Missing Buoys at Indian Point
April 23, 2012
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Passing Indian Point last week at 0830 AM I found that the buoys which normally mark the security zone around the plant were missing. During past winters, they have been removed to prevent loss due to river ice.
But winter’s over now – boat traffic is growing. The buoys are the last piece of the IP security charade to go.
I think back to all the times we were harassed on the water by the Naval Militia boats here – for taking photos, bringing journalists to see the plant, studying/counting the fish larvae around the plant (the ones being inhaled with cooling water), collecting sediment samples to measure radionuclides from the leaking spent fuel pools.
As an example, on 5/17/08 we were blocked, automatic weapons at the ready, from collecting fish larvae outside the security zone, in spite of a NYS DEC permit to do so. I appealed to the Coast Guard and they called off the dogs.
And I think back to the annual aerial patrols we’ve made since 9/11. We board a chopper at Teterboro - no security check, no luggage search or scan, no ID check - and we fly up the Hudson. As we pass Indian Point we never get a call from air traffic control, and we are never required to get clearance to fly by the plant. There is not a “no fly zone.”
New York taxpayers paid millions of dollars per year for the Militia until the State put an end to it – “tough economic times.”
No matter, the Militia, and the buoys, all of it were a “make believe” show of force. The plant has always been, and continues to be, unprotected from terrorist attack from the river and the air - Militia or no Militia, buoys or no buoys - all that fuss, all that money, just for show.
-Riverkeeper Patrol