BRATTLEBORO — J. Wayne Leonard, CEO of Entergy, recently purchased full-page advertisements in a number of Vermont newspapers, including The Commons. Despite this considerable expense, he offers nothing new to the authentic issues being debated in Vermont regarding nuclear power.
He toes the company line, repeating worn-out slogans about how clean and reliable the plant is. He cites the number of employees at the plant in consecutive paragraphs.
This language is certainly effective in pitting neighbor against neighbor, but it avoids entirely the legitimate concerns of opponents of this 40-year-old reactor.
Yes, Vermont Yankee employs good people and pays them well. The company pays taxes, and money flows through the local economy. The employees of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) contribute to local culture, as does everyone else who lives here and values our community.
Now, I challenge a supporter of nuclear power to respond to the legitimate concerns of nuclear opponents. Just repeating “clean, safe, reliable, 650 employees” over and over again is not a response. It is a transparent scare tactic to imply that when the reactor shuts down - and will eventually shut down - the local economy will collapse.
Here are some numbers that you will not see addressed by the owners and supporters of this 40-year-old nuclear machine (I hate calling it a plant):
• The amount of mutagenetic waste that has accumulated at the site over the last 40 years.
• The actual projected cost of storing this material on site until it is no longer a health concern.
• The amount of money that ENVY saves every day by cooling the plant with river water rather than with cooling towers.
• The length of time Entergy plans to wait before beginning to decommission the reactor.
• The cost of liability insurance for the plant if the federal government did not protect the owners from this usual cost of running a business.
• The costs that would be borne by the community if something were to go wrong at VY.
• The amount of power that Vermont utilities will be buying from ENVY after March 22.
The opponents of nuclear power are not singling out Vermont Yankee. We are against all nuclear power because the technology is not sustainable. The economics of nuclear power depend on government collusion with the industry.
Nuclear power was born during the Cold War as the “friendly” side of our nuclear weapons program. Between the nuclear weapons facilities and the nuclear power industry, there is an ungodly amount of waste and environmental contamination that will take many decades and billions of dollars to responsibly address.
How can we be so frightened of the Iranians building a nuclear power industry and not see that our nuclear industry is no less connected to the maintenance of the nuclear culture of weapons, waste, and wanton disregard for the will of the people?
The state of Vermont, through our duly elected representatives, has rejected the continued operation of Vermont Yankee. Assessing risk and envisioning a future of sustainable, locally produced power is not the same as regulating nuclear safety.
Yes, VY provides jobs. Now, J. Wayne Leonard, respond to the actual concerns of your critics. Without such a response, be prepared for continuing citizen action on this issue.