Shut Down Indian Point Now!

PETITION TO CLOSE DOWN INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT AND PHASE OUT ALL NUCLEAR REACTORS
To:
President Barack Obama, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20500
Secretary of the Dept. of Energy, Steven Chu, 1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20585
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555
Senator Barbara Boxer, Chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, 112 Hart Senate Bldg., Washington DC 20510
Congressman Fred Upton, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, 2183 Rayburn House, Washington, DC 20515
Senator Charles Schumer, 322 Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, 478 Russell, Washington DC 20510
Your congressperson:

From: ShutDownIndianPointNow.org New York City

WHEREAS nuclear power plants can never be guaranteed to be safe from a meltdown or serious accident from natural or man made causes resulting in catastrophic lethal contamination of the environment for centuries; and
WHEREAS no plan can be devised that will enable densely populated areas such as New York City to be evacuated on time in case of a disastrous nuclear event; and
WHEREAS there is no known safe solution to the storage of nuclear waste that remains lethally toxic for hundreds of thousands of years; and
WHEREAS disasters such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima and numerous other less publicized but significant accidents at other reactors prove that claims by the nuclear power industry and others that such reactors can ever be safe, are a lie; and
WHEREAS our country's energy needs can be met without nuclear energy through conservation, efficiency and updated modification of our existing electrical grid; and
WHEREAS solar, wind, geothermal, and wave energy can create many more jobs than nuclear energy; and
WHEREAS the social, environmental and economic disaster resulting from a serious nuclear event far outweighs any other considerations; and
WHEREAS Switzerland plans to shut down all its nuclear reactors by 2034 even though it presently gets 40\% of its energy from nuclear power, and Germany plans to shut down all its reactors by 2022 even though it presently gets 23\% of its energy from nuclear power; and
WHEREAS the Indian Point Nuclear Power plant has had various accidents and safety violations and research from the Radiation and Public Health Project shows that in the four counties nearest the plant cancer rates have risen much more rapidly than in the rest of the U.S.; and


WHEREAS the Indian Point Nuclear Power plant causes an unacceptable impact on the ecology of the Hudson River by sucking up 2.5 billion gallons of Hudson River daily, circulating it through its system and dumping heated water back into the river killing billions of fish eggs, larvae, fish and other aquatic life, and fish have been found contaminated by radioactive strontium 90; and
WHEREAS according to the U.S Geological Survey, Indian Point's #3 reactor which sits on an earthquake fault, has the highest risk of core damage from an earthquake of all nuclear reactors in the U.S; and
WHEREAS only 4-6\% of NYC's electricity is generated from the Indian Point plant and conservation alone could save up to 15\% of electrical usage;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
1) that the federal government or empowered state or local body immediately close the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant;
2) that the federal government issue no new or renewal licenses for nuclear power plants in the U.S;
3) that the federal government stop all subsidies to the nuclear power industry, use this money to invest in clean, safe solar, wind, wave and geothermal energy, and phase out all existing nuclear power plants throughout the nation.