Valentine’s Day 2005
Tomorrow the school buses will appear at the schools around Brattleboro for the second time to practice evacuating our schoolchildren if Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor should have an accident.
I find it fitting that this drill should occur so close to Valentine’s Day.
A nuclear emergency would likely separate not just parents from their schoolchildren, but would separate husband from wife, girlfriend from boyfriend, homeowner from property, business owner from source of income, teachers from their families, pet owners from pets, farmers from farms and individuals from their health.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that radiation from nuclear reactors if ingested even in minute quantities can lead to the development of cancers.
Nuclear workers, the first line of defense, are proud of their facilities and their health, which is checked frequently due to their occupational proximity to the toxic radiation, hence the name- nuclear worker syndrome. Others nearby call it terrorism in our own back yard.
Unfortunately people in surrounding towns do not have the good fortune nor the workplace health plan to warrant our health be checked as frequently.
There is hope this Valentine’s Day about the end of Vermont Yankee.
Each delay in the production of uprate power beyond November of 2004 decreases the value of this proposed reactor to the state.
Now it is looking as though the delay may be many months.
I always see this as a good omen.
Call me jaded but the longer the reactor runs the more likely it is to break down.
Last year they had the fire, the lost waste fiasco, and the evacuation drill “disaster”.
2003 saw Entergy truck tons of soil offsite (read “honest mistake”) to create a “temporary” structure for uprate related modifications and saw Entergy sanctioned by the Public Service Board for “corrosive and bullying behavior” as it made its first impression before the state as the new owner of the state’s reactor.
2002 saw a mid cycle outage in May to clean up radioactive spill caused by leaking fuel rods- the public was never informed other than speculation to the cause of the 5 month radiation leak in Vernon.
Readers, take heart.
Never before has the public opposed to VY been so close to seeing this dangerous reactor shuttered.
The resistance currently opposing the uprate is having an effect.
The New England Coalition deserves your praise, signatures and or financial appreciation. Other groups deserve your support as well.
The supposed public rate payer advocate department of public service (smoke and mirrors) has apparently changed their tune from selling out its position opposing the uprate, to supporting the MOU buyout (i.e. millions of dollars to the Governor’s pet project), to now this time supposedly opposing Entergy uprate before the NRC.
A department engineer said in the PSB uprate hearing 10/17/03 that if VY was shutdown tomorrow the state would have excess generating capacity.
This proposed uprate if nothing else increases the risk to the public, and increases the radiation released by the reactor.
Happy Valentine’s Day. If you love this state or this region please join in somehow to help end this environmental and health risk.