Authored by: cgrotke on Friday, June 12 2009 @ 01:12 PM GMT+4

You've been hoping to set that up for quite a while. Nice going! It should
be an informative hour.

(My advice: Stay away from the rumor that they are merging with a gift
company in Massachusetts to form Vermont Yankee Candle).

Authored by: Maus Anon E on Friday, June 12 2009 @ 01:27 PM GMT+4

I hope you'll have someone standing by with a mop and bucket in case he suddenly springs a leak.

---
We Rock!

Authored by: pjmelton on Saturday, June 13 2009 @ 03:00 PM GMT+4

This is the funniest post I have read here in months. Ever, maybe. Thank you.

---
"Economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings." -- FDR

Authored by: Maus Anon E on Saturday, June 13 2009 @ 05:39 PM GMT+4

Whenever I hear about a leak at VY (which is quite often, it seems) I think of dozens of hazmat-suited janitors rushing to the scene pushing yellow mop buckets.

---
We Rock!

Authored by: Christian Avard on Friday, June 12 2009 @ 01:45 PM GMT+4

Wow. Great job.

Now if you can only get Governor Jim Douglas on....

Authored by: SpudHill on Friday, June 12 2009 @ 02:47 PM GMT+4

Be sure and play "Glow-worm" as the lead-in music, it's always such a nice touch when you do anything on VY. Let's see if he has a sense of humor.....

Authored by: Timmy on Monday, June 15 2009 @ 11:07 AM GMT+4

He did!

Authored by: annikee on Saturday, June 13 2009 @ 06:37 AM GMT+4

I thought I misheard the radio ad for this. It should be very interesting. And he's agreed to calls. Congrats, Steve.

---
Down with Goldstein!

Authored by: AirBrattleboro on Saturday, June 13 2009 @ 08:17 PM GMT+4

I'm getting lots of emails with questions for Larry Smith. Now is the time to send them along. I'll only have the hour (minus commercial breaks), so I can only cover so much ground.

Send any questions to steve@1490wkvt.com. Listen in on Monday @ 11, and feel free to call. I'll ask ahead of time for comments to be brief so I can get as many callers on the air as possible.

Thanks.

---
**********************************************
Steve West
Host - "Live & Local"
WKVT 1490 AM
802.254.5286

Authored by: paulgardner on Sunday, June 14 2009 @ 11:50 AM GMT+4

I think this is a very important opportunity.

Clearly Entergy thinks so too or they wouldn't be making Smith available.
I've noticed a lack of Entergy ads in the paper and on the air - I wonder if they have pulled back to reevaluate their strategy or maybe they've given up on relicensing? The latter seems unlikely given the profit potential from staying in business another 20 years.
So what questions do we need to ask Mr. Smith?
Here's mine:
Given that a corporation can go bankrupt and close virtually in days, isn't it wrong for a corporation to own a nuclear power plant where the potential risks are so high and the waste so long lasting in its potency?

Authored by: Floyd on Sunday, June 14 2009 @ 01:38 PM GMT+4

Given that some radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in “spent” fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other living beings for hundreds of thousands of years, and given that humanity's oldest existing constructions are less than 10,000 years old, is it really responsible or ethical to be leaving this waste for future generations to deal with?

After all, they get nothing out of it, but will be forced to build and rebuild containment vessels for this highly toxic material that is scattered all over the country and left as a highly dangerous, and thankless obligation from the 20th and 21st centuries.

It is being presumed that humans will take this obligation seriously and without fail for generation after generation without interruption, despite any number of possible or likely interruptions in continuity: wars, plagues, economic downturns that prioritize financial needs and any number of other possibilities. Think of the various calamities that have happened in the past 100,00 years that wiped out entire populations or drastically altered human events.

The English language as we recognize it is only a few hundred years old. What language or symbol do we put on dangerous waste that will be intelligible in 30,000 years or 100,000 years to whomever happens to live on the banks of the Connecticut River at that point?

There are alot of inherent "ifs" when talking about nuclear power, but the "ifs" are nearly exponential when we consider storing waste for hundreds of human generations.

Authored by: NorahCook on Sunday, June 14 2009 @ 08:40 PM GMT+4

Floyd, I agree with every syllable of your argument! And... when I've posed it (though not with such erudite ease as your post above), I've found the spokespeople for both Entergy and the NRC have a short, pat answer: It is up to the Legislature (Congress) to determine the desposition of nuclear waste. In other words, it is not Entergy's responsibility to even think about or discuss this critical, crucial, glaringly obvious issue. It's just not their job... their job is to rake in the profits while they can and then get out of Dodge.

My question, which I probably won't get around to because I bet the phones will be verra verra busy: We in the sacrifice zone salute you in your headquarters somewhere out of state and far, far away. Move here, within a few miles of VY, and we might get to know you as neighbors and have a chance to debate this on an equal footing, you cowards.

Authored by: PutneyReject on Monday, June 15 2009 @ 09:56 AM GMT+4

Aren't questions actually supposed to contain a actual question?

Before Entergy bought VY, there were many owners (many of them out of state) and none within 10 miles.

Authored by: Maus Anon E on Monday, June 15 2009 @ 10:14 AM GMT+4

Rightly or wrongly, the federal government agreed, and is obligated, to assume responsibility for longterm storage of nuclear waste.

On one hand, it pisses me off that any government money is spent on the nuclear industry. On the second hand, however, I can't imagine why we'd trust the nuclear power industry to build and maintain their own storage facilities. Can you imagine what a nuclear waste facility designed, constructed, and staffed by the clowns at Entergy would look like an a couple hundred years? A couple thousand years?

On the third hand, as Floyd points out, in just a few thousand years, it may not matter who was in charge of waste storage, or where it was stored.

---
We Rock!

Authored by: pjmelton on Monday, June 15 2009 @ 10:40 AM GMT+4

You see how lucky you are? If you didn't live in such close proximity to VY all these years, you wouldn't have had enough hands to make your point.

---
"Economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings." -- FDR

Authored by: Floyd on Sunday, June 14 2009 @ 11:39 PM GMT+4

I see there were a couple of small errors (like a missing zero) in this passage so I am reposting it as corrected.


It is being presumed that humans will take this obligation seriously and without fail for generation after generation without interruption, despite any number of possible or likely interruptions in continuity: wars, plagues, economic downturns that re-prioritize financial needs and any number of other possibilities. Think of the various calamities that have happened in the past 100,000 years that wiped out entire populations or drastically altered human events.