Sunday, May 1, 2016

Video: Vermont Yankee people moving on

May 5 Layoff Day

On May 5, almost 100 Vermont Yankee employees will be laid off.  As Entergy spokesman Marty Cohn notes in this video: there were nearly 650 employees when he started work at Vermont Yankee: in a few days, there will be  only 150 employees. (approximate numbers).

In the 22 minute video below, Marty Cohn speaks to two employees that will be laid off.  They happily discuss what they liked about working at Vermont Yankee. In both cases, their future plans take them away from Vermont.

Yes, there are sad moments in this video.  These affected me:
  • When Larry Doucette notes that when he moved to Vermont, it took some some time to get used to the local anti-nuclear attitudes. 
  • When Becky Josey describes her life-long residence in Vernon, and how her mother was a state representative who supported construction of the plant.  Josey has deep roots in Vernon, but she plans to leave.  Her plans are not completely due to Vermont Yankee closing, however.
I  admire everyone at Vermont Yankee, because they are strong people and they did Finish Strong.  I have so much admiration for them.



About the videos

Marty Cohn of Entergy has been hosting a series of videos about Vermont Yankee: SAFSTOR Matters. This series was chosen as 2015 Best Series of the Year at Brattleboro Community Television.

3 comments:

Travelogue for the Universe said...

My heart goes out to this dedicated group of professionals.

jimwg said...


Good people but there's something a little morbid in it to me that it has to be in a video basically about sweeping the graveyard ("SAFSTOR Matters"._ How may personnel interviews were done when VY was running??

James Greenidge
Queens NY

Anonymous said...

Somehow my comment got posted with the following article, so I will ask it again here: wha hoppen, I thought Shumlin was going to "work very hard" to assure that all those who got laid off at VY would have a "bright economic future in Southern Vermont" doing some "other job"? Trouble is, he never said specifically what that "other job" would be. What does he expect, an I&C technician to go to work at a yogurt factory? What is a fuel cycle analyst going to do, work for Strolling The Heifers? You don't go to college for four years and maybe grad school for two or four more years to get jobs at Ben and Jerry's. Of course, then again, maybe Shumlin's just a liar.