WTNH.com - Anti-nuclear group says goat's milk proves Millstone's unsafe

WTNH.com - Anti-nuclear group says goat's milk proves Millstone's unsafe: "Anti-nuclear group says goat's milk proves Millstone's unsafe
(Hartford-WTNH, Nov. 15, 2005 5:30 PM) _ It was an unusual sight geared at raising serious questions about safety near the Millstone nuclear power plant.
An anti-nuclear power group says the area is radioactive and a goat's milk proves it.
* by Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark Davis
The anti-nuclear group brought a goat and a prominent professor of radiology here today to make their point.
It's not every day that you see someone walking a goat on the state Capitol lawn, but Katie the goat is a strong tool of the anti-nuclear power movement in Connecticut.
Katie has been living, along with some other goats, for the past seven years grazing on grass in a pasture just five miles north of the Millstone nuclear power complex in Waterford. Her milk has tested very high for 'strontium-90,' a radioactive isotope that is known to destabilize cells causing bone cancers, leukemia and other diseases of the immune system.
"Levels occurred that were twice as high as measured during the height of nuclear bomb testing way back in the 1950's," says Dr. Ernest Sternglass, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"Are these pasturelands habitable for people, since they're obviously not for goats?" says Nancy Burton,
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone.
But the owners of Millstone say their tests on their emissions prove they are not the source of the high concentrations of 'strontium-90' which backs up the federal government's claim that what's in the ground in this field dates back to the country's nuclear bomb testing and that Katie has just been eating the grass, roots and all.
The anti-nuclear group is sounding the alarm because the goat farm is about to be sub-divided and developed into new housing.
There is a known link between 'strontium-90' and various cancers, including breast cancer. That's part of why the anti-nuclear group brought Katie the goat here today to get the attention of Governor Jodi Rell.
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