Who is watching Vermont Yankee?

Who is watching Vermont Yankee?

October 21, 2008
In an attempt to make the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board address the issues of safe storage for spent nuclear fuel, and the unthinkable possibilities of an “accident” or a “terrorist attack” (that would kill and sicken thousands and make New England uninhabitable for some 250,000 years), the attorney general of Massachusetts, after many fruitless appeals to the ASLB, has taken the issue to the federal Court of Appeals. This appeal applies to both Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim Nuclear reactors.

Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition, asks, “Where is the state of Vermont?” It seems that no agency of the Douglas administration is addressing these concerns. He also writes that the 100-ton spent fuel cask that was dropped by mistake a few weeks ago could, if it had punched a hole through the spent fuel pool, have resulted in a “massive nuclear fuel fire.” As the cover of one of the NEC’s pamphlets once said, we will then have to “kiss our children goodbye.”

JANE NEWTON

South Londonderry

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081021/OPINION02/810210314/1037/OPINION02