The Big Lie
Katie the Goat - in common with all well-tended goats - is a fastidious eater.
When she lived at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford, she grazed freely on nearly 20 acres of pastureland and woodland.
She nibbled on the tips of pasture grasses. Study this picture of Katie closely. You will see how her unique jaw action cuts off the sweet tips of grass.
Unlike cows, sheep and horses, goats do not chomp grass or yank it up by the roots.
Goats are prized for their ability to avoid overgrazing and destruction of vegetative cover.
If anyone with the slightest sense of curiosity doubts this, he or she should observe a goat at first-hand.
Samples of Katie’s milk over the course of three years - 2001, 2002 and 2003 - revealed that the pasture grasses she was eating were highly contaminated with strontium-90, a deadly radioisotope routinely released by Millstone into the air and water. The samples were taken and analyzed by Dominion. The results were reported to state and federal agencies.
The results demonstrate that Katie’s pasture is contaminated with dangerous levels of radiation dispersed by Millstone.
If the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission faced up to the truth about Millstone’s poisoning of the environment, Millstone would have to close.
Instead, the NRC made up a BIG LIE to cover up the truth.
The NRC says Katie departed from her habitual eating habits by chewing her pasture grass down to the roots for the three years her goat milk tested excessively high for strontium-90. The NRC further speculates that Katie’s pasture much be pockmarked with radioactive fallout “hot spots” left from the nuclear weapons atmospheric testing of the 1950s.
Did the NRC ever observe Katie eating her pasture grass? No.
Did the NRC ever visit Katie’s pasture to see its conditions? No.
The NRC made up this BIG LIE to justify extending Millstone’s license to operate another 20 years and to protect local property values.
Because if Katie’s neighbors in New London County were told the truth by their government, property values would plummet.
How much is a goat pasture worth if it is poisoned with radiation?
How much is a one-family home worth if it is poisoned with radiation?
(Waterford-WTNH, Nov. 16, 2005 6:13 PM)
People living in one Waterford neighborhood want to know if their land is contaminated. It all stems from an anti-nuclear protest involving a goat named 'Katie.'
by News Channel 8's Tina Detelj
These folks say what the goat ate causes cancer and they question whether that land she grazed on is safe for a new development.
Toni Sherburne is the third generation of her family to live in their house on Dayton Road in Waterford, and now she has new concerns about the former farm next door. That is where a subdivision is scheduled to be built and where a goat grazed. An anti-nuclear group says its milk tested very high for Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope which causes cancer.
"The goat having high levels, does that concern you at all?"
"It kind of does now," says Sherburne. "I never had any idea that there was any real threat."
Sherburne now wonders if there is a cancer connection. Her mother died of the disease and so did her father's sister who lived next door.
"And then again my aunt who lived across the way by Hartford Road had died of cancer."
The state has never found evidence of cancer clusters related to the Millstone nuclear power plant. The Coalition Against Millstone blames emissions from the plant for the radioactivity. The plant says its tests prove it is not the source and points to federal claims that the Strontium-90 dates back to fallout from nuclear testing in the 1950's.
"I'm very concerned what's gonna happen to my children and their children, and they have children now," says Gerry Brewster of Waterford.
Five of Brewsters kids used to play on the site. None have gotten sick.
"Is this land safe to build on?"
"Yes," says Waterford planning director Tom Wagner. "In my opinion yes."
Wagner says the town has given the go ahead for the subdivision to be built on the twenty acre site. As part of the plans a driveway will be turned into cottage land and the subdivision will be a cul-de-sac back in the woods.
In all there will be fourteen new homes on land the town says is safe for development.
"We just recommend that people don't eat the soil in general anyway. It's just a good practice," says Wagner.
The governor has asked the Department of Environmental Protection to review its records on testing done at the Waterford site. State environmentalists tell us if they ever felt there was a threat to public safety they would have taken action.
Hi! I’m Katie.
I used to live at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford, Connecticut on a beautiful pastureland surrounded by woods. The pasture is 5.5 miles north-northeast of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant. Nearby are many homes and an elementary school and of course the Crystal Mall. I ate the pasture grasses and leaves from the trees and even stripped a few trees of their bark. Life was good. I had a kind owner and two goat-companions. I bore several children and went through many milking cycles. No one told me my milk was radioactive. So I fed my milk to my children and I gave milk to my goat tender, intending no harm.
Now I am told my bones are radioactive and I carry the potential to suffer from and even die from bone cancer, leukemia, immuno-deficiency diseases, diabetes and other unnecessary tortures. When I give birth again in the spring of 2006, my children may carry mutations which will be the result of mankind’s malicious meddling with the natural order by allowing the continuous “routine” emission of radioactive poisons from nuclear power plants to the surrounding environment.
My milk was analyzed by Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc. Their tests revealed concentrations of strontium-90 double the level of strontium-90 in cow’s milk in Connecticut during the peak of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s. My milk has always sampled excessively high for strontium-90. It has measured at 50 to 100 times higher than the levels of strontium-90 in commercially sold cow’s milk as sampled by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003.
If my pasture is poisoned and it is unfit for my habitation, is it also unfit for human habitation?
If my milk is unfit for my babies to drink, is the milk of lactating mothers near my pastureland unfit for their babies too?
Anti-nuclear group says goat's milk proves Millstone's unsafe
Hartford-WTNH, Nov. 15, 2005 5:30 PM -
It was an unusual sight geared at raising serious questions about safety near the Millstone nuclear power plant.
An anti-nuclear power group says the area is radioactive and a goat's milk proves it.
* by Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark Davis
The anti-nuclear group brought a goat and a prominent professor of radiology here today to make their point.
It's not every day that you see someone walking a goat on the state Capitol lawn, but Katie the goat is a strong tool of the anti-nuclear power movement in Connecticut.
Katie has been living, along with some other goats, for the past seven years grazing on grass in a pasture just five miles north of the Millstone nuclear power complex in Waterford. Her milk has tested very high for 'strontium-90,' a radioactive isotope that is known to destabilize cells causing bone cancers, leukemia and other diseases of the immune system.
"Levels occurred that were twice as high as measured during the height of nuclear bomb testing way back in the 1950's," says Dr. Ernest Sternglass, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"Are these pasturelands habitable for people, since they're obviously not for goats?" says Nancy Burton,
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone.
But the owners of Millstone say their tests on their emissions prove they are not the source of the high concentrations of 'strontium-90' which backs up the federal government's claim that what's in the ground in this field dates back to the country's nuclear bomb testing and that Katie has just been eating the grass, roots and all.
The anti-nuclear group is sounding the alarm because the goat farm is about to be sub-divided and developed into new housing.
There is a known link between 'strontium-90' and various cancers, including breast cancer. That's part of why the anti-nuclear group brought Katie the goat here today to get the attention of Governor Jodi Rell.
Women arrested during Entergy protest
November 8, 2005 By DANIEL BARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau
BRATTLEBORO
Seven women were arrested on trespassing charges Monday while protesting a proposed power increase for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The act of civil disobedience at Entergy Nuclear's corporate offices in Brattleboro resulted in the women being escorted into the back of a police van, issued citations for unlawful trespass and released.
The women had been told not to cross the police tape or go onto Entergy's lawn. They did so at about 11 a.m., after an hour of speeches in the parking lot across the road where they and about 40 supporters were permitted to protest.
Armed with a letter of demands for Entergy, the women crossed the street and were met by Vermont State Police. Holding their arms open, the troopers led the women back to the parking lot and to a Brattleboro Police van, where they were loaded inside and cited for trespassing.
One woman, Sunny Miller, 56, of Deerfield, Mass., refused to stand up and was carried into the van by police as a crowd of supporters sang, "We shall not be moved."
Sally Shaw, 49, of Gill, Mass., said she and the others were protesting because they felt shut out of the regulatory process as federal and state agencies consider if Vermont Yankee can boost its power production.
"There's a lot of frustration because many of us feel we have been left out of the process," Shaw said. "And all we could do is utilize our right to speak the truth on our own terms."
Monday's demonstration was in response to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's draft permit last week stating a 20 percent power boost at the Vernon reactor would not pose a health or safety risk to the nearby population.
Nina Keller, 59, of Wendell, Mass., said she was worried about the health of her family who live near the plant, just across the state border. She suggested that certain cancers and thyroid problems of residents in the surrounding towns were the result of radiation released from the plant.
"I've had it with being attacked by radiation," said Keller. "I'm being attacked by my neighbor."
Entergy spokesman Larry Smith said Monday's protest was relatively small for Vermont Yankee, which in the past has had demonstrations of thousands of people.
He added that 160 people usually work at the corporate headquarters in Brattleboro, but most were at the Vernon reactor Monday for the plant's regular maintenance and refueling outage.
As a precaution, Smith said the company had notified the neighboring C&S Wholesale Grocers warehouse and the company halted tractor-trailer traffic for about 90 minutes to keep large trucks off the road.
Smith said the company's priority was to make the demonstration as safe as possible for its employees and the protestors. He said the company had suggested that people avoid the main entrance as a result.
"We've had protests before and while we respect their opinions, we don't share those opinions," Smith said.
On Monday, the protesters' demands included an independent safety assessment for the 30-year-old plant, full testing of evacuation plans for residents within a 50-mile radius and environmental testing of nearby soil and water.
Shaw said she hopes legislators in Massachusetts and Vermont press for the development of renewable energy. She also criticized the NRC — a federal agency that she dubbed the "Nuclear Advocacy Council" — for allegedly bowing to industry demands.
"The process is broken and rigged and we are tired of the pretense," she said.
Arrested Monday were Shaw; Keller; Miller; Lynn Crough, 45, of Massachusetts; Maure Briggs-Carrington, 55, of Massachusetts; Terry Carter, 55, of Brattleboro; and Elizabeth Wood, 27, of Dummerston.
Brattleboro Police said the protest and arrests went peacefully Monday. Shaw said she and the six other women were in the back of the police van for about one hour and that police were "hospitable."
"They were only doing their jobs," she said.
The women were released on citations to appear in Brattleboro District Court on Dec. 13. Shaw said the group has hired an attorney and intends to fight the charges in a jury trial.
Susan Smallheer contributed to this report.
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
Note to Hartford Courant: High doses of radiation are not required to trigger cancer. Extremely low doses of radiation destabilize cells at a molecular level and cause cancer. See e.g. the most recent report of the National Academy of Sciences on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation. The nuclear industry wants you to mislead the public on this point. Please correct your information in future reports.
