Revisiting last week's WRC meeting

I would like to give a brief summary (clearly biased) of the the public hearing regarding the relicensure of the Entergy Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station that was held in the meeting room of the Red Roof Inn last week.

More than 150 people from the community attended and reported to the Windham Regional Commission on their issues and concerns about granting VY a license to operate for another 20 years.

I lived here with my young family when the seed for this plant germinated in someone's mind. I watched in horror as plans proceeded, even as valiant efforts were made to keep this horrific plant from being sited on the banks of our Connecticut River on some of the best agricultural land in the country. When, due to last minute shenanigans at the state house, the plant was approved by one vote, my horror intensified. If I was not already committed to this glorious area, I would have moved. At that point, we were promised that the plant would close in 2012. 2012 is rapidly approaching. And now they want a new license. As I said at the hearing, "Honor your promise. Close the plant now."

Now they are, instead, asking for a new license even while:

The nuclear waste builds up day by day, waste that we were promised would be moved out of the area. Now we know that it will likely be there forever-lethal to future generations who may not even understand its deadliness or know how to protect it.

Overheated water continues to pour into the Connecticut River, damaging the ecology of the river in ways we can't even yet understand.

We have no workable evacuation plan -- think of what happens in Brattleboro when we have an accident on the interstate. The current evacuation plan includes school buses and emergency workers that are double booked. Who is going to get my grandson out of school in Guilford and our elders out of the rest homes and transport them to safety? Where will be safe? Who is going to be able to evacuate the students at the Austine School, who can't even hear what few sirens we do have (even if you're able to hear, the current sirens can't be heard everywhere in the evacuation zone).

We still can't get insurance policies that would cover our homes and businesses in the event of a a nuclear disaster. And federal law limits ENVY's liability.

There is no way to put out a fuel power fire that could leave New England uninhabitable forever. (Google Chernobyl for a look at the area around that plant and the devastating illnesses that affect people that had lived there.)

Almost daily we hear of one more problem or major incident at the ENVY reactor that assures us that, regarding maintenance and safety, corners are being cut.

We cannot protect people from the radiation that is currently being generated by the plant. (We can't even find out how much they generating but we do know that its effects are nasty.)

Self-proclaimed nuclear engineers assured us at the hearing that:

* Safety is their highest priority (not high enough in my view -- why else all these "incidents?");

* The waste can be reprocessed as soon as we get set up to do that (to use in nuclear bombs);

* The reactor has been a great asset to the community by providing jobs (we can't find out how many) and giving money to local charities (not enough to make a difference in my view. We could raise that at bake sales).

I finally realized they were grasping for straws when a VY employee devoted her three minutes to trying to convince the audience that Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee is a much needed institution of higher learning. And to think of all the money I wasted going to school when I could have gotten a perfectly adequate education by working at the nuke.

Thanks to the Windham Regional Commissioners for respectfully hosting this event and for their willingness to spend the hours needed to go through all the data presented to make recommendations to the Public Service Board and the Legislature regarding this issue.

Mary Ellen Copeland,

Dummerston, Jan 8