Around New England: Vermont Votes Yankee Down

But the authorities and the MSM are trying to override you!

Related:

Watching Vermont's Nuke

Your Friendly Neighborhood Nuclear Plant

Around New England: Vermont's Invisible Killer

Breaking News: Shut Down Vermont Yankee Now!

Around New England: Just Downriver

Around New England: Cancer Water Creeping Into New Hampshire

Yeah, sort of a personal issue with me seeing as the plant is only right across the state line and the Connecticut Rivers runs right through town.

"Vt. Senate votes to close Yankee power plant" by Matthew L. Wald, New York Times | February 25, 2010

MONTPELIER - In a rare case of state involvement in nuclear regulation, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 yesterday to block a license extension for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, citing radioactive leaks, misstatements in testimony by plant officials, and other problems.

Unless the chamber reverses itself, it would be the first time in more than 20 years that the public or its representatives decided to close a reactor.

The vote was taken barely more than a week after President Obama declared a new era of rebirth for the nation’s nuclear industry, announcing federal loan guarantees of $8.3 billion to ensure the construction of a twin-reactor plant near Augusta, Ga.

Vermont Yankee’s recent troubles are viewed by some as a challenge to arguments that reactors are clean, well run, and worth the enormous investment involved in building and operating them.

State lawmakers voiced frustration over recent leaks of radioactive tritium at the 38-year-old plant as well as the collapse of a cooling tower in 2007 and inaccurate testimony by the plant’s owner, Entergy Corp., a Louisiana-based nuclear operator. Plant officials had testified that there were no underground pipes at Vermont Yankee that could leak tritium, although there were.

And thus they can NEVER BE TRUSTED AGAIN!

Scientists tracking the leaks have found no evidence that the substance has entered the drinking supply or harmed anyone.

That's what authorities say.

Wouldn't mind chugging some river water, would you? Fish swimming and living in it. Of course, cancer won't show up for twenty years or so.

Lawmakers at yesterday’s session also voiced doubts that Entergy would have enough money to decommission the plant in view of the costly tritium leak and other troubles.

So TAXPAYERS will have to foot the bill?

In the decisive vote, senators defeated a resolution that would have authorized the state to issue a certificate of “public good,’’ which would be necessary to keep Vermont Yankee operating.

Under Vermont law, any extension of the plant’s license beyond 2012 would have to be approved by both houses. So unless the Senate reverses itself and the House also approves an extension, the plant would have to close by March of that year.

The controversy in Vermont is viewed with deep apprehension and some anger by the nuclear industry....

Well, SCREW THOSE LYING BASTARDS!!!

The Yankee plant recently won a 20-year extension of its initial 40-year license, although, to the indignation of its opponents, plant owners announced a few days after the renewal that it also was leaking tritium....

Yeah, people did NOT LIKE BEING LIED TO about CANCER leaking into the WATER!!!!

--more--"

Yeah, but it doesn't reach to Boston so they don't care:

"Leaking credibility, Vt. Yankee must step up or face closure

I guess the Glob would know all about that, huh?

Especially with editorials such as this:

THIS IS how bad things have gotten with the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant: In the depths of the worst economy in decades, the Vermont Senate has voted overwhelmingly to close the plant, forfeiting $9 million in tax revenues, 650 jobs, and its relatively cheap - and carbon-free - electricity.

PFFFFFFTT!

WHO CARES about the FART-MISTING LIE of global warming, Glob?

That's what totally destroyed any shred of redemption for you.

WE CARE about CANCER in the GROUND and WATER and OUR HEALTH!

All those OTHER THINGS MEAN NOTHING if you are SICK and in PAIN!!!!

And then they will tell you you can't smoke pot to relive your suffering.

If the plant’s owner cannot solve the problems that prompted the vote, the lawmakers will be justified in going through with the closedown in 2012.

Even if they "solve" them we want it closed.

How do we know they wouldn't be LYING again?

That 26-4 vote by the state Senate Wednesday should be like a control-room alarm siren to the nuclear industry as it tries both to extend the operating licenses of old plants like Vermont’s and build new ones with taxpayer-backed loan guarantees.

No one asked me if I wanted my money to back them.

If nuclear plants really are to replace coal units, the worst producers of greenhouse gases, as the baseload choice of the future, their builders and operators have to mind their p’s and q’s.

They haven’t in Vermont. The 625-megawatt plant (about half as big as the one in Seabrook, N.H.) has been plagued by leaks of radioactive tritium. Almost worse, officials at Entergy, the plant’s owner, twice told state officials falsely that there were no underground pipes at the plant that could leak tritium. So far, none of the tritium has turned up in drinking water or the nearby Connecticut River, but the damage to the plant’s reputation has been severe.

Yeah, except it HAS turned up in the water.

The MSM and authorities are doing what they do best" covering it up.

Entergy says in its eight years of ownership it has saved Vermonters more than $300 million with power cheaper than what alternative sources, such as gas-fired units, could provide.

Worth it when your kid comes down with leukemia?

But Vermonters are not without other choices if Entergy fails to regain legislators’ confidence before 2012 - and they would be in even better shape if the state had focused more on efficiency improvements, such as weatherized homes and better dairy pumps.

Now is not the time for agenda-pushing lectures, Glob.

The plant supplies just 1 percent of the power in the New England, New York, and Quebec region....

Then WE WON'T MISS IT at ALL!!!!!!

--more--"

Also see: The Boston Globe Can Not Say a Lie

Well, we know whose side they are on, public, and it ain't ours:

"Vt. board to consider nuke shutdown

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Vermont state utility regulators have agreed to consider shutting down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant due to radioactive tritium leaking from the plant and misleading statements to state officials. The Public Service Board says it will consider the Conservation Law Foundation's request that the plant be shut down until the source of leaking tritium can be found and stopped.

Yeah, it is still running, can you believe it?

And that has to be a first: I agree with a fart-misting foundation.

It also says it will consider the group's request for revocation of Vermont Yankee's license to operate in the state. That likely would mean a permanent shutdown for the Vernon reactor.

Yeah, THAT is what WE WANT OUT HERE!

You know, the PEOPLE living in the SHADOW of the damn thing!

--more--"

Okay, readers, time for me to get ready for the best night of basketball of the year. Three girls games for a chance to play in the final on Saturday.

The first contest pits defending Division II champion and perennial power Monument Mountain against a Cinderella Belchertown squad making its second straight appearance at the Cage (losing a one-point thriller in the semi-final last year).

The middle game of the night will pit defending Division III champion and dynasty Lee (winner of 17 of the last 22 crowns) against another repeat semi-finalist, Ware High School, with the final game being local county team Smith Academy squaring off against Sabis charter school for the right to play the Ware-Lee winner. Due to shabby coverage in the local paper I will be forced to stat the games myself.

I'll be back tonight with an update and will begin the foreign desk posts (beginning with the Chilean catastrophe) at that time.