INDEPENDENT KEELHAULING IS "CRUCIAL"

Truth or Dare in Public Affairs... The "IDK"

What we need is good old keelhauling.

As long as the "Gang-of-Democrats" is proposing obsolete "Trial-by-Combat" methods of finding out whether their staffs have been lying to them for years, I suggest we reach back into the American Nautical past, and revive another obsolete method of examination, the good old keelhaul. (no- not the "Independent Safety Assessment"---sorry!)

If John Hall's chief of staff can be tied to a rope, and dragged beneath the intake ports of Indian Point at high tide, he can undoubtedly either uncover whatever hidden evils are down there with the zebra mussels, or , if he finds just Hudson River Goodyears down below, perhaps the time "below the surface" can motivate him to own up to not really believing 100% of the exaggerated scare stories about Indian Point, after all.

Either way, the public can be reassured, and widespread public concern that they were being shined-on by professional Chicken Little-ists can be finally and definitively be proven either right or wrong, by a different examination crew, and a different method, much deeper and more stringent than is habitually applied to political press agents.

Therefore it is with great solicitude for public sensibilities, and the expressed wishes of millions that their electric bills not be arbitrarily tripled, that I declare a RISING TIDE OF MOMENTUM for an Independent Democratic Keelhauling, ( ..an IDK...) to be held each week at the Indian Point dock, until the truth is finally brought to light (or all the Anti-Nuclear Democratic politicians quit, and go to live in Bahamas, near Anna Nicole's old place).

At any rate , tapes of the "IDK" will become collector's items, as well known demi-celebrity press-hacks puke, and grovel, admitting they had contempt for the American public for decades---( until the definitive "IDK").

HOW GREEN WAS OJ ?

Do we really need another O.J. Simpson trial?


Suppose I was an honest lawmaker (or a citizen), with concerns about the accuracy, the honesty, or the stringency of previous NRC inspections at Indian Point? Would I be out in the cold, stonewalled by a smug NRC "omerta" system?.

Would I have no help , in my quest to understand the truth? Would there be no way to judge whether NRC performed as promised, or slacked off, allowing unseen dangers into our world? Would I be faced with complacent NRC inspectors, not aware of the needed depth, completeness, or stringency of NRC's relations with Indian Point ? Would I have nowhere to turn? Nowhere but writing new targeted one-of-a-kind legislation? Oddball, biased legislation amounting to a bill of attainder against a legally licensed functioning business? (a targeted bill in the National Socialist mold, un-American to the Nth degree, a partisan vendetta masked as "law"?) Some might say yes. But if there were no alternative, it might be necessary, right?

What if there were an existing group, doing that job already? An official group unknown, or overlooked by the freshman lawmaker? Well, yes, actually, there always has been. You see, NRC has an "Internal Affairs" department, just like any police force, and it's called the ACRS.

Woops!

Link to : http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/brochures/br0286/br0286.pdf "ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS"

This committee, a high level expert committee completely separate from the day-to-day routine of NRC inspections, exists under law to provide, amazingly enough, exactly the function John Hall and Chris Shays claim to be implementing with their punitive new bill-of-attainder, and does it long term, as a devil's advocate within NRC, to ensure the NRC process is sound, that its implementation is strict, and that its basis is purely scientific (not political). It's mission for 2005-2008 can be found at the link given above, and I'm happy to say that Dr. Bill Shack has just become its chairman, after a 25+ year career in aging degradation analysis, (allow me to quote): "His work has included measurement and modeling of residual stresses, fracture mechanics analyses of stress corrosion crack growth, assessment of leak-before-break behavior in piping systems, and fatigue of reactor materials. He was appointed to the ACRS in 1993." If anybody in the world can tell us that Indian Point is too old, and gonna blow, it ought to be Dr. Bill Shack, right?

But Does Dr. Bill think it's his mission to keep NRC honest on this ?...(I quote yet again): "The ACRS advises the Commission independently from the NRC staff on the safety and safeguards aspects of nuclear facilities and the adequacy of safety inspections. ACRS reviews and advises the Commission with regard to safety issues, the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards, technical issues related to the licensing of plant designs, and other matters referred to it by the Commission. On its own initiative, may conduct reviews of specific safety-related items. Submits an annual report to the Commission commenting on NRC Safety Research Programs." Well, geeze, Louise, it seems that Dr. Bill and his oversight committee, are ALREADY DOING every single thing Shays, Hall, and the other newbies want to tell the public is not being done!!! Amazing!!!

Maybe Hall, had he known anything about the NRC, could have simply written Dr Shack a congressional request to check into the inspections done at Indian Point. Maybe he could have called him up. or visited his office. What could POSSIBLY ever be a motive for the "Dance with Me" author to ignore Dr. Bill Shack, and ACRS, and "Go Public" with a new vendetta bill, to pretend ACRS never existed??

Alas, dear readers, I have to let YOU decide that. I cannot read Chris Shays' mind, or John Hall's either. Could press coverage have played a part? Could one sided (anti-nuclear) staff research have blinded the honorable Congressmembers to what already was routinely tackling these problems?

Could a trumped up adversarial stance, used to garner anti-nuke votes have crippled the perpetrators, so that they ignored, bypassed, and suppressed information about an existing non-confrontational way to protect the public, or pretended it does not exist, and went on their own merry inexpert way to re-invent the wheel, with many many glorious sound bites, and headlines, so they can seem like heroes on the news, while really, all they were doing was ignoring the highly qualified people (Dr. Bill Shack) who were actually doing the job, without consulting newly elected ex-musicians who needed to look good to their fringe anarchist support base?

Or maybe there's some other explanation?
Well,,,, if there is.... We're waiting!

And tell me this: Does a one time only ISA, with non-expert members in it, stand a better chance of understanding the reality in 3 weeks, or does Dr Bill Shack's permanent expert office , with his 30 years of expertise, and their 30 years of expertise, and a mandate to look into the matter in an ongoing manner, with no cutoff point , stand a better chance of finding the truth, without an O.J. Simpson trial type media feeding frenzy clouding all the issues?

How did that O.J. Simpson trial turn out, anyway?
Think that it uncovered the truth?

Could it be that a "new O.J. Simpson trial" effect is exactly what Hall , Shays & the others are after?

HALL SAYS: "USE CANDLES"

Who said there would be lifeboats?

The 20-odd million people living in the soon-to-be-unaffordable Hudson Valley region need more than empty stunts, cooked up by devious and overanxious "activist advocates'" (paid press agents), in the pay of big charity, big oil, and antinuclear lobbyist foundations, and in turn, foisted on clueless Democratic electees as panaceas, without understanding, without any need, and in the end, without any possible viable result.

It seems that the paid antinuke lobby has settled on the "Independent Safety Assessment" as the next in a line of ostensibly serious proposals that all end up useless exercises in partisan attack futility. It is one thing to oppose policy from the sidelines, but it is quite another to be elected, and have the responsibility of making livable lives for your constituents, outside of any one-sided expectations on the part of the far right, the far left, or the far anti-nuclear fringe.

Just as bungled electric service negotiations are turning into major permanent rate hikes and tax hikes for the unfortunates living in Rockland county, are we to stand by mesmerized, while the same electoral stupidity begins to destroy infrastructure on the east shore, in attacking Indian Point power plant for no demonstrable reason, except that certain fringe political groups voted a "no nukes" line?

The no-nukes cadre was but a small minority in a fairly close majority voting Sue Kelly into retirement in favor of John Hall, and Hall made much of declaring he was "everyone's congressman"---- so now we demand to hear exactly what cause there is to begin to harrass Indian Point, and its mentor, Entergy, aside from promises perhaps rashly made at fuzzy-logic no-nukes concerts over twenty years, by a man who does not understand the area's big cities, the inner suburbs, the local job markets, the local near-suburban housing crunch, the need for blue collar work, and the urgency of the viable absorption of unknown tens of thousands of new arrivals, who are here for the long haul, and who cannot survive integration into American life as penniless marginalized peons, prevented from participation by ill-thought-out infrastructure-burning rampages, hatched in the name of 1980's rock'n'roll concert talk.

In the only other "Independent Safety Assessment" ever held, (Maine Yankee 1996) there seemed to be a glaring proximate cause---a smoking gun--- in an employee allegation of criminal wrongdoing. Without that allegation, which also implicated the NRC, no ISA ever would have happened a decade ago. Where is today's smoking gun? Where is the specific wrongdoing. It is much more than claiming Indian Point could be "Guilty until proven innocent", ..... it is a case in which our freshman congressrocker cannot even say WHAT Indian Point might be guilty of!

In the Maine case, in 1996, even the smoking gun claims were later found to be not true--- it just so happened that Maine Yankee was decrepit, understaffed, lax in almost every way, ignored by its corporate owners, and so it was put to a just and deserving death. And in the irony of ironies, the savior corporation called upon to send knowledgeable experts to Maine to complete the burial arrangements, was you guessed it--ENTERGY!! Entergy uncovered a host of FURTHER bad stuff at Maine Yankee, and correctly advised them to stay closed, and give up their license (which they eventually did).

At least in part from the glaring lessons learned in doing away with Maine Yankee, Entergy entered New York in 2000 with a healthy skepticism toward Indian Point, and began a long 7 year improvement plan, one still being followed today. Almost every area concentrated on by Entergy at Indian Point harks back at least in part to some laxity found at Maine Yankee, and therefore has been specifically targeted now for at least 7 years of ISA remediation at the New York plants, whether they needed it or not.

All this info is available to Hall, and tells him not only could nothing bad be found by an Indian Point ISA, but that it is at root a deception of the public, to act as if an ISA could do the public any good . It cannot. But it can help Hall, and a few other complicit cross-burners, because professionally organized antinuke fakery contributed at least some votes to all of them.

Bread & Circuses is, I'm afraid not enough here. What we need, all us 20 million forgotten souls (all of us who didn't meet at the concerts)-- what we need, is a concrete plan to build energy centers. Not study centers, actual viable electricity-producing power plants, to replace Indian Point's 2000+ megawatts, get them built, set up, and pumping on the grid--so that we can live here---- and I will be the first one to say , at that point, to Indian Point :....."Goodnight old gal, thanks for a fine half-century"

If nobody builds those plants, every single swipe at Indian Point , is a hatchet swipe on at least 15 million of us being able to afford to live here.
Mark my words. Its smoke and mirrors. Its bread & circuses. It's screw-your brother for a soundbite, but it is NOT responsible leadership.

It's like blowing up the Titanic first, so it won't hit an iceberg, and,
once in the icy water saying: "Lifeboats?"
"Who said there would be lifeboats?"