Missing Buoys at Indian Point

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.