Meet Andrea, Our First Nuclear Dead Baby

First, it seems only fair that Andrea speak, since this Indian Point Dead Baby Tour is about them, the dolls, and who it is they represent in this battle.


Remembering The Glow

It was a Saturday, just like any other
All the children out playing in the yard
Susan had placed me by our favorite tree
Then ran off to play hide and seek

I sensed more than felt the world change
Heard Susan's Mother screaming
Get inside, get inside before it is too late
The tone left nothing to doubt
To the basement! RUN CHILDREN RUN

Susan, Mike and Jeff quickly ran inside
I was left sitting out beneath the tree
I was there to feel the glow

My name is Andrea, I am one of the Indian Point Dead Babies, though I could be representative of every child, any child living anywhere near a nuclear facility, be it a nuclear weapons facility, a nuclear fuel production or nuclear waste storage/disposal facility, or any one of the world's 437 aging and failing Commercial Nuclear Reactors such as Entergy's brittling twin reactors known as Indian Point, which are leaking tritium and strontium 90 into the Hudson River. I represent the children and their toys destroyed when Chernobyl visited the earth, killing tens of thousands immediately, condemning others to a slow and painful death as cancer slowly ate away what was left of them. I am the standard bearer for all the children born with birth defects caused by releases of radioactive contaminants that the NRC falsely claims,"present no immediate risk to human health and the environment." We, the Indian Point Dead Babies are the voice for all those who never had a chance to see life, the radiation causing young Mothers to give birth to stillborn babies, while the NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) and the nuclear industry one and all proclaim, "Nuclear, the safe, vital, secure and Green energy that will save us all from Global Warming."

Please world, wake up to the real horror story that is the nuclear legacy, see the lie that is the Nuclear Renaissance before it is too late. If not for yourselves, do it for the children of this world we all share, do it to save their lives, and preserve their future.

Speak to the soldiers who have returned home from the desert sands, stricken with strange diseases and ailments caused by their exposure to the depleted uranium that is the Pentagon's ammunition of choice. Talk with down winders suffering from the effects of nuclear weapons testing, and hear their truth. Break bread with the union workers who gave their lives and health at the Gaseous Diffusion plants in Portsmouth, Ohio and Piketon, Kentucky, ask them if radiation kills. We have been sold a lie, there is no such beast as the peaceful atom, nuclear kills at every stage of its cycle, from mining the uranium out of the ground, through the billions of years of burial in the ground, its invisible poison finds its way into the human race, a silent black hand of death far worse than any plague.

When you embrace, even endorse nuclear energy as a part of the Global Warming solution, you have just signed someone's death sentence, perhaps even your own, or your child's, as radiation is indiscriminate in its lust to steal life, her radioactive nuclides ready to travel the winds, prepared to span the globe looking for the innocents. Small pockets of cancer here, elevated levels of leukemia there, unexplained and unprecedented numbers of stillborns some place else, nuclear is a killer, always on the hunt 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Ask yourself what price is fair for one community to pay so that you can have your laptop powered with supposedly cheap affordable nuclear energy. Where should we store the waste, perhaps in your back yard, or the yard just down the street from you? Look at Chernobyl, then ask yourself if it really makes sense to grant a NRC licensee a license extension of 20 more years when the nuclear reactor was only designed to operate for a period of 40 years. If the nuclear reactor was in your community, if the tritium and strontium 90 were leaking into your river, if its pipes and valves were failing just down the street from your house, would you feel safe, would you embrace having it relicensed for 20 more years? If not, then why are you fine with it being relicensed to operate in my community for 20 more years? Where are you in our hour of need? Where is the outraged public coming to our defense, where is the public in standing up for the lives of our community's children?

I am Andrea, and I represent all those who have no voice, in the hopes that you, the world will hear our silent screams. I am proud to be one of the Nuclear Dead Babies in the Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour.

Andrea Comes To Our Home

We found this beautiful doll in a now closed antique store here in New York...as luck would have it, we happened to come along on the very weekend they were having a tag sale to clear things out. The second we set eyes on her, we knew she was meant to be the first nuclear dead baby in our Indian Point Dead Baby World Tour. Her dirty face and arms, the soiled yet still beautiful dress with the hand crochetted neckline and hems were calling to us, beseeching us to give her a home. Right now she sits comfortably on the bookshelf in my office, her eyes wide open, her lips poised to speech of the things she has seen.

We were on our way out of town when we met her, so the decision made, she joined us on our trip to upstate New York to visit friends. Next Thursday she will travel with me to a diner close to our home to meet five employees of the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) her silent eyes speaking volumes as we discuss Indian Point's license renewal application over morning coffee. This coming Saturday she'll be at the Clearwater Festival, delivering her silent message to any who care to hear.

Below are some of the first pictures we snapped of her.



Andrea with one of her little friends.



Andrea Enjoying The Living Room



Andrea Admiring a Painting