By Nukewatch Staff

The Nukewatch-inspired Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Mississippi River* crashed the February 18 meeting of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in St. Paul, and several members boldly interrupted the proceedings. The PUC was considering Xcel Energy’s so-called Integrated Resource Plan for long-term electric power generation. Speaking out against Xcel’s nuclear-power-heavy plans, Sarah Martin, with coalition partner Women Against Military Madness, George Crocker with the North American Water Office, and Nukewatch’s Kelly Lundeen forced the commission to recess three times after continuing to speak out about the PUC’s endangerment of public health and the environment by permitting the accident-plagued Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear reactors on the Mississippi River to operate.

Speaking without notes, Crocker said to the commissioners in part: “You are regulating a murderous set of machines, that kill three to six or more people every month, according to CDC analysis, in Wright, Sherburne and Goodhue Counties. You are culpable, and we are here to inform you that we will not tolerate your culpability in the murder — the serial killings as it were of our friends and neighbors — by the routine, radioactive releases that occur in order to continue operating those nuclear reactors….”

*The growing coalition so far includes: Indigenous Earth Protectors, North American Water Office, Rainbow Warrior Collective, RISE Coalition, Women Against Military Madness, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, and Nukewatch