Protest at Rocky Flats

Originally published by The Colorado Independent

Revisiting Rocky Flats: Joseph Daniel brings his 1979 protest dispatch back into service

John Tomasic 
January 03, 2014 Civil Rights 2 Comments

Hundreds of people in bandanas, bell bottoms and boxy Buicks came to the Colorado scrubland in the shadow of the Flatiron mountains between Golden and Boulder to sit on a small stretch of train tracks at Rocky Flats. They sat for months. They were pummeled by the elements and finally dragged off by the police and hauled into court. But by that time, the spring of 1979, the world more or less knew about the tracks.

“That little railroad spur, 18 inches of iron rail in Jefferson County, was a true seat of power,” said Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers and went onto become an icon of the era’s peace movement.

Close Pilgrim NOW!

Photo by Cole Harrison - Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA)

The Grand Staircase in the Massachusetts State House reverberated with the call to Close Pilgrim NOW this afternoon as citizens held a two hour speak out On October 22nd detailing every aspect of the problem.

The Pilgrim nuclear plant is operated by Entergy Corp. which has said it will close the reactor in 2019.  Even the nuclear-loving NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has designated this plant one of the three most unsafe in the nation.  

From the crowded spent fuel rods on the roof (just like at the failed Fukushima reactors) to the fire safety measures that have never been implemented to the financial losses in the hundreds of millions, this plant is highly dangerous for Eastern Massachusetts.  There is no possible way to evacuate the 4 million people who would be in danger should the plant go critical.  

Longtime leaders in the struggle to shut down a number of reactors Deb Katz (Citizens Awareness Network) and Mary Lampert (Pilgrim Watch) said we have entered the most dangerous time period while the plant is so badly managed and still operating, before shut down and decommissioning begins.  

Bills pending at the State House abound - for requiring Entergy to fund decommissioning, to prevent taxpayer subsidies for the company and to re-direct tax funds to clean energy and conservation.  The next significant date in the struggle will be on November 17 when some of these bills will be heard in the State House.  Politicians helping in the struggle by filing the needed bills include Dan Wolf, from Plymouth and Kathleen O'Connor Ives from Newburyport.  The Massachusetts Congressional Delegation has weighed in by sending a letter to the NRC saying state officials need to be involved in the decommissioning process.  

I'm glad I left work early (using a couple of hours of personal time) to attend this speakout but I have to say the turnout was light, not every chair was filled.  We need many more people to come out for these events.  Hundreds, even thousands of people are needed to get the message across to Governor Baker that we need to avert disaster and CLOSE IT NOW!