Breaking: Feds won’t interfere in VY’s retirement
July 15, 2010
On Wednesday July 14th VPIRG Clean Energy Program Director James Moore met with the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the NRC - the arm of the federal government that regulates nuclear plants) and a number of our allies in the campaign to retire Vermont Yankee, and got some great news.
Chairman Gregory Jaczko said, in essence, that the NRC won’t be interfering with the Vermont legislature’s decision to retire Vermont Yankee on schedule.1
From the get go one of Entergy’s key scare tactics has been the idea that ultimately the feds might step in and force Vermont regulators to allow the plant to continue past its expiration date.. VY’s now-defunct message to Vermonters? Don’t waste your breath – it’s not up to you anyway.
The chairman of the NRC is the top federal official on nuclear plants in the country. The fact is, he just came to Vermont and indicated that he agrees with what VPIRG has been saying all along. We do have rights as a state to look out for our economic wellbeing, our environment and the future we want to leave our kids. The NRC deals only with issues where radiological health and safety are concerned. It now seems very likely that the NRC has no problem with the State Senate’s vote to retire Vermont Yankee in 2012.1
Your legislators aren’t in Montpelier during the summer, and might have missed this. Click here to make sure they know about it.
To read more about the meeting, check out the coverage at the Burlington Free Press:http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100715/NEWS02/7150313/NRC-c...
1 - “Right now, there’s certainly nothing that from the agency’s perspective we see would intrude upon our authority in public health and safety,” Chairman Jaczko. (http://rutlandherald.com/article/20100715/NEWS02/100719965/1003/NEWS02)
VY springs another new leak, narrowly avoids emergency shutdown
June 11, 2010
Earlier this week there was yet another new problem at the Vermont Yankee reactor, and this time it was related to the reactor core cooling system, which is critical to reactor safety.1, 2
The new leak was causing the reactor cooling system to lose 1.6 gallons of coolant per minute. It took Entergy nearly six hours to stop the leak and if they had not been able to, the reactor would have gone into automatic shutdown mode.
Entergy has said that it is going to get our legislature to reverse the decision to retire the reactor in 2012. In fact, multiple Senators have already suggested that they are open to changing their vote.
Entergy and their lobbyists are working overtime in this year's election to try and get their way. They will be funnelling money to candidates, going big with ads on TV, and trying to scare Vermonters with lies about their lights going out.
We cannot let this happen. Please don't let Entergy be the only one your legislators hear from this summer.
1 - http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2010/06/09/vt_nuclear_...
2 - http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010/06/vermont-yankee-has-seven-days-to-fix-l...
BREAKING: VY Is Finally Being Held to Task, Now’s the Time to Shut it Down
January 14, 2010
In a letter just sent to the Vermont Public Service Board, Vermont regulators are directing Yankee’s out-of-state corporate owners to come clean on the leaking radiation amid threats of fines.
Click here to read the letter.
Earlier today, Congressman Markey demanded a federal investigation into leaking nukes.
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3829&Itemi...
Yesterday, Yankee’s owners admitted lying to legislators on the matter.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/14/business/AP-US-Vermont-Yankee...
Last week, the aging plant disclosed radioactivity leaking into the groundwater.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100108/NEWS02/1080316/Radio...
Legislators are fuming now that it’s clear Louisiana-based Entergy lied to them.
Now’s the time to contact your legislator and urge them to shut-down Vermont Yankee.
