Fear and Facts about Nuclear Plants and Hurricanes

Hurricane Sandy from Wikipedia

The Fear 

As Hurricane Sandy approached landfall, there were plenty of things to fear.  In the media, some articles focused on the "26 nuclear plants in the path of the hurricane."

This number of plants came from Arnie Gundersen, as far as I can tell. On October 29, Russia Today (RT) headlined "Nuclear  plant alert as 26 facilities in Sandy's path."  RT quoted a Gundersen podcast as follows: “There’s 26 power plants in the East Coast that are in the area where sandy is like to hit, and hopefully as the storm track becomes better defined, the plants that are most subject to it — likely New Jersey and Pennsylvania — preventively shut down.."

Ever since Gundersen stated that a total of sixteen shad remain in the Connecticut River. I don't take Gundersen's numbers as accurate.  Whatever the number of plants, however, is it  dangerous that nuclear plants are in the path of a storm? Well, no.  But it is worth reporting about.

I am aware that nuclear plants have weathered innumerable hurricanes and typhoons. But still,  I don't blame the popular press for looking at "26 plants in the path of the Frankenstorm" as an item of news interest.  After all, Fukushima was caused by a once-in-a-thousand-years tsunami, and now the East Coast was being hit with a Frankenstorm, a perfect blend of hurricane and Nor'easter. Therefore, it was reasonable to report about the nuclear plants and their preparations for the hurricane.  For example, WAMC radio interviewed Vermont Yankee and NRC on storm preparation.

The Fear-Mongers

However, reporting on nuclear plants and their preparations is fairly dull stuff when you can get great soundbytes of impending doom. Here are some of Arnie Gundersen's comments, made on his own podcast, on Russia Today  (RT) and on Democracy Now.

 Gundersen at RT: “You’ll hear in the next two days, ‘we’ve shut down the plant,’” he says, “but what that means is they stopped the chain reaction. But what Fukushima taught us was that that doesn’t stop the decay heat...."As the plant operator, as the people running the plant, it’s a little bit of a nervous time to realize that you’re on your last fall-back,” he warns. 

Gundersen at Democracy Now, on October 29.  In this interview, Gundersen concentrated on the Oyster Creek plant, which was in the direct path of the hurricane. Oyster Creek temporarily declared an NRC-required "alert" because of high water at its intake structure.  The alert has long since been lifted.

Meanwhile, here's Gundersen about the plant: Oyster Creek is the same design, but even older than Fukushima Daiichi unit 1....there’s no backup power for the spent fuel pools. So, if Oyster Creek were to lose its offsite power — and, frankly, that’s really likely — there would be no way cool that nuclear fuel that’s in the fuel pool until they get the power reestablished. ... The most important lesson we can take out of the Fukushima Daiichi and climate change, and especially with Hurricane Sandy, is that we can’t expect to cool these fueling pools." 

I wanted to go word by word through these quotes, refuting them.  For one thing, the idea that we were taught about decay heat by Fukushima!  Well, maybe Gundersen just learned recently about decay heat -- if he forgot everything he learned in engineering school. Nuclear plant designers and engineers have always known about decay heat. Nuclear plants sized their diesels and other backup systems in accordance with requirements to handle decay heat.

Part of the logo of ANS Nuclear Cafe Blog

Spreading the Facts As You Might Expect Them to Be Spread

Luckily I didn't have to write a refutation.  William Davis, a man with real operating experience, went right through the accusations and refuted them all, at the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Nuclear Cafe blog, in his post Spent Fuel Pool at Oyster Creek. Among other things, Davis describes the diesel-powered emergency cooling arrangements for the spent fuel pools. A careful and well-referenced post, by someone who didn't forget what he learned in naval reactor school.

Another source of information: the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) issued a press release that is also up on their blog: Nuclear Energy Facilities Prove Resilience During Hurricane Sandy. The NEI blog post has a complete list of plants and how they performed during the hurricane (they did fine). It also links to a more comprehensive report on hurricanes and nuclear plants.

Two excellent posts, with lots of information for laymen and reporters.

Preaching to the Choir

Gundersen made a lot of incorrect statements. ANS and NEI made a lot of correct, well-referenced statements.  However, they can both be accused of the same thing: preaching to the choir.

Who watches Democracy Now and follows Russia Today? Not many nuclear supporters, I suspect.

Who follows the ANS and NEI blogs? Not many nuclear opponents, I suspect.

Okay, so both sides were preaching to the choir.  The hurricane is over, and the power plants did well (as expected). The next question is: how did the mainstream press react to this dis-information and information about nuclear plants and hurricanes?

I think they did very well at separating facts from fiction, but that is another blog post for another day (probably tomorrow).

The Main Stream Press--a teaser

Encouraging you to tune in tomorrow (or maybe the next day) for a post on the mainstream press:

An older post from Margaret Harding on the Optimist's Conundrum: why it is so hard to report good news.

Jim Conca at Forbes: Don't Politicize Sandy: Hurricane Normal Problem for Nukes.

All of Vermont Wins When Vermont Yankee Operates

Vermont Yankee in March, 2012

When Vermont Yankee was built, its 40-year Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license was standard for new plants at that time. Although a new 20-year license was granted last year, the original license expires March 21. That day has become a rallying cry for plant opponents, who insist the plant must "shut down safely."

Many opponents speak as if it will be a personal defeat if the plant operates for a day past the 21st. They don't actually claim that on the 22nd, the plant will have safety problems that it didn't have on the 21st. Instead, whether the plant operates past the 21st has become a matter of "who wins...me or them?"

Safety is essential. To discredit Vermont Yankee, opponents make three standard safety-related claims. This article will answer these claims with facts, not win-lose rhetorical statements. The claims are:

1) Vermont Yankee is an old plant.

2) It could have an accident like Fukushima.

3) It puts nuclear waste on the banks of the Connecticut River.

1) Age and Vermont Yankee

Vermont Yankee is a steam-electric plant. It heats water to raise steam to turn turbines and make electricity. Coal plants are also steam-electric plants. Requirements for maintaining plant integrity are similar for nuclear and for coal. The median age of operating coal plants in this country is 46 years, and thirty coal plants have been running for more than 60 years.

I was a corrosion specialist in my working life. There are corrosion issues special to nuclear plants, and there are corrosion issues special to coal plants. These problems are different, but one is not worse than the other. If anything, coal plants have the harder time with corrosion, scaling, and other operating problems because they have to move so much material (coal) through the plant.

The power uprate made several years ago helps contribute to Vermont Yankee's reliability and safety. Opponents imagine that the power uprate is merely a matter of pushing an old plant too hard. Actually, the NRC only grants uprates when significant improvements have been made to the plant. At Vermont Yankee, Entergy in the last decade has installed $400 million dollars worth of new equipment. Much of this equipment was required for the power uprate.

In the nuclear industry, it is conventional wisdom that a power uprate is a good way to prepare for a license extension review. The plant replaces key equipment for the uprate, and the new equipment helps the plant achieve its license extension.

2) It could have an accident like Fukushima

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. Schools collapsed, villages were swept out to sea, and an estimated 20,000 people died.

Five nuclear stations containing fifteen reactors were affected by the tsunami. All the reactors survived the earthquake, but transmission lines failed and diesel generators were flooded. At one site, three reactors lost power for too long, resulting in fuel damage, hydrogen explosions and radiation release. In accordance with emergency plans, population evacuations began almost immediately.

Japan is an industrial powerhouse and technically astute country. The question arises: Could it happen here? Shortly after Fukushima, a prominent anti-nuclear activist worried that a meltdown could happen to Vermont Yankee if a big hurricane came to the Connecticut River Valley.

A few months later, Hurricane Irene flooded whole towns and washed out roads in Vermont. Vermont Yankee still made power at full capacity. Nuclear plants are among the sturdiest structures on the planet. Vermont Yankee is designed for a 500-year-flood, 360 mph tornado winds, and severe earthquakes. Worldwide, plants have operated through hurricanes, floods and tornados, as well as earthquakes.

To operate safely, a nuclear plant needs adequate cooling water and electricity. Vermont Yankee has resilient cooling systems, appropriate for its site. The plant draws water from Vernon Pond and also stores millions of gallons on-site. It has several types of electrical backup. Its diesel generators are above the 500-year-flood level, and it also has a direct power line to Vernon Dam. River water can be pumped directly into the reactor, if necessary. Vermont Yankee is well-engineered for its location.

3) Nuclear Waste on the Banks of the Connecticut River

The storage of spent nuclear fuel is another hot-button for nuclear opponents. They delight in saying how some of this material has a half life of thousands, millions, or billions of years. They speak of the half-life in terms that imply it is terrifying that something will be radioactive for so long.

Actually, as a general rule, the longer the half-life, the less dangerous the material.

Let's look at what a "long half-life" means. Say I had a hundred atoms of an isotope with a ten-minute half-life. By the definition of “half-life”, fifty of those atoms would release radioactivity in a ten-minute period. That would be a comparatively high radioactivity release in a short time.

Now imagine I have a hundred atoms of an isotope with a ten year half life. Again by the definition of half-life, fifty atoms would release radioactivity over a period of ten years. In other words, every few months, one atom would release some radioactivity, and a few months later, another atom would. The isotope with a ten-year half-life is far less radioactive than the isotope with the ten-minute half-life.

The low radiation level of long-half-life elements is the reason we can walk in the hills, despite the presence of radioactive elements in the native rocks. These elements have long half-lives. An isotope with a million year half-life is not a very radioactive isotope!

In the near term, the dry casks can hold the fuel in great safety for hundreds of years. In the long term, "radioactive for millions of years" is a scary sound-byte but...it does not indicate high levels of danger, now or in the future.

On March 22

When the plant operates on March 22, some plant opponents will feel they have "lost.” The plant, however, will operate as safely as it had on March 21. Plant opponents may feel that they have “lost” but Vermont will have won a future of abundant power and jobs in the southern part of the state. Safely.

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This article was one of a group published by the Burlington Free Press on March 18, shortly before the Vermont Yankee "license-expiration" date of March 21, 2012. You can read the article in the Free Press here. If you do, be sure to read the comments! The article was also reprinted in other local newspapers, such at The Commons.

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Photos include the Capitol Power Plant in Washington D.C, a coal-burning plant that was built in 1910 and continued to burn all coal until 2009, when environmental protests caused a switch to partial natural-gas firing. It is there as an example of how long power plants can operate, if people want them to operate.

Another picture is Hurricane Irene, from Wikipedia, and an image of happy people at Granite Gorge. Granite contains elements that are radioactive, with very long half-lives. Despite this radioactivity, New Hampshire has nick-named itself the Granite State and promotes tourism to the mountains. As it should! If you don't get a chance to visit Vermont, visit New Hampshire!

A Good And Sweet New Year

I always find it interesting that the Jewish New Year starts in the fall. The timing made more sense in California, where the New Year coincided with the start of the rainy season, as it does in Israel. When the brown land becomes green, the year feels new!

In Vermont, the New Year comes at a very festive season: foliage season, harvest season. A time for enjoying the cool weather and the beautiful trees. A time for going apple-picking or at least buying local apples. I include a picture from my local farmstand: Killdeer Farms of Norwich.

Still, compared to brown-land-becoming-green, sometimes it doesn't feel quite like a New Year in the fall. This year, however, New Year in Vermont feels very new. We are recovering from Hurricane Irene. The roads are open. People are planning again, holding meetings, holding rallies. It feels like getting over an illness. A feeling of exuberance and joy.

May all my readers have a healthy and joyful year. A good and sweet year. A good and peaceful life.

L'Shana Tova.

Top photo: Traditional Rosh Hashanah foods, from Wikipedia. Apples, honey, wine, and pomegranates. Also, a shofar (ram's horn), a traditional part of the holiday celebration.

Bottom photo: Vermont Apples, from Killdeer Farm Facebook page.

Taking the Petty Road: Governor Shumlin, Hurricane Irene, and Entergy's Charitable Donation

I wish Vermont had a governor who was a class act. I wish Shumlin was the kind of politician who does the right thing in public. The kind of politician who does the courteous thing. The kind of politician whose public face is thoughtful and non-vindictive.

You understand that I am saying "I wish we had the kind of politician who..." I do not expect that all politicians are wonderful people. I just expect that politicians will behave in a certain way in public because it is politically wise to do so.

We don't have that kind of governor.

The storm and the aftermath

Hurricane Irene did a lot of damage in Vermont. Hundreds of people lost their homes. There was a major need for disaster relief. In response, people and businesses have donated time and money to help those who have suffered.

Governor Shumlin recently held a press conference to thank the Vermont businesses who contributed large amounts to disaster relief. Shumlin thanked Vermont Public Radio for hosting a $625,000 fundraiser; Blue Cross Blue Shield for giving $150,000; ICG software for giving $30,000; and Coca Cola for giving $25,000. He thanked many other businesses for their contributions also.

He didn't thank Entergy. He didn't even mention Entergy. Entergy donated $50,000 to United Way of Windham County and also provided a matching grant of up to $50,000. Windham County is Shumlin's home county. All in all, Entergy contributed up to $100,000, depending on how well United Way is able to match part of the grant.

Shumlin didn't mention Entergy when he listed the businesses who helped their neighbors by giving large donations.

Petty petty petty

Would it have hurt Shumlin to list Entergy along with the others? I don't think so. Nobody would think that including Entergy's donation in a list would mean that Shumlin loves Vermont Yankee. Listing Entergy's donation wouldn't have hurt the state's case in the lawsuit. It wouldn't have hurt anything. It would just have acknowledged a major donation.

Instead, Shumlin had to be petty and leave Entergy out of the list.

I hope our next governor is more of a class act.

Update: Shay Totten of 7 Days wrote an excellent post about this snub to Entergy (snub is his word and I agree). Among other things, Totten found that Entergy had donated $130,000 to local charities, just for disaster relief..

Goodnight Irene! An Update on Restoration after the Hurricane in Vermont

This picture is not how Vermont looks yet. We are just getting color at the high elevations now. It is early in the season. It is going to be spectacular season.

I encourage everyone to visit. The roads are mostly open, as you can see by this Vermont Transportation Map. There are some roads near the Green Mountains that are limited traffic or closed (very few actually closed). But the you-can't-get-there-from-here feeling is over.

In my own township, the Simon Pearce Restaurant has re-opened. The lower levels of the complex are still closed, but the restaurant and shops are open. In my August 28 post, I lamented that restaurant closing. It is quite near the Quechee Bridge, a covered bridge which was heavily damaged. But the restaurant is open again!

Pretty much everything is open again. The Tucker Hill Inn, near Montpelier, has an update page, pointing out that it is open and had no damage. The Applebutter Inn, near Woodstock also has no damage, and the roads to it are open. Applebutter is owned by Michael Pacht and Barbara Barry. Michael sings in the same chorus as my husband. On his website, he notes that since no wind accompanied the rain, our maple trees are well watered! We look forward to a gloriously colorful foliage season.

It is going to be a great foliage season. Here's a link to a foliage tracker: Early colors now on the hillsides. Other events are also on track. For example, Billings Farm Museum is holding its Quilt Show. There's a lot to do in Vermont.

In neighboring New Hampshire, there's a Goodnight Irene fundraiser at a local pub. You probably can't come to the fundraiser, and fundraisers are important for the people who lost their homes (about 700 homes) and businesses.

Most people are okay, though. I am not hardhearted. I just want to say that most businesses are open. Most roads are open. You can come to Vermont and support all the businesses that need your support. It's going to be a great foliage season, partially because we had all that water. In a dry summer, the leaves get a little dry and brownish. Not this summer! The leaves are going to change spectacularly!

Come visit Vermont!

Photo from Vermont Living website.

The Tenth Anniversary and Conspiracy Theories

The tenth year anniversary of that grim day. This week's New Yorker cover says so much: Reflection.

September is the month of reflection. It contains September 11. It holds the beginning of the High Holy Days. On a personal note, September is our anniversary month, and our son's birthday month. September gives me many opportunities to reflect.

Like the reflections of the New Yorker cover, the Towers are in my heart.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

What did I learn from 9/11? Things I learned, and that I manage to forget all the time.

• To be grateful for life.
• That some people are brave and disciplined, and willing to give up their lives for others (firemen and other first responders are people like this, and there are others).
• That hating whole groups of people is a worthless attitude.
• That being open to people is a worthwhile attitude.
• That not everyone loves us. Defense against enemies is a real-world requirement.
• That helping others is a real-world requirement.

The Enemies We Are Comfortable With

I see bumper stickers frequently: "9/11 was an inside job!" I think this is a very comforting belief for some people. With this belief, they don't have to learn how to live in a complex world where people have enemies as well as the requirement to be helpful to people. Once the conspiracy theorists have eliminated the idea that real enemies from another country did this, they can go right back to business-as-usual. They need only acknowledge the enemies they are comfortable with: business owners, the CIA, right-wing politicians, whatever. It's a little cocoon of beliefs, and the difficulties of the real world don't penetrate.

In a similar manner, we have some women around here who like to get arrested at Vermont Yankee. A letter in True North Reports describes these women's activities during the flooding. I recommend reading the letter.

On Tuesday August 30, first responders were busy with scenes like this in nearby Brattleboro, or scenes like this fly-over, further north in Rutland. On August 30, these women marched into Vermont Yankee, chained a gate, and refused to unlock it or go away peacefully. Several policemen had to take time from rescuing people to cut the chain and arrest the women. These women had their comfortable enemies and their comfortable activities, and the suffering of other people during the storm didn't appear to matter to them.

I think they have a mindset similar to that of conspiracy theory people. Conspiracy theorists tend to look down on the rest of us as as "not understanding" reality, "being fooled" by conspiracies. I think they cannot bend their minds and emotions to living in a complex world that contains enemies and floods and heroism and the requirement to be kind. By indulging in conspiracy theories, they feel they can choose their enemies, and they stay in their comfort zone.

Today is a Day to Acknowledge Reality

I think that today is a day to acknowledge reality, not conspiracies. To understand that reality includes enemies, enemies not picked-and-chosen. Reality includes huge, deep sadness. Huge. As big as the hole at Ground Zero, and bigger. For me, reality includes the memory of the pervasive smell of decay and smouldering fires that lingered in New York for weeks.

Huge, deep sadness.

First responders saved many lives in Vermont. First responders died trying to save lives in New York.

In a small return for the suffering, reality also gives us heroes.

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Verse from the Rubaiyiat of Omar Khayyam

Handcuff image from Wikipedia

New Yorker cover from New Yorker website. This is a web story about ten years of New Yorker covers on September 11, and well worth reviewing.

Broken Windows, Ruined Roads, the Glory Days of the Railroad, and Nuclear Decommissioning

The Seen and the Unseen

The Broken Window Fallacy says that destroying something (breaking a window), and then fixing it (hiring a glazier), stimulates the economy. The broken window fallacy was first described by the French economist Bastiat in 1850.

In the broken window story, a hooligan breaks the baker's window. The baker then pays a glazier to fix his window. However, this does not stimulate the economy. If the baker didn't have to pay for fixing his window, he might have bought something else (a new suit from the tailor) with the money.

The point of the broken window fallacy is that we can see what we get after the window is broken. We see the glazier getting paid.

However, we can't see what we don't get. We can't see the the tailor not being paid.

Irene's Broken Window in Hartford Township

There has been a lot of destruction of roads and property in my township. Irene broke the windows, for sure. However, it is a small town, the money has to come from somewhere, and this article in the Valley News describes the "unseen." The article describes some of the things my town had hoped to do, but will not be doing in the near future, because we have to fix the roads.

The town has decided to:

• cancel the Glory Days of the Railroad Festival this Saturday, because there is too much clean-up to be done
• cancel or postpone a bond to fix up the ice rink
• cancel or postpone a bond to fix up the town hall, a drafty and energy-inefficient Victorian edifice

After Irene, the town will see people employed on the roads, but people will not be employed to improve the municipal building or ice rink. What we don't get is visible in this case. We won't have a festival, we won't have a good ice rink, we won't have insulation in the municipal building. We will get the roads fixed, but we will be poorer (less fun, no improved town infrastructure) due to Irene's broken windows.

The "unseen" is visible in my township, and it isn't pretty.

Nuclear Decommissioning

In recent weeks, I wrote two articles on the jobs effect of nuclear decommissioning. Governor Shumlin repeatedly states that decommissioning Vermont Yankee will be a great jobs bonus and economic stimulus for the southern part of Vermont. He claimed that "several hundred" plant workers would continue to be employed for "five to six years." The Governor also said that decommissioning would "fuel the economy" of southern Vermont by a billion dollars over ten years.

Who is the Glazier in Decommissioning?

Decommissioning a working power plant is like throwing a brick through a window. It doesn't take many highly skilled people (compared to running the plant). It doesn't take much money (compared to running the plant).

The "glazier repair bill" isn't the actual decommissioning costs, though they may be part of the bill. (It depends on how you look at it.) The true repair bill is

• the cost of either new power plants (which will be needed eventually, but this is twenty years too early)
• and/or the higher cost of power bought from out of state.

Out of state power is far more likely: we are already buying nuclear power from Seabrook. New power plants and transmission lines in Vermont usually attract fierce opposition. I think we will buy from out of state. Governor Shumlin practically commutes to Canada, setting up new power deals.

Vermont will spend our money on out-of-state glaziers. We will see the money be spent, money that could have "fueled" the Windham County economy for twenty more years. What we would have spent the money for, here in Vermont...that will be unseen.

Related Information

In a recent post, I described the broken window fallacy in terms of the possible job stimulus of Hurricane Irene's destruction, or of decommissioning a nuclear plant. In both cases, destruction is not a job stimulus.

I also have two articles on decommissioning. My first article, Decommissioning Vermont Yankee: the Governor vs. The Facts, appeared in True North Reports on August 14. This showed that 80% of the plant employees would be laid off within six months to two years.

My second article was posted yesterday: Will Decommissioning Vermont Yankee Funnel a Billion Dollars into the Vermont Economy? The answer is "no." In a ten-year period, about $200 million can be expected in salaries for contract workers decommissioning the plant. If the plant is running, in ten years, $650 million in salaries are earned by plant employees. In other words, plant-related employment would drop by about two-thirds. Scarcely an economic boom!

Zion plant from Wikipedia

The Broken Window Fallacy, the Hurricane, and Decomissioning Nuclear Plants

Vermont and the Hurricane

Many towns in Vermont will take a long time to recover from Hurricane Irene. My family and my home are fine, but I live in Windsor County. Here's Vermont Digger's article about Windsor County: Stately Windsor Country Towns Wracked by Irene. That news is several days old, and several of the towns now have power back, but it gives you an idea of what has happened.

Decommissioning

If the hurricane wasn't enough to depress me, I was also working on my second article about decommissioning.

My first article on the subject has been published at True North Reports: Decommissioning Vermont Yankee, the Governor vs. the Facts. Governor Shumlin had said that decommissioning Vermont Yankee would be a huge jobs bonanza for southern Vermont. In my article, I showed that the workers at Vermont Yankee would mostly laid off within six months to two years of plant shutdown. Shumlin had said hundreds of plant workers would still have jobs for many years.

This week, I worked on a second article to answer the following question: Though the plant people will be laid off, will contract hiring be a real job burst?

I finished the article, and it will be posted at True North Reports next week.

I won't keep you in suspense. The answer is "no." There won't be tons of new hires, and decommissioning will not be a jobs bonanza.

Trying to Find the Correct Question

As I was writing the article, I felt that something was missing. The amount of money that would be spent on decommissioning wasn't the biggest issue. Decommissioning the plant is destroying something. Even if if the process provides jobs (and it provides very few), I felt there was something wrong.

Then, in my local paper, I saw a Tony Auth cartoon about the hurricane. The cartoon shows a flooded house, with a tree down on top of it, and several workers near it. The workers are wading through water toward the house, and one says to another: "Finally, a second stimulus."

I realized what the problem had been about my decommissioning research. "Jobs from decommissioning" is just the Broken Window Fallacy in a new guise.

Destruction is not a stimulus.

The Broken Window Fallacy

The Broken Window Fallacy is the idea that if something is destroyed, rebuilding it stimulates the economy. This is not true, which is why it's a fallacy. As the video below illustrates, after the money has been spent for rebuilding, you are merely back to square one. No real value has been added.

Similarly, decommissioning a power plant takes away the plant's ability to create something valuable (electricity) and returns the land to being a pasture. We have plenty of pastures in Vermont. A new pasture won't add much, but taking away our one major power plant will subtract a lot.

Looking at the "jobs created" during decommissioning is like being happy that the stone hit the window in the video. As the video says: "If throwing the stone through the window is a stimulus, why not go further? Why not burn down the town?"

Hurricane Irene has done huge amounts of damage to Vermont. The state will test the Broken Window Fallacy with the destruction caused by the storm. Will this destruction be a jobs stimulus? (My own answer is "no.") Vermont doesn't have to do even more damage to itself by shutting down our major power plant.

photo of Irene in North Carolina from Wikipedia

End Note: This video ends with the idea that any money that the government spends hurts the economy. This is an oversimplification at best. I wish the video had not ventured into tax policy, but just made the one point that is the heart of the Broken Window Fallacy: Destruction does not stimulate the economy.

68th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers at Deregulate the Atom

The 68th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Deregulate the Atom, Rick Maltese's blog. Maltese is hosting the Carnival for the first time, and he has ranged far and wide to get the best blogs into this Carnival.

Maltese starts the Carnival off with Richard Schmidt's guest post on Yes Vermont Yankee. Great way to start, Rick!

The Carnival includes posts by Margaret Harding on industry economics, a movie about Shoreham at Rod Adams blog, Dan Yurman debunking Markey about Hurricane Irene (go Dan!), John Bickel pointing out that, no, we didn't "almost lose" North Anna. Steve Aplin looks at Obama, jobs and smog: Obama says yes to jobs-and-smog, while there is a way to have jobs without smog. Gail Marcus discusses Japan and transparency, comparing the way the U.S. NRC responded to TMI with the way the Japanese handled Fukushima. Charles Barton sails into nuclear proliferation, and makes a strong case that today's concerns will change drastically by mid-century. He also follows the Chinese and Indian situation, particularly with an intriguing post on Indian Deproliferation and Thorium Fuel.

And there's more! There's more! Actually, there's too much to list. Leaving out some excellent posts, I need to recommend Maltese's own post: F.E.A.R. (Fukushima Emits Acceptable Radiation) which he modestly puts at the end of the list. Maltese's post is a thoughtful comment on Mark Lynas's recent essay: How Dangerous is the Fukushima Exclusion Zone.

Visit the Carnival! Bigger and better than ever!

Propane Tanks on the River

A video from the neighboring town of Woodstock.

It shows propane tanks floating down the Ottaquechee River. Our town manager said they looked like marshmallows as they floated by. According to Vermont Digger, 200 propane tanks from West Woodstock (Dead River Fuels) are stuck in Quechee Gorge. Some are leaking: note the "smell of propane" mentioned in this video. Removing the tanks from the river will not be easy. The tanks are stuck in Quechee Gorge, and I have heard that nobody is allowed over the Quechee Gorge bridge for fear of setting off an explosion.

Quechee Gorge bridge is in my township, though not close to me. (Thank heavens.)

West Hartford (also in my township) is hard-hit. I meet most Tuesday nights with some women at the West Hartford library. The library was flooded, and the main road to the village is impassible. The White River flooded it and apparently destroyed parts of the road (I have not seen it, I just know it is closed.) The bridge at West Hartford is so damaged that cars cannot cross it, though pedestrians can.

Huge concerns for the people of my hard-hit township. My family is okay, and I will return to blogging about my usual subjects--pretty soon.

Shumlin, the Storm, and Vermont Yankee: The storm is not a problem for the plant.

Shumlin says the storm is not a problem for Vermont Yankee! By golly, he's acting like a governor now, focusing attention on areas of Vermont that need attention!

In his interview at Democracy Now, Shumlin starts with the usual "leaking plant, untrustworthy company" stuff. But then he says we are "in good hands" about the plant and the storm. Instead of using the storm as yet-another-platform about Vermont Yankee, Shumlin puts important things first. The people who are flooded out, and the roads that are closed--those problems come first.



If you don't live in the state, and want to get an idea of the extent of the flooding damage, this road-closure map might help.

Update: I recommend Rod Adam's excellent post on this subject. Shumlin wants to shut down the nuclear plant and simulataneously help prevent global warming? Soft hearts should not be accompanied by soft heads.

Bridges, Dams and Nuclear Plants: The Hurricane in Vermont

Bridges

Two short videos below show the covered bridge at Quechee being attacked by floodwaters from Hurricane Irene. This bridge is next to one of Vermont's most beautiful restaurants, Simon Pearce. I believe Simon Pearce is also flooded. Quechee is in Hartford township, my township.

(My house is okay. I am not trying to worry people here. I am just trying to say that this is "in the neighborhood.")

Dams

Green Mountain power may have to release water from Marshfield Dam. As Green Mountain Power said in their press release this evening:

The heavy rains have significantly increased water levels behind GMP’s dams, reaching levels that are potentially dangerous. At our Marshfield dam, record water levels are approaching the top of the dam. Because it is an earthen dam, water cannot be allowed to flow over its top. We are prepared to take emergency measures to protect the integrity of the dam. If necessary, the flow of water through the dam will be increased, which will result in greater flows of water all along the Winooski River.

Releasing the water into the Winooski poses problems, because the Winooski flows through Montpelier, and Montpelier is already being flooded. The latest Montpelier City Update for Hurricane Irene says that flood levels are currently similar to the May floods this year. Here's a video of the May floods.

Update Monday Aug 29 a.m. The water did not top the Marshfield dam, and the water did not have to be released down the Winooski to cause even more problems in Montpelier. However, while the dam is being inspected, the 350 families that were evacuated cannot return home.

Nuclear Plants

Nothing interesting going on. All Entergy plants in the Northeast continue safe operations after Irene. As I would expect.

Planning and forethought pay off.

Update on the Hurricane

This is a photo of flooding in Brattleboro, a town close to where Vermont Yankee is located. I found the photo on Twitter. It was posted by @RandyGllenhaal on twitpic.

I have that picture up because I wanted to start the post with something dramatic. After all, I am competing with all the other hurricane coverage, and it's an uphill slog because I blog about Vermont Yankee. I blog about Vermont Yankee, and Vermont Yankee is fine. The plant is at 100% power and there is no flooding at the site. No news is....no news. Or maybe, good news is no news?

Winds

I talked about floods above. I guess I better say something about winds, too.

There's a great Irene-tracker map at the New York Times. As I write this, tropical storm Irene is in Connecticut. (Irene has been downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm.) Here's a screen shot of the New York Times wind speed predictor for Irene, from the website above.

At 11 a.m. this morning, the wind speed was 63 mph. By the time this hurricane grinds through Massachusetts and gets to Vermont, the wind speed will be below 50 mph. Heck, we've had thunderstorms that were worse. The plant can take hurricane-force winds, above 200 mph. This tropical storm won't even be a test.

I don't mean to dismiss the problems Irene has caused. Hurricane Irene has been a serious storm, especially further south. Even in Vermont, there is considerable flooding and many people have lost power. Some more pix of Brattleboro here. Southern part of the state and some northern areas have been hard hit in terms of flooding. There's going to be a lot of damage. Some roads are impassable. Still, Vermont Yankee is fine, running along at full power. It's not Key Largo around here.

I started this post with a photo I found on a tweet, so I will end with a quote from another tweet. To me, this quote says everything about our nuclear plants, and how well they are handling this storm.

No one ever gets credit when contingency planning works. #Irene

@krmaher RT by @arclight