Why You Can't Trust the State of Vermont to Oversee the Decommissioning Fund

Crystal ball

The State Foresees the Future and Provides Insults

The State of Vermont insists that it needs to have oversight of Entergy's Vermont Yankee Decommissioning fund. They have often asked for a "seat at the table" when fund disbursements are planned. The state recently petitioned the NRC, asking the NRC to investigate Entergy's finances, and whether or not Entergy would have sufficient funds to decommission Vermont Yankee.  NRC turned down that petition, but the state is back at it.

On Friday, November 6,  groups within the state government (the Attorney General, the Department of Public Service) along with Green Mountain Power, brought a new petition. This new petition to the NRC attempts to limit usage of the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Fund.

While the earlier petition pretty much asked for an investigation, this new petition can best be described as insulting.  Here's a quote from the petition, according to VTDigger's State Ramps Up Pressure on NRC to Review Yankee Spending:

"Considered together, Entergy’s actions threaten to undermine the radiological decommissioning work that is the very purpose of the fund,” the document says. “Unless the commission intervenes, Entergy will divert hundreds of millions of dollars from their intended purpose.”

Wow.  "Entergy will divert." Crystal ball time!  Actually, what Entergy will do is that Entergy will follow all the rules and the guidelines of the NRC. But the state doesn't like that. The state could write: "Hey, NRC, we don't like your guidelines and rules." Instead, the state leads off with an insult directed at Entergy. (Vermont Business Magazine also has a lengthy article on this new petition.)

I Review the Past and Hope the State is Foiled

I found this "[Entergy] will divert millions of dollars" funny, because I have a sick sense of humor sometimes.

Let's say I was required to rank Vermont's ability to oversee projects: say I had to rank Vermont's project oversight on a scale from one to ten.  I would give the state a negative-five rating.  Vermont wants to oversee how Entergy spends its funds?  Is this a joke?

You don't have to dig very deep to come up with huge examples of inadequate project oversight by the state of Vermont. I will give a short list, along with one or two links for each example. Each of these situations has a long and well-documented history.  I could be here for two days, inserting links.

Lousy Project Management by the State of Vermont

Vermont Health Connect

This is the big one. The Shumlin administration wanted to bring single-payer to Vermont, and so it didn't sign up with the federal government for an Affordable Care website. Other states obtained and customized the federal website, and got their Affordable Care websites going fairly quickly, and at reasonable cost.  Vermont decided to build its own software, which didn't work and cost over $200 million.  At this point, we are trapped because, after all, who else can maintain this custom software?

Costs go to $200 Million.  VTDigger.
Trapped in Expensive Quicksand.  John McClaughry of Ethan Allen Institute.

Vermont Public Service Board Commissioners
Margaret Cheny, Chairman James Volz, Sarah Hofmann

Vermont Gas Systems Pipeline

This is big, also.  Basically, Vermont Gas Systems (part of Gaz Metro) proposed a pipeline that was supposed to cost $80 million dollars.  Pipeline technology is comparatively straight-forward: this is not a first-of-a-kind project. The estimated costs have now risen to $150 million, to be paid by Vermont ratepayers.  This cost increase would have put the state Public Service Board  (which approved the project) in a bind where they might have to take some action.  Instead, the administration and Gaz Metro did a de facto end run around the Public Service Board, signing a Memorandum of Understanding and getting the Public Service Board off the hook. AARP is very upset about the effect on ratepayers.

AARP accuses Vermont of End Run in MOU with state. VTDigger

Entergy funds for Windham County Development

This is not so big, but somewhat indicative. In its agreement with the state concerning the last months of Vermont Yankee's operation, Entergy promised to send the state $2 million per year, for five years (total $10 million) for Windham County economic development.  The state has received $4 million of these funds, and I believe is due to receive another $2 million sometime in the next two months.

The state is sitting on most of these funds. So far, it has awarded around $800,000. The Governor makes the final decision on all awards. The Governor says he didn't award the money because the proposals just weren't good enough. If I lived in Windham County, I might find this insulting.

Inadequate project management by the state? Or inadequate proposals? Or the state being comfortable by keeping an extra few million in the bank for a while?  Whatever reason the state has for not-releasing those funds, the funds are currently not-growing the economy of Windham County.

State Reboots Application Process for Entergy Money. Times Argus

My request to the NRC: Please don't let the state of Vermont be the project managers  for the decommissioning funds.
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End Note: Project Management and me

I have years of experience and interest in project management. I managed small projects at Acurex, back in the late 70s. In the early 80s, I joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), where my title was "Project Manager."  At EPRI, first I managed projects in the renewable division, and later in the nuclear division.  I left EPRI to go into business with a friend. The name of the business was Crescent Project Management.  I think it is still going, but my friend and I went our separate ways, business-wise. Then I started Fourth Floor Databases, Inc. As president of that company, I competed for, won, and managed many projects for utilities. I closed the company after eleven years.  Meeting a payroll in a small business is very stressful.

Nevil Shute

More recently, I have been very interested in the author Nevil Shute. He was a working engineer, a business owner, and an author. In September of this year, I gave a talk at the Nevil Shute Society conference in Oxford. All the talks at the Conference are posted here, and here is a direct link to the audio for my talk: Nevil Shute for Project Managers

Off to Britain for the Nevil Shute Society

Balliol  front of the quad

Oxford

Hopefully, while you are reading this,  I will be in Britain.

Specifically, I will be in Oxford, at Balliol College, and at the Nevil Shute Society 2015 meeting, where I am giving a talk.

If you follow the meeting link above, you can see that my talk is "Nevil Shute for Project Managers."

Nevil Shute 

Those of you who follow the blog may remember that I gave a course called Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute. This was at the Dartmouth College extension program, Osher at Dartmouth.  That course led to further courses by Laura Schneider of the Nevil Shute Society, and the founding of a local branch of the Nevil Shute Society. This group meets once a month in Hanover, New Hampshire.

At Oxford, George and I will actually be staying in the dorms.  This is something that I certainly never even dreamed of being able to do, back I was growing up.  We will also have a visit to Bletchley Park, home of the WWII code breakers. The conference surely looks well-organized.

George and I are looking forward to this adventure!

No Highway, Nevil Shute, and Communications

Nevil Shute Society Meeting on No Highway

Tomorrow, between 2 and 4 p.m., I will be leading a discussion of the Nevil Shute book No Highway. The discussion will take place at the Howe library in Hanover, and has appeared in the Calendar section of the local newspaper, etc.  Please come if you are in the area!

This talk is sponsored by the Dartmouth Chapter of the Nevil Shute Society.  And this particular talk is an updated version of some material I presented in the course Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute. 

Here's a trailer from the movie, No Highway in the Sky, that is based on the book.



Nuclear Communications

Nevil Shute's books frequently concern technical subjects.  However, technology or not, they are good stories. In other words, Shute's books are emotionally gripping.

"Emotionally gripping."  "Appealing to emotions."  These are the missing links in my own communications about nuclear power.

Recently, I wrote a post at ANS Nuclear Cafe about nuclear communications: We are not Spock: Emotion and Nuclear Power.  In this post, I noted that opponents appeal to emotions, but we (Spock-like) often appeal solely to logic.  I wrote about my need to be public about my sadness that Vermont Yankee is closing.  I  need to show that I have emotions.

Many of the comments on that ANS post were themselves excellent  short blog posts about nuclear communications.  I think these comments deserve to be discussed more fully.

I have obtained permission to post several of those comments as guest posts on this blog. Watch for them in the near future!

Saturday, Nevil Shute and Slide Rule

Tomorrow I will lead a discussion of Nevil Shute's autobiography, Slide Rule, at the Howe library in Hanover.  We will be at the library from 2 to 4 p.m., it's free, and there will be refreshments.  I hope some of you will be able to come.

If you remember, my course on Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute led to the formation of a local chapter of the Nevil Shute society.  Tomorrow is the third meeting of our chapter, and I will be leading the discussion. Thanks to the tireless work of C.J. Smith, the Dartmouth Chapter has a great web site (NevilShuteDartmouth) with information about the meetings, contact list and more.  C. J. also made the poster, shown above.  My own notes for the meeting are below.

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Dartmouth Chapter of the Nevil Shute Society

On Saturday June 1 2013, the Dartmouth Chapter of the Nevil Shute Society will meet at Howe Library from 2 to 4 to discuss Shute’s autobiography: Slide Rule.

Meredith Angwin will lead the discussion.  Angwin led the successful ILEAD course “Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute” and the discussion of Slide Rule will follow the format of the course. In this particular discussion, we will try to understand the decision making about two airships:
• R100, which Nevil Shute helped to design,
• R101, designed and built in a government facility.

The R100 flew successfully to Canada, but the R101 crashed on its first voyage. Why the difference?

Questions For Discussion:

Was the R101 doomed by:
• Being built in a government facility?
• Not having pilots as designers?
• Lack of project management?
• Changing specifications mid-stream?
• Other issues (air-worthiness certification rules, for example)?

Have you ever been in a project where upward communication was controlled by political constraints:  “It’s going great! Trust us!”

Structure of the meeting:

1) First Hour: Only the book.  In the first hour, we discuss questions from completely within the context of the book. This constraint encourages everyone to contribute to the discussion.

2) Second Hour: Personal anecdotes and specialized knowledge. The second hour encourages discussion of personal anecdotes about similar projects, specialized knowledge about airships, and more.

Further reading: 

The book is the only reading needed for this meeting, but you might be interested in other course material available at “Downloads for the Nevil Shute Course.”

http://www.meredithangwin.com/downloads-for-nevil-shute.html



 PO Box 5731, Hanover NH  03755, 603-790-8291,nevilshutedartmouth@gmail.com

Nevil Shute: The Course and the Book Group

The ILEAD study group Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute finished on Monday February 4, with the movie No Highway in the Sky.

We had a lot of fun in that study group.  I'm not just saying that because I led it.  First, the group participants decided to hold a luncheon. We had a great time. Then some of the participants determined that The Class Shall Go On...well, not the class itself, but reading and discussing Nevil Shute's novels shall go on.

We have now founded the Dartmouth Chapter of the Nevil Shute Norway Foundation, and we will have our first meeting on Saturday April 6 at the local library. We will discuss Trustee from the Toolroom.  (Like most Wikipedia articles, this one is a complete spoiler, so I recommend that you read the book instead.)

If you live in the area, please come to our meeting.  Also, Laura Schneider, the Nevil Shute Foundation U.S. Librarian, has copies of Trustee that she can loan to people.  My advice, however, is to buy a copy of Trustee.  You will want to re-read it.  Over the years, I think I have read it three times.

The future for the Nevil Shute group in this area includes the Dartmouth Chapter forming this spring, and Laura Schneider giving an ILEAD course about Shute in the fall.

I am SO glad I decided to give this course.  It has truly enriched my life.

The Lure of Nevil Shute

Too many people think of Shute as the author of On the Beach, which indeed, most of us have read...once.  That book is not like No Highway or Trustee from the Toolroom or Slide Rule.  On the Beach is  an extraordinarily dark book (everybody dies) and not really about problem-solving.  I don't know anybody who enjoys re-reading it.

Most of the rest of Shute's books celebrate a modest person (engineer, model-maker, retiree) who steps up to a hard job and shows extraordinary courage.  These heroes and heroines are not attacked by multi-national conspiracies or anything like that. They have problems to solve, and they must be both smart and brave to solve their problems.  They are models for all of us.

 During WWII, Shute was in a group that developed weapons against submarines.  After the war, the heroes and heroines in his books come from England, Australia, and yes... Germany.  He was a  man of great breadth of vision.  Not a perfect man, but a wonderful author.

Links From My Course

I have more downloads from the Nevil Shute Course at my personal website now. If I have to recommend only one of the downloads, I guess I would recommend he comparison of the airship disaster with the Challenger disaster by Beall Fowler.  Enjoy!  I also enclose a film trailer for No Highway, just for fun.

It's all...just for fun.  And for inspiration.

Engineering Adventures Course

I am scheduling this to be published while I am leading the first day of the Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute course.  I will write about the course occasionally in this blog.

Since I announced it in the blog in November, several things have happened.

• The course has been filled and over-subscribed.  
• The Nevil Shute Norway Foundation discovered the course and the American librarian will attend the course and probably record it for the Society.  I am very pleased about this!  The Foundation has members all over the world. If you like Nevil Shute, I encourage you to visit the Foundation web page.
• I set up a page on my personal web page for downloads about the course.  So far, the 2-page course syllabus is at that page, as well as several articles about the R100 and R101 Airships.

Here's the letter I sent to course participants:

Welcome to Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute.

This study group meets four Monday mornings, 9:30 a.m., at the D.O.C. House.  The first meeting is January 7 and the last meeting is January 28.

Plus, as an extra added attraction: there will be an optional fifth session, Monday February 4 at 9 a.m.  In the optional session, we will watch the movie No Highway in the Sky, starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.

The course is based upon Nevil Shute's books and on our own experiences with big, complex projects.  The two books are Slide Rule and No Highway.

Class participants are expected to read both books. If you can read them before the class begins, that would be terrific.  Otherwise:

• Read Slide Rule, chapters 1-7, by the second week of class. That is the majority of the book, and it would be good if you finish the rest of the book. 
• Read No Highway, chapters 1 through 7 by the third week of class
• Finish No Highway by the fourth week of class.

The format for this course is based on Great Books of Management.  I belonged to this discussion group in California when I worked at Acurex (now part of A.D. Little consulting).  The group members were chemists and engineers.  As our responsibilities grew, we began becoming project managers. One of the senior managers started the group to help people become better managers.   We also were encouraged to take traditional courses in project management.

Great Books of Management had a simple thesis: We can learn about project management by studying fiction and non-fiction books that present typical problems.  We read Plutarch, Halberstrom, Dickens and Shakespeare.  Some of our best discussions were based on Nevil Shute’s books, and I have chosen those books for this course.

For each meeting, we spent one hour discussing the books from a management perspective.  Did people seek the right information?  Did they make appropriate decisions?  The second hour broadened the discussion to include own project histories. Faced with similar issues, did we seek the right information and make the appropriate decisions?

Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute will follow the same format.  One hour on book discussion, one hour of our own experiences.  One hour book, one hour personal.

Read the books, prepare to share your own war stories, and be ready to have fun! I look forward to meeting you!

Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute

Poster for No Highway in the Sky
from Wikipedia

Once again, I will be leading a course at ILEAD at Dartmouth.  This time I will lead a 4-session course in January called Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute.  Below is a reprint of  the ILEAD catalog description of the class.

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 Engineering Adventures with Nevil Shute

In this course we will read two of Nevil Shute’s  lesser-known books: Slide Rule (his autobiography) and No Highway, (which presaged the failure of the early De Havilland Comet airplane).

Based on these books, we will discuss the troubles that can befall engineering projects.  The books include issues of changing specifications, the difference between private enterprise and "government work," and how quirky individuals affect the outcome of projects.

The course will be participatory. We will discuss issues from the books, then we will trade "war stories": similar problems and solutions with our own projects.

The material will be of interest to engineers and non-engineers. If you have been involved in a big project, such as building a house, you have the background to enjoy this course.

Discussion group members should plan to read both books.

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MEREDITH ANGWIN has a MS in Physical Chemistry. Though most of her life was spent in nuclear energy research and problem-solving, she also worked extensively with fossil fuels.  She likes to talk about technical subjects in a relatively non-technical fashion. For many years, her job title was "project manager." Consequently, she often wonders how projects get managed.

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In this class, we are also going to watch the movie, No Highway in the Sky, in an optional extra class session.

I have led courses at ILEAD before, specifically:

• All Around the Coal Boiler
• Energy Safari with Robert Hargraves. 

Robert Hargraves did most of the work with Energy Safari.  I was co-leader of the course, and I have several posts about it on this blog.

Leading a course like this, as opposed to a leading a course in energy technology, will be a new adventure for me. Wish me luck!  I will post about the course occasionally.