For immediate release
Jan. 25, 2012
Contact
michaelware1205@gmail.com
Speak out and protest against the continued operation of Vermont Yankee
Sunday, January 29th @12:30pm
City Hall Park, Burlington
The speak out will be followed by a march up Church Street to the Federal Courthouse, ending in front of the Unitarian Church. The weekly Occupy Burlington General Assembly will then follow in the Church basement at 2pm.
Statement from the Occupy Burlington General Assembly
January 22nd, 2012
We condemn Judge Murtha’s decision in favor of Entergy against the democratic decision of the people and state of Vermont to shut down Vermont Yankee–a dangerous, polluting nuclear plant that has been plagued with accidents, leaks, poor maintenance, and run by a dishonest company. We stand in solidarity with the Vermont Yankee workers and support a just transition where they receive economic support and retraining.
– Occupy Burlington
The Occupy Burlington Environmental Working Group, along with many other anti-nuclear voices, also strongly condemn Judge J. Garvan Murtha’s decision. Murtha’s injunction will not only allow Entergy to continue operating the decrepit, 39-year-old nuclear reactor, it also forbids VT from forcing Entergy to obtain permission to store high-level nuclear waste at the facility.
This is a clear example of profits before people and the environment. Entergy, a Fortune 500 corporation with $11 billion in revenues, is the second largest nuclear generator in the US with 10 plants, as well as coal, oil and natural gas holdings.
We say enough. Shut Vermont Yankee on March 21, as scheduled by the state of Vermont.
Organized by Occupy Burlington and the Occupy Burlington Environmental Working Group. Endorsing groups include the SAGE Alliance, Burlington Against Nukes, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 350Vermont, and the International Socialist Organization.
Reasons we oppose VT Yankee and nuclear power:
-The Fukushima disaster, the worst industrial accident in human history, showed that every nuclear power plant is one accident away from slowly killing untold numbers, making regions uninhabitable, and spreading radiation around the world.
-Vermont Yankee was designed to last 40 years, from 1972 to 2012, yet the ever-pliant Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed Entergy’s license to operate VT Yankee for another 20 years.
-Like Fukushima, Vermont Yankee uses the General Electric Mark 1 reactor, which was discontinued in 1972 and condemned by its original designers.
-Nuclear power is intimately connected to the production of nuclear weapons.
-Nuclear power relies on old technology and produces plutonium, the most toxic substance on Earth. We still do not have a solution for the storage of nuclear waste.
-VT Yankee stores over 600 tons of nuclear waste on site, more than the amount stored at the Fukushima reactor site.
-Nuclear power is very expensive once taxpayer subsidies are removed, too risky for even Wall Street investors.
-Nuclear power is a false solution to climate change.
We also demand:
-Entergy shut down VT Yankee on time with a safe, thorough decommission;
-A just transition for the workers of Vermont Yankee to new employment in renewable energy or other work;
-Repeal the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act, which limits costs payable by utility companies due to accidents to $12.6 billion;
-Allow democracy, not the free market, to steer energy choices and production;
-Vermont utilities buy no nuclear power–not from VT Yankee, nor from Seabrook in New Hampshire.
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There are some inaccuracies in this article (press release) that deserve a rebuttal. The United States is a democracy founded on the constitution of the United States. Judge Murtha’s decision was based on the provisions of that constitution that have served this county for over two hundred years. It is not surprising that those groups who disagree with this decision challenge it based on their perceived understanding of states rights. This is a position taken by many groups in the past and it will not be the last time.
The Fukashima accident while tragic is not by a long shot the worst industrial accident in the history of the modern world. According the Lancet (English Medical Journal) the Bhopal accident killed five to ten thousand within 24 hours with many thousands more succumbing from lung and skin damage in the following years. Approximately one hundred thousand people were permanently injured, primarily blindness, lung and skin damage, and some thousands are still suffering from that tragedy today.
The original license term for American nuclear power plants was partly based on how long the plant would operate safely, but also on financial consideration. The primary concern of the atomic energy agency was embritlement of reactor vessel components caused by exposure to neutron radiation. In order to understand this process, coupons of vessel materials were secured in each reactor vessel and periodically tested for embritlement. These tests over years of operation revealed embritlement was not a restriction to continued operation.
There may be more spent fuel at Vermont Yankee than the Fukashima site, but the reason is, contrary to what was reported, the Japanese have been repossessing their spent fuel for decades.
The current subsidies for American nuclear power is less than 1% of the construction and operating cost compared to about 40% for renewables and somewhere between 10 and 20% for fossil fuels.
I support the occupy movement, but if this movement truly wants to change the constitution, it should consider going after “Corporate Personhood” and get big money out of American politics.