󰀿Sunday, May 19  |  1:00pm

󰀽Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, 600 Rocky Hill Road, Plymouth, MA

Concerned citizens from New England will gather at State Road and Edison Access Road in Plymouth to call for the closing of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. Speakers include Senator Dan Wolf, poet Marge Piercy and former Fukushima area resident Chikako Nishiyama. Music will be provided by Tom Neilson, bard insurgent.

Scheduled between Motherʼs Day and Memorial Day, the rally will be an opportunity for all mothers to take a stand to protect their children, families, and community and to remember the tragedy of Fukushima and honor those in Japan and around the world who continue to suffer the consequences of a nuclear catastrophe. We have a responsibility to future generations to act responsibly today.

** Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station has the same GE Mark l Boiling Water Reactor design as at Fukushima, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had determined to have a 90% chance of containment failure in a severe accident. The catastrophe happened as predicted.

** At an NRC open house in Plymouth on April 2, 2013, NRC Project Engineer Tom Setzer confirmed that an accident like Fukushima could happen in Plymouth.

** Pilgrim was relicensed last May over the objections of Governor Patrick, Attorney General Coakley, Congressman Keating, Congressman Markey, State Senator Murray, State Senator Wolf, and State
Representative Peake.

For directions and updates, visit: http://capedownwinders.org

Contacts:
Diane Turco – tturco@comcast.net (508) 432-1744
or Arlene Williamson – a.williamson99@comcast.net (774) 521-3347

󰀿Sunday, May 19  |  6:30 pm

󰀽First Parish Unitarian Church, 222 Main Street, Kingston, MA

Chikako Nishiyama, from the village of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, is making a trip to New England to offer her eye-witness report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Kawauchi is about 15 miles southwest of the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactors. The 2,300 people who lived there were evacuated. A year later they were told it was safe to return, but most still stayed away, fearing radioactive contamination. Now two years later, there are still many who have not returned.

Chikako has been an outspoken and very courageous critic of TEPCO’s and the Japanese government’s whole handling of this disaster (not to mention their actions, or non-actions that allowed the disaster to happen in the first place). She most certainly has first-hand accounts, of her own travail as wells as of others of her village. Her son is a firefighter in his early twenties, assigned to go back to patrol the village before the evacuation order was lifted. He is still stationed in Kawauchi, and Chikako is quite concerned for his health.

Today, the official edict is that the village is now safe enough for people to return, but Chikako believes that this is a policy that sacrifices her village people’s lives. She will explain how a lot of money is at stake, and that her local government is choosing to maintain their interests over well-beings of people and the natural world. Her house still sits in Kawauchi, but she doesn’t intend to live there ever again. She is currently working to find locales in the western part of Japan where those who want to relocate can start new lives in a more sustainable and healthy environment.

Translating Chikako’s story will be Chiho Kaneko. Born in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture (about 150 miles north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors) and graduating from Hokkaido University with a degree in agronomy, Chiho moved to the U.S. in 1993 and became an interpreter/translator, visual artist, musician, and columnist for a Japanese daily newspaper. Her most recent trip to Japan was last fall, her fourth visit since the March 11, 2011 nuclear meltdowns.

Nishiyama will speak and answer questions starting at 6:30 pm. The event is free and open to all. Here is an event flyer to download and share:  󰀓ChikakoTalk-May19.pdf

󰀿Sunday, June 9    󰀽Cape Cod Bay, Plymouth    󰀍Details

An ON–THE–WATER RALLY to celebrate World Oceans Day and shine a light on the environmental impacts to Cape Cod Bay caused by Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

Rally begins at noon outside the security buoys near Pilgrim Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Launch from wherever you’d like, but we will have two launch sites and safety stations set up in Plymouth with the help of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Don’t have access to a boat? There will be ways for everyone to participate.

More information at www.capecodbaywatch.org/flotilla