The Coalition Against Nukes National Day of Action flagship rally will be Saturday, October 1, 2011 at Pier 95 Hudson River Park, NYC, from Noon to 3:30 pm, with more events happening throughout the United States. Visit www.CoalitionAgainstNukes.org
The Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns inspired this grassroots action. It was intensified by the August 23 magnitude 5.8 earthquake that caused 2 reactors at Virginia’s North Anna plant to shut down. Twelve reactors up and down the eastern US reported “unusual events” to the NRC.
Then, on August 28, Hurricane Irene demonstrated powerfully that electrical power and transportation routes can be disrupted over a very large area-for days and weeks.
In NY, the aging, 40-year old Indian Point nuclear reactors owned by Entergy, and under consideration by the Obama Administration for additional 20-year relicensing, are located very near 2 fault lines, just north of NYC in a very densely-populated area. Twenty million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
We stand with the people of Japan who are suffering this ongoing nuclear disaster and say:
we cannot let that happen here!
WHEN: Saturday, October 1, 2011 from 12:00pm – 3:30pm
WHERE: Hudson River Park, Pier 95, 11th Ave @ West 55th Street, NYC
And in: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Washington.
WHY:
The health impacts of Fukushima are far from over. We are forced to watch Japan succumb to a growing medical and environmental catastrophe that will unfold for generations, and may equal or surpass the damage of Chernobyl. Fukushima made it very clear what happens when back-up systems fail and Industry is in charge of safety.
The American public must be roused to the danger of the nuclear power industry, and cozy regulatory milieu, including hasty relicensing of old plants, lack of security and permanent storage for radioactive waste, insufficient evacuation plans, billions in taxpayer subsidies, and more.
“Consider the economic consequences of a meltdown at Indian Point from an earthquake. New York, the world’s financial capital, could be rendered virtually uninhabitable,” said Dr. Helen Caldicott, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and keynote speaker for the NYC Rally. “Fukushima fallout is traversing the Northern Hemisphere, turning up in milk, food, and water; on tourists in airports, and products in shipping bays around the world,” she said.
Priscilla Star, the executive director of Coalition Against Nukes, lives just downwind across the Long Island Sound from Millstone Power Station’s nuclear reactors in Waterford, CT.
“We hear from Japanese people affected by Fukushima every day at the Coalition Against Nukes Facebook page,” said Priscilla Star, executive director. “They’re afraid to abandon their homes and businesses, but afraid to stay,” she said. “They’re frightened for their children and it just breaks your heart.”
“We have 104 nuclear reactors here in the US, earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes. We’re sitting ducks too,” Star said.
NYC RALLY SPEAKERS:
Dr. Helen Caldicott – Keynote
Dr. Caldicott is a pediatrician who has devoted the last 38 years to education about the health hazards of the nuclear age. She is the co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
· Brent Blackwelder, President Emeritus, Friends of the Earth, and the most senior environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C.
· Former US Congressman John Hall who represented NY’s 19th District, including Indian Point. Singer, Songwriter and co-founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy—MUSE.
· Harvey Wasserman anti-nuclear activist, author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030
· Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear.
· Karl Grossman, investigative journalist, author, and professor at SUNY Old Westbury, recipient of the George Polk, James Aronson and John Peter Zenger Awards
· Alice Slater, Founder of Abolition 2000, NY Director of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and its UN representative.
Rally co-sponsors include: Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club NYC, Greenpeace, Ralph Nader, NYPIRG, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Helen Caldicott Foundation, IPSEC, Beyond Nuclear, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Westchester Citizens Awareness Network, Shut Down Indian Point Now, Time’s Up, ECOFEST, Rock the Reactors, and more.
