Global Warming and Vermont Yankee: Ellen Cota Guest Post

Ellen Cota
Vermont Yankee employee

I am Ellen Cota.  I am a mother of two active kids.  I live in the Emergency Plan Zone, am an active community member, a board member and a consumer of local goods.

I am also a proud employee at VY.  I work about ½ a football field away from the reactor.  I am the Operating Experience Coordinator at Vermont Yankee and I am responsible for reviewing events and issues at other nuclear facilities so we can learn from them and implement best practices.

This is critical time in history.  Like many, super storm Sandy has really frightened me.  The reality of climate change is becoming more real with each storm.  I am proud of the work at VY and know that this facility is not contributing to climate change.  Nuclear energy is the only clean-air source of electricity generation that provides large amounts of power 24/7.  We as a nation, not only VT need to embrace nuclear.

The facts are that coal and natural gas power plants not only pollute more, they also have a lower capacity factor or amount of electricity produced compare to the maximum it could produce.  Coal is 61%.  Natural gas is 46%.  Nuclear is around 90%.  Nuclear is more reliable and cleaner.  Vermont Yankee historically is one of the most reliable nuclear generating facilities of its type.

For my kids sake and the generations to come, please approve the Certificate of Public Good.

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This is the twelfth in a series of posts which share statements made in favor of Vermont Yankee at the Public Service Board hearing on November 7, 2012.

Carnival of Nuclear Energy 130 at Atomic Insights

Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs #130 is now posted at Atomic Insights.  Rod Adams has posted an important Carnival.  I call it  the low-hazard Carnival. Let's look at some non-hazards.

Two posts (one by me, one podcast including me) describe the non-events of "nuclear plants in the path of Hurricane Sandy."

At ANS Nuclear Cafe, Rod Adams posts a stinging critique of the declared non-scientific bias of the infamous New York Academy report on Chernobyl (which the Academy has semi-repudiated. They sure don't sell it any more.) At his own blog, Rod Adams posts an analysis of a recent study of Leukemia in Chernobyl workers.  Over 100,000 workers, over 20 years later, perhaps 19 extra cases of leukemia.  He notes that nobody in Japan received doses at the levels of the Chernobyl workers.

Les Corrice writes an honest (and therefore reassuring) look at cesium, fuel pools and Fukushima.

Brian Wang, at Next Big Future, describes the coming market for High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors (700 reactors, probably) and the safety of these reactors.

In other posts, I describe the successful Public Service Board (PSB) meeting in Vermont, and Gail Marcus looks at all the clever ways that people can cherry-pick data.

In the Carnival, Rod says something nice about our efforts in Vermont, and I will repeat it here.  Thank you, Rod!

Aside: Meredith’s efforts in Vermont remind me of the story of the The Tortoise and the Hare. Her steady efforts have been increasingly successful. The writeup in the Brattleboro Reformer about the PSB meeting was a great example of how pronuclear activism can work. It mentioned Meredith’s blog. End Aside.

Come to the Carnival! Have fun! Step right up and read about the non-hazards!

Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Arkansas and Hurricane Sandy

The crews arrive

 Crews from Entergy Louisiana have arrived in Staten Island to help restore power after the massive destruction from Hurricane Sandy. This post is headed by a video that Con Ed (the New York utility) made about their arrival.

Reuters has a well-written article about the Entergy crews: New Orleans linemen square Katrina debt with Sandy aid.  As you might expect from a business-press article, it is very complete.  Reuters explains how the lineman are paid, their living conditions, how utility mutual assistance groups help with storm damage, and so forth.   The story finishes with a great personal quote from Glenn Nicholas of New Orleans (emphasis added by me):

Nicholas was looking forward to getting to work. Unlike New Orleans after 2005's Katrina -- a city that was wet and filthy but also largely empty except for law enforcement, rescue workers and repair crews -- New York remains full of residents who have been stuck in darkened apartments, anxious to get out again.

"The best feeling for any linemen is getting the lights back on," he said, adding: "I love New York. It's kind of like New Orleans, just way bigger."

Southerners!  Run for the hills!

I wrote this because I listened to the people in the video. They have Southern accents!

In Vermont, some so-called environmentalists think Southern accents show that  people are "not like us."  I encountered this first-hand when I debated one of these men at the Putney School a little over a year ago.  Well, no.  This man wouldn't debate me.  We were supposed to have a debate, but he decided he wanted one assembly for himself, and I would speak at the second assembly.

I went to the first assembly to hear what he would say.  He had the kids in stitches, using humor to get them on his side.

How did he do this?  Well, he imitated a Southern accent. He said that Entergy Louisiana had sent a senior VP to talk to the legislature in Vermont, and the VP was a man with a Southern accent (imitation then followed). How could Entergy think this man could convince anyone in Vermont of anything?  He then talked about the Civil War painting in the State House.  Vermont was not Louisiana, after all!

Oh..kay.  I had my work cut out for me, after that one.

As arranged, I spoke in the same auditorium the following week. I started my talk with a quote from Abraham Lincoln ("to bind up the nation's wounds"). I followed this with a plea for tolerance and respect, even if people look different or have different accents.

This was not how I expected to start my talk about Vermont Yankee, Unfortunately, that kind of  prejudice was relevant to Vermont Yankee.

Governor Shumlin nurtures prejudice and demonizes the South

Governor Shumlin

Vermont Governor Shumlin ran against Vermont Yankee in his last election campaign.  He ran as much against Vermont Yankee as he ran against his opponent, Brian Dubie.

To bolster his campaign, he constantly described the company that owns Vermont Yankee as "Entergy Louisiana." Actually, Vermont Yankee is part of "Entergy Nuclear."  You can see all the different companies on the main Entergy site.    Still, Shumlin has never been much of a stickler about facts. It suited Shumlin's agenda to make "Entergy Lousiana" the scapegoat and he did so.

Here's a post of mine about Shumlin during the last election. Taking It Personal.  Shumlin Accuses Dubie of Serving the Interests of "Entergy Louisiana"

And here's a part of letter that Shumlin wrote to "Entergy Louisiana."  The plant wanted to restrict photography at Vermont Yankee. This letter is quoted in its entirety  on another of my blog posts.

Message to Entergy Louisiana – “You are in Vermont – Not China”
Montpelier , Vt. – Entergy Louisiana announced it is now imposing “new guidelines” for journalists. ...
“These new tactics disguised as ‘guidelines’ more resemble actions of governments like The Republic of China. Entergy Louisiana’s actions make it impossible to believe them when they say, they are committed to being more open and transparent, “said Senate President Peter Shumlin. “This is not the Vermont way!”

Note To Governor Shumlin

Entergy Arkansas Trucks at Staging Site in New Jersey

Governor Shumlin is running for re-election, and I think there is a very good chance he will be re-elected.  If he becomes Governor again, I hope he notices that he lives in the United States of America.  It's a country where people have Southern accents, Spanish accents, Vietnamese accents, and Boston accents.  It's also a country that tries to follow the American Way of mutual help in emergencies.  For example, people from Louisiana coming up to help people in New York and New Jersey.

Mutual help is the American way, Governor Shumlin.  And the Southern way. And the Vermont way, or at least I hope it's the Vermont way.  Governor Shumlin, maybe you should learn about this and stop making fun of Southerners and saying they don't do things "the Vermont way."

After all, you've got a pretty funny accent yourself.

Hurricanes and Nuclear Plants in the Main Stream Media

Hurricane Sandy

The Main Stream Press

In my post on Friday, Fear and Facts about Nuclear Plants and Hurricanes, I quoted nuclear opponents and nuclear supporters about the hurricane's probable effects on nuclear plants. I concluded that opponents and supporters were publishing only in friendly venues. Both sides were Preaching to the Choir.

The question then became: what did the main stream press think of this all? Basically, the main stream press wants a story: a new and dramatic narrative that will grab the readers' attention.  To put it bluntly, the nuclear power plants weren't a story.

You see, I would like to write a blog post that nuclear plants were treated better in the press because nuclear communicators were doing such a bang-up job.  But I have come to the conclusion it had very little to do with us.  There were thousands of stories as New York City was ravaged, people drowned in their houses in New Jersey, hospitals were evacuated. It quickly became clear that the nuclear plants weren't a story.

However, in one case, the industry fought back to opponent scaremongering. That's my kind of story.  So I'll start with that.

The Business Press: Fighting Back Against Scare-Mongering

A Bloomberg Business Week article was titled: Nuclear Power Industry Survives Sandy's Readiness Test.

 Kasia Klimasinska and Brian Wingfield quoted Gundersen as follows (note Gundersen's sequence of "ifs". I find Gundersen to be rather "iffy".) Gundersen said that if Oyster Creek was generating power, and the flood waters been just 6 inches deeper, it could have knocked out the pumps and triggered a disaster.

Now, what do you expect the plant owners would say about that?  I know what I expected: "Oyster Creek makes safe operation its highest priority (etc etc blah blah)."  To my surprise and happiness, Exelon actually said: “That is unequivocally false, Oyster Creek has numerous, redundant sources of reactor and spent-fuel pool cooling that would be fully operational regardless of the water levels mentioned,” Exelon’s Tillman said.

The Exelon comment was wonderful.  Every now and again, I get to root for my team, because they are actually playing!

More Business Press

A Forbes article was titled: Don't Politicize Sandy. Hurricane Normal Problem for Nukes.

Jim Conca wrote: Although those with real ideological issues against nuclear energy may have gotten bit excited, there is nothing so far to worry about with respect to the nuclear plants. There is no special issue or peculiar risk here for the nuclear plants in the path of Hurricane Sandy. 

He commented further: I truly respect Amy Goodman, but I wish she had asked a real nuclear expert to talk with her on Democracy Now! yesterday, not an anti-nuke activist like Arnie Gundersen who doesn’t really know the nuclear technical stuff, but only cares about politics. 

There's a website about small cap stocks. Small Cap Network. It's not  exactly the huge business press, but it has its audience. Their article was Nuclear Plants in the Path of Hurricane Sandy (And Anti-Nuclear Activists).

The article starts: Anti-nuclear activists and the media have apparently wasted no time to try and get people panicked about the 26 nuclear plants in the path of Hurricane Sandy.

The article ends: The Bottom Line. Don’t pay any attention to scary stories about nuclear plants being threatened by hurricanes like Hurricane Sandy. Instead, pay attention to what happens in the aftermath of the storm as Dominion Resources, Entergy Corporation, Exelon Corporation, Public Service Enterprise Group and PPL Corporation and their nuclear plants face more scrutiny from regulators.... 

Main Stream Press: Following the Real Story

First, the New York Times story by Matt Wald:  Nuclear Plants Get Through the Storm with Little Trouble, which says pretty much what the title implies.

John Horgan at Scientific American asks Does Sandy Mean We Should Have Fewer Nuclear Plants or More?   He concludes that, due to global warming, we should definitely have more nuclear plants.

Meanwhile the mainstream press is following the real stories, not the scare stories.  For example, ProPublica asked Why Do Hospital Generators Keep Failing?  Three New York City area hospitals had to be evacuated when their generators (badly placed or badly maintained) failed.  Hundreds of critically ill patients had to be moved.

The real stories. Gas has been difficult-to-impossible to obtain, the port of New York was shut for an extended time, lines of ambulances were pulled into service to evacuate hospitals, people drowned in their homes in New Jersey and  Lower Manhattan.  These are the stories the newspapers are covering.

Nuclear opponents are probably gnashing their teeth that their carefully-contrived "what if" scenarios are being neglected. But the press is busy with the true, painful, sad stories of Hurricane Sandy.

The nuclear plants were okay, as pretty much everyone expected.

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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.