Editor’s note: Oped writer Jared Cobb is the northern Vermont field organizer for Greenpeace USA.
Feb. 24 was a historic day. The Senate’s decision to deny a 20-year license renewal for Vermont Yankee marked the first time in U.S. history that a state legislature voted to close a nuclear power plant. It was the culmination of decades of organizing by Vermonters from all walks of life to show that Vermont Yankee is unsafe and unreliable.
I stood at the State House with farmers, schoolteachers, businesspeople and neighbors. People drove through blinding snow from across the state to have their voices heard. And with an overwhelming vote, the Senate listened to the people to declare that Vermont Yankee has no place in our state after 2012.
In the days since the historic vote to close Vermont Yankee, we’ve heard the usual defenders of Entergy call the Senate’s action a “rush to judgment.” Even a brief look at the evidence shows that this is far from true:
-June 2004-a fire occurred in the plant’s main transformer that caused it to shut down.
-2005-leak of radioactive tritium occurred, which went unreported until this year.
-2007-pipe six feet in diameter carrying water through a cooling tower broke and the tower collapsed.
-2008-Department of Health study found that VY was releasing 30% more radiation into the environment since it boosted its power in 2006.
-Later that year on two separate occasions, VY workers had to be evacuated because of elevated levels of radiation.
-February 2009-two separate leaks occur at VY.
-October 2009-DPS reaches agreement to spin off VY into a new company called Enexus. This new company would be $3.5 billion in debt, and its only assets would be 6 aging nuclear reactors.
-December 2009-Entergy offers their newest contract to CVPS and GMP, which would give Vermont only 11% of its power at a 50% price hike.
-January 2010-leak of radioactive tritium found at VY, and Entergy employees are found to have lied about the existence of underground piping.
-Feb. 2010-tritium levels in groundwater around the plant reach 38 times the federal drinking water standard, and Vermont Yankee’s VP is “relieved of duties.”
-The decommissioning fund remains $600 million short of what industry experts predict will be needed to clean up the reactor site. The tritium leak will increase the cost.
Vermont Yankee represents only 2% of the New England grid, and our state’s utilities have already found the replacement power, including a wind farm in New Hampshire. Though Vermont Yankee’s supporters predict an Armageddon in terms of electricity prices, market rates are lower than what Entergy has offered us.
Far from being a rush to judgment, the Senate vote is Vermont’s last, best chance to avoid a mistake that we will regret forever. Vermont is a beautiful state with a proud history. We have no reason to be beholden to an out-of-state corporation like Entergy Louisiana, who is creating a radioactive waste dump on the banks of the Connecticut River and doing everything they can to stick the cleanup bill to Vermonters.
The 26 Senators who voted against continued operation at Vermont Yankee will be remembered as defenders of our state and our way of life. While their decision was important, Entergy has said that the issue is “far from over” and has pledged to fight to win legislative support. It seems they need to hear “no” again, so it is critical that the House takes up the issue to answer the calls of Vermonters for a renewable energy future without Vermont Yankee.
