Older
than Vermont Yankee
The New England Coalition looks back on 40 years
BRATTLEBORO—It was 1967 when
Diana Sidebothom and her mother, Esther Poneck, first heard about the plan to build a nuclear
plant in Vernon. Sidebothom, then living on her
mother’s farm in Putney, said she first thought, “What a good thing to do
with the destructive atom.” But Sidebothom’s second thought was that nuclear energy possesses
the potential for catastrophic damage. That thought
she has held for more than 40 years. On April 9,
1971, Sidebothom, Poneck,
and 19 other trustees incorporated the New England Coalition on Nuclear
Pollution (NEC). “The
founders’ goals were to inform themselves and the public about all aspects of
the U.S. civilian nuclear power program, to ask all relevant questions about
design, construction, operations, public health and safety, and environmental
effects before the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant received a license,” wrote Sidebothom and Sylvia Field, another longtime officer, in
a chronicle of NEC’s history. “Few answers
were received, and NEC intervened in the operating license proceeding to
oppose the issuance of the license,” Sidebothom and
Field wrote, referring to events in 1971. NEC has had intervenor status in nuclear power plant-related cases
since 1971. An intervenor, according to uslaw.com,
has “clearly ascertainable interests and perspectives essential to a judicial
determination.” Forty years
later, NEC boasts 300 dues-paying members and a mailing list of 2,700 people. On Saturday
night, at the West Village Meeting House, more than 60 members and friends
helped the NEC celebrate its 40th anniversary. The event honored members and
included a potluck dinner, cake, and contra dancing. Sidebothom and other members
reminisced about the work of past members, talked about how much the dialogue
about the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has changed, and promised to continue
their work on nuclear issues long after the plant shuts down. “I don’t work
for a living,” members remember Poneck saying. “I
work for a living.” In the beginning
NEC started
its advocacy work during Vermont Yankee’s construction. The plant wouldn’t
receive its first operating license for another two years. In 1971, the
NEC’s safety concerns centered on issues like the integrity of the Mark 1
generator’s containment vessel; the susceptibility of safety systems to fire;
concerns about faulty fuel, poor quality control, and quality assurance; and
emergency planning. NEC’s primary
course of action has been legal intervention in cases before the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Vermont’s Public Service Board. The
organization also provides citizen education. The coalition
has participated in legal proceedings regarding such issues as the plant’s
sale to Entergy in 2002, the power uprate in 2006, and the NRC’s relicensing
process, said Robert “Jake” Stewart, NEC vice-president-elect and trustee. “We always
felt we could be the most effective through legal intervention,” said
Steward, who has been a member “on and off” for 40 years. He remembers
it was Poneck, who died in 1991, who persuaded him
to join the coalition. According to
Stewart, despite the NRC’s 20-year operating license renewal granted to the
plant last month, Vermont Yankee does not have the right to operate for
another 20 years. It can do so if the Legislature votes to allow the Public
Service Board to grant Entergy a Certificate of Public Good. NEC’s policy
has been to use a “fact-based” advocacy approach, meaning that it prefers
legal intervention and engagement with scientists to staging protests or
civil disobedience. Stewart said
that other organizations that work mostly through public demonstrations are
“necessary ingredients too, because they raise public awareness.” But protests
aren’t NEC’s style, he said. Sidebothom agreed, saying
opposition to nuclear plants “takes many forms” and that she supports the
actions of other organizations “as long as they are peaceful and not
violent.” Percolating awareness
Clay
Turnbull, NEC’s only staff member, thinks that Vermont Yankee’s sale to
Entergy, based in Louisiana, served as a wake-up call to southern Vermont.
Suddenly, he said, Vermonters were facing a corporation with ties to
stakeholders, but not to the state in which it operates its plant. In recent
years, an increase in the overall awareness about Vermont Yankee has
percolated into the consciousness of Vermonters outside Windham County, said
Leslie Staudinger, an NEC trustee. Staudinger
lived in central Vermont until last July but has been involved with NEC for
10 years. Her central Vermont neighbors used to ask, “Why should we care
[about Vermont Yankee]?” she said. Staudinger, a
mother of three, said that the long-term and potentially genetic effects of
radiation exposure concern her. Two
relatives, she said, lived 20 miles from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant
in Pennsylvania. One relative was 5 years old in 1979, when the plant
experienced a partial meltdown, and has “very serious health problems” that
Staudinger attributes to radiation released during that incident. “But living
with it [the plant] day in and day out, I’m amazed
how it saturates the local culture,” Staudinger said. She said that
she doesn’t feel constantly anxious, but her awareness of the potential
danger resides in a “state of semi-consciousness all the time.” The election
of Gov. Peter Shumlin, a hometown governor “who
understands the challenges” of Vermont Yankee, has “made a significant
difference,” compared to when Jim Douglas, a strong supporter of the plant,
served as governor, said Staudinger. Then and now
Turnbull said
a July 2008 conversation with Dr. Joram Hopenfeld, a former NRC commissioner and engineer, left a
significant impression on him. He asked Dr. Hopenfeld, who was testifying for the NEC as an expert
witness in an Atomic Safety Licensing Board hearing, “Why do you do this?” Turnbull said
Dr. Hopenfeld told him that the younger generation
working in the nuclear field doesn’t have an appreciation for what they’re
working with, and had grown too self-assured. “Many of our
[1971] concerns have come home to roost,” said Sidebothom,
referring to Vermont Yankee safety issues. Stewart said
that the NEC is the only intervenor with outstanding
contentions on Vermont Yankee. The open
docket, he said, pertains to the underground cables at the plant. The cables
are subjected to water and other conditions for which they were never
designed. “It’s a most
significant issue,” said Stewart. Sidebothom said that one issue
left on the back burner for years is the disposal of nuclear waste stored at
Vermont Yankee. In the 1970s,
when the NEC first broached the waste issue, said Sidebothom,
they were told by the powers-that-be that the issue was “not germane” and
“would be dealt with later.” “Now is
later,” she said, and the more than 650 tons of spent fuel at Vermont Yankee
sit in what “amounts to an industrial building” with a “tin roof,” adding
that there’s more spent fuel at Vermont Yankee than at Fukushima Daiichi, the
Japanese nuclear complex of the same design and vintage that was heavily
damaged in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake and tsunami. She said that
if Vermont Yankee should ever go the way of Fukushima, the nuclear pollution
would devastate the tri-state area. Goodbye,
Vermont Seal of Quality, she said. Never, ever give up
Staudinger
said that she can see a light at the end of the Vermont Yankee tunnel. “March 21,
2012 is a very nice date to hold on to,” she said, referring to the
expiration of the plant’s state Certificate of Public Good. And, despite
the persistence, technical minutiae, and dense legal nature of the nuclear
issue, Staudinger remains committed. Except for the catastrophic potential of
nuclear weapons, she said, no other issue has such “horrifying consequences.” Edward “Ned”
Childs, NEC president-elect and trustee, said that before the Fukushima
Daiichi disaster, he thought that “someday” Vermont Yankee would close. But now,
there’s no reason to stall shutting down Vermont Yankee or the worldwide
fleet, he said. Childs joked
that working for a nuclear-free future was a “quixotic vision,” and that the
coalition has spent “40 years tilting at windmills.” But, he
added, there’s no real option once you know what you know about nuclear
plants. “There’s work
to be done,” said Sidebothom. “It’s something you can’t not do.” NEC,
organized and founded in 1971, is the region’s sole advocate for
environmental and nuclear safety with intervenor
status in the Entergy Vermont Yankee federal relicensing process, and is an intervenor in two open dockets before the Vermont
Public Service Board Docket 7440 – Shall Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee
receive a CPG for an additional years of operation and less widely
reported Docket 7600 – opened as a result of Entergy’s misinformation in
Docket 7440, re: underground pipes and groundwater contamination. New
England Coalition
is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All
contributions are tax-deductible. Donate at necnp.org using
PayPal
or send a check to NEC, PO Box 545, Brattleboro , VT 05302 |