Vt Yankee Fwd: Students against VY: Rutland Herald Capitol Beat

[Meredith Crafton]

News Article about the group...

We gotta connect and help em out this summer!

A race against Yankee

Published: April 25, 2010

MONTPELIER — If a coalition of Vermont college students has its way, the future of Vermont Yankee – specifically what to replace that nuclear power with – will be a big issue in this year's gubernatorial campaign.

Started by a group of Middlebury College students, the Race to Replace kicks off with a Statehouse rally on Friday, April 30, as dozens of young Vermonters will bicycle from the state's capitol to Burlington.

The students have vowed to get the gubernatorial candidates – the five Democrats and one lone Republican seeking to replace retiring Gov. James Douglas – on the record about the future of Vermont Yankee and what energy they want to replace it with.

"Our campaign is calling on the current Vermont gubernatorial candidates to join us in a pledge to replace Vermont Yankee with 100 percent clean energy, and to set Vermont on a path towards 100 percent clean energy by 2020," reads the website www.racetoreplace.org.

A small group of the students came by the Vermont Press Bureau office earlier this month to introduce themselves. In addition to polling the candidates and riding their bikes, they also plan to spend the summer registering Vermonters to vote, especially other college students and young people.

"Climate change and clean energy are top priorities for young people across this state," said Ben Wessel, a Middlebury College junior, "We need our next governor to have a plan to craft a clean-energy economy that will create hundreds of jobs across the state and provide young Vermonters with new opportunities to stay and raise their families in Vermont."

Wessel said he knows that Vermont's utilities are close to signing a multi-year contract with Hydro-Quebec for more power, but he said the group wants to see all of the Vermont Yankee energy replaced by in-state renewable generation, so that the jobs and the money stay right within the Green Mountain State.

All five of the Democrats running for governor – Sens. Peter Shumlin, Doug Racine, Susan Bartlett, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz and former Sen. Matt Dunne – support closing Vermont Yankee in 2012.

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, the only Republican in the race, is a different story. A strong supporter of nuclear power and Vermont Yankee, Dubie towed the official line earlier this year when his boss, Douglas, called for a "time out."

Dubie doesn't mention Vermont Yankee – or energy policy at all – under the "issues" section of his Web site at the moment. The only issues mentioned on the page are jobs, cutting taxes, controlling spending and reforming regulations.

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Meredith Crafton
206.280.7011 Cell
merec...@gmail.com

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." - Arundhati Roy

[Leslie Staudinger]

 Please let's be heard: go to http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/open.html  and tell the NRC to institute stringent groundwater monitoring regulations at nuclear power plants. Currently, believe it or not, there is NO REGULATION, only voluntary monitoring guidelines (which VT Yankee had not even fully complied with--of course--because they didn't want to admit they had underground pipes!!!). Stringent regulations are needed, (contaminant levels should be consistent with or more stringent than EPA's ) and need to be enforced. EPA can set water protection standards, but only NRC can regulate Nuke plants, so there is a catch 22 which NRC left open so the nuke industry would have a free pass. NRC needs to get hundreds of comments that this must change  TODAY. Please help! 

(forwarded from Clean Water for NC, but it affects ALL of us in reactor communities.)

Thanks, Sally

URGENT GROUNDWATER ALERT: Comments needed by May 13th to strengthen monitoring of radioactive leaks at power plants!

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is asking for public input on whether it should change regulations on groundwater monitoring systems at the nation’s nuclear power plants.

In recent years, nuclear plants including Progress Energy’s Shearon Harris and Brunswick facilities in NC, have leaked tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen from underground pipes into groundwater. Tritium can be incorporated into water molecules just like non-radioactive hydrogen atoms, and can’t be filtered out. “Tritiated” water acts just like normal, non-radioactive water in the environment and biological systems, even crossing the placental barrier, so it creates a potential health threat if high levels of tritium move off a utility’s site to contaminate drinking water wells.

Currently, information on leaks depends on a voluntary industry groundwater monitoring program! A task force established by the NRC is considering whether that program should be required in its regulations. You can make your voice heard by using the NRC’s Open Government Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/open.html. Once there, click on "Share Your Ideas" to submit comments. Comments are due by May 13, so please act quickly! We need to send a strong message to the NRC that strong groundwater regulations should be required for all nuclear facilities to make sure that leaks don’t go unnoticed and threaten our communities.

You can learn more about the tritium leaks at NC facilities in this January news article  and the article on page 3 of CWFNC's spring newsletter. Please let us know if you have questions! 

Yours for clean, safe groundwater,

---------------------
Clean Water for North Carolina
29 1/2 Page Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 251-1291
www.cwfnc.org