COALITION AGAINST NUKES RALLY FOR NUCLEAR-FREE ENERGY Oct. 1, NYC and NATIONWIDE

(Long Island, NY, September 12, 2011) 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 two reactors at Virginia's North Anna nuclear 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 New York, Entergy's aging, leaky, 40-year old Indian Point nuclear reactors, with uncorrected safety concerns yet under consideration for additional 20-year relicensing by the Obama Administration, are located 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 NY, New Jersey and Connecticut.

We stand with the people of Japan who are suffering this ongoing nuclear disaster. We cannot let that happen here!

WHEN:
Saturday, October 1, 2011 from 12:00pm - 3:30pm

WHERE:
Hudson River Park, Pier 95, 12th 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, government withholds information, and Industry is in charge of safety.

The American public must be roused to the danger of the nuclear power industry and the 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," Caldicott said.

Coalition Against Nukes executive director Priscilla Star lives 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 while they get increasingly sick with symptoms of radiation sickness," she said. "They're frightened for their children and it just breaks your heart."

"We have 104 nuclear reactors here in the US, as well as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes. We're just as vulnerable," 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 represented NY's 19th District, including Indian Point. 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: Friends of the Earth, NYC Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Ralph Nader, New York Physicians for Social Responsibility, NYPIRG, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Helen Caldicott Foundation, IPSEC, Beyond Nuclear, Westchester Citizens Awareness Network, Shut Down Indian Point Now, Time's Up, ECOFEST, Rock the Reactors.

Rally updates www.CoalitionAgainstNukes.org To help or volunteer email NYCRally@CoalitionAgainstNukes.org call 631-377-1560