Vermont Yankee Supporters and Opponents

In my post about the St. Patrick's Day rally at ANS Nuclear Cafe, I wrote:

Did the opponent rally work? It undoubtedly encouraged the people at the rally. But I personally think that the whole stilt-walker, masks, funny hats business doesn’t convince anyone who is not convinced already. I don’t think that undecided people, watching on TV, would want to join the opponents’ rally.

Today, I decided that pictures speak louder than words. Here's a picture of Patty O'Donnell, Ellen Merkle, and a monk from the Peace Pagoda in New York. A group of monks were on a peace-walk or maybe a peace-shuttle between power plants on the East Coast. (The monks didn't walk their whole route, though they called it a Peace Walk.) O'Donnell and Merkle live in Vernon. As the monk walked toward the plant, they saw a photo-op.

Here's a local TV report. The short video includes plant supporter Gwen Shaclumis being interviewed about Entergy. Meanwhile, the opponent rally people call Entergy a "rogue corporation." Who do you believe?

Seeing is believing...

Celebrating Vermont Yankee: ANS Nuclear Cafe and the Rally

Today. my guest post at ANS Nuclear Cafe describes the recent rally at Vermont Yankee: Celebrating at Vermont Yankee: A successful rally on St. Patrick's Day. My post describes the rally, and compares it to the the opponent demonstration that was held a few days later. Our rally was different from their demonstration. We didn't have stilt walkers.

In all seriousness, though, if an ordinary working person was watching their event on TV, would that person want to join? Is a man with megaphone saying that Entergy is a "rogue corporation" a convincing soundbite? Is there a pent-up desire for death-mask masks and funny hats?

The ANS post also includes new pictures from our St Patrick's Day rally. The picture above includes VY engineer Larry Cummings at the left, Howard Shaffer in the middle, VY engineer Kenyon Webber to the right.

In the past few days in Brattleboro, nuclear energy supporters spoke up. (This is not just about our rally. Read the ANS post for more of the story.)

Some more links:

Kenyon Webber and Brian O'Callahan, young engineers at Vermont Yankee, interviewed for National Engineer's Week.

My earlier blog post on the rally Vermont Yankee Rally: Green Power for St. Patrick's Day.

My local newspaper, the Valley News, on the opponent's event, including Governor Shumlin's statement in support of their demonstration. Article by John Gregg.

Brattleboro Reformer article on our St. Patrick's Day rally. Article by Josh Stilts.

Commons (of Windham County) article on our St. Patrick's Day Rally. Article by Randall Holhut.

Vermont Yankee Rally: Green Power for St Patrick's Day

The Rally at the Plant Gates today went very well. The weather was wonderful, and we had the biggest turn-out ever: over 70 people! The homemade signs were terrific! People had a super time waving at cars at shift change, and chatting. Finally, we went in to the Governor Hunt house for a snack, including a cake with green trim, green icing shamrocks, and the message: "Green Power for 20 more years."

I am posting a few pix, but I really didn't take very good pix, so I hope to get more pix from others and post them. Here are a few pictures from near the beginning of the rally.

Smart Phones and Teenagers

The picture below deserves some explanation. It shows the Twarog family. They are wearing green hats provided by Howard Shaffer, and their son is concentrating on a smart phone.

Their son is helping me out. I had been on WPTZ TV Friday evening (the local NBC station) and WPTZ asked me if I could email them some pix of the rally by about 5:30 Saturday to be on the 6 p.m. news. And maybe I could email a video, too? They explained I could just send these from a smartphone, no problem.

But there was a problem. I don't have a smartphone. What to do? How could I get the pictures taken and sent to WPTZ for the 6 o clock news?

Of course, you already know how this story is going to end. At the rally, I asked a teenager. Cam Twarog took the pix, sent the pix, and obviously enjoyed himself doing it.

Everybody had a great time.

A tough week coming

The coming week looks like a tough one for the Brattleboro/Vernon area. Opponents have several sets of demonstrations planned for the day after the plant was "supposed" to shut down. The papers have also been full of calls for "direct action" to shut the plant down, and the importance of having taken the "non-violence training." (Nobody at our rally was violent, and we didn't need any training.)

Some of the talk at the rally was about the coming week. Many people had attended a Thursday meeting with the Vernon selectboard and police chief, talking about safety preparations for the upcoming demonstrations. Here's a Brattleboro Reformer article about that meeting: Vernon Gets Ready for VY Protests: Preparing for the Worst, Hoping for the Best.

We are glad we could come out and do our positive-energy rally at the plant today.

Update

I just added this short video. Thank you to the Twarog family for sharing

Pix: Carla Heath has sign 7300 more days. Fran Jerard has Green Clean sign with shamrocks.

Rally for Vermont Yankee this Saturday!

Rally Reminder from Howard Shaffer

The RALLY for Vermont Yankee is this Saturday 5:00-6:30, March 17, at the plant. The rally is shaping up nicely! We are going to have a great time, as we did in September and October.

In October we finished in twilight and went home in the dark. Now we will be finishing in daylight! The weather will be spring-like. That's New England spring. The forecast is for high 40's and 20% chance of showers.

If it rains, we can duck inside the Governor Hunt house, as we were also allowed to do in October. There will be snacks as in October. We will have some fact-filled handouts, to help you write letters to the editor or speak to your friends about nuclear power.

Dress for the weather, and don't forget thick-soled shoes. Standing on grass in thin shoes can make your feet cold.

Please wear something for St Patrick's Day! We will supply some items for the day's theme.

Signs

We will have some signs, but feel to make your own signs. They give the rally a personal touch. See the "Save Vermont Yankee" Facebook page for photos of signs at earlier rallies.

Some Sign Ideas (Your ideas will be better than mine!)

NO MORE FUD Fear Uncertainty Doubt

What About the 34,000 that die EVERY YEAR from COAL? (EPA)

THAT'S why NUCLEAR POWER

Green Power for the Green Day- and Every Day.

TWENTY MORE SAFE, CLEAN YEARS!!

See you there!

Contact information for Howard Shaffer, who is planning the rally

Howard Shaffer PE

PO Box 299

Enfield, NH 03748

603-632-5139

603-304-9157 cell

hshaffer3@myfairpoint.net

This Rally is planned by the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society: this project is headed by Howard Shaffer. Also by the Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute: this project is headed by Meredith Angwin.

March 17 Rally In Support of Vermont Yankee

Mark Your Calendars for March 17

Thanks to YOU, we have had two very successful Rallies. Supporters have said they want to have another rally, and we have decided to hold one on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day).

We have chosen March 17th because it is a Saturday, and also near the March 21 date when the plant's original license was due to end. The license is not ending, and we want to be at Vermont Yankee to celebrate. We are happy that Vermont Yankee will continue to operate!

When and Where

We are planning for the rally at the plant gate from 5:00-6:30 p.m. on Saturday March 17. The 5 to 6:30 rally is during shift change. We will hold signs, wave and show support for the people of Vermont Yankee. It will be Daylight Savings time, so we won't be finishing in the dark.

Saturday March 17 is St Patrick's Day, so we will work this into our plans. We will have some signs, but please feel free to think about making your own signs, For example: "Celebrating GREEN power on St. Patrick's Day!"

Important UPDATE: We will be holding the rally between 5 and 6:30, and we will not be using the Governor Hunt House for discussion earlier in the day. Sorry for the change in plans!

Why the 17th?

The opponents are planning marches and activities around March 21, but have nothing scheduled on the 17th. We want to be on our own again. This is especially important because the opponents are talking about civil disobedience, non-violence training, etc. As always, we want this rally to be non-confrontational. Also, we hope our rally will not be too much trouble for the plant security staff. We have their permission to hold the rally.

Howard Shaffer has the lead for planning. If you can let him know you are coming to the rally, that would be great.

Howard Shaffer PE

PO Box 299

Enfield, NH 03748

603-632-5139

603-304-9157 cell

hshaffer3@myfairpoint.net

This Rally is planned by the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society: this project is headed by Howard Shaffer. Also by the Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute: this project is headed by Meredith Angwin.

About the Previous Rallies

The first Rally was September 12, 2011 in Brattleboro, in front of the Courthouse building. The trial of the Entergy vs. the State of Vermont was in its first day. Opponents were also holding a vigil a the same time. The purpose of our rally was to provide visibility to the media and public, and prove that there are supporters for Vermont Yankee! (Note that current polls show about 44% Vermonters in favor of VY, 42 % opposed.)

You can view a photo album of the September rally at the Energy Education Project website

The second Rally was held on October 23, 2011 at the plant gate. It was held over shift change during the refueling outage. The purpose was to show support to the plant staff and contract outage crafts. The rally was very successful, and much appreciated by both plant staff and management. Media coverage was good. The photographs on this page are from this rally.

You can read a blog post about the October rally at ANS Nuclear Cafe.