Update: Not WARNing at V.C. Summer

June 9, 2017 photo of Summer construction
SCEG photo

Update:

SCEG withdrew its original petition to abandon the Summer Project, but this was only to facilitate government review of the petition.  After withdrawing the petition,  SCANA held a press conference and re-iterated its plans to abandonn the nuclear project.

Meanwhile, knowledgeable people have emailed me that the construction workers at Summer are probably not covered by WARN, but employees of Westinghouse and Fluor probably are covered.  I am not a lawyer, and I am merely repeating what they said.  It is probably true, however.

None of this is good news for the project or the workers.


The Stop-Work at Summer

At the V.C. Summer construction site in South Carolina, a stop-work order was issued by the plant owners. Within hours, thousands of people had to turn in their badges and leave. There is simply no way to sugar-coat this story.

Actually, there are at least two stories here: the first story is about why V.C. Summer was cancelled. That story has been widely discussed.  The second story is about how the  layoffs happened, and their legality (or not).  This story has not been covered very much. It will be covered here.

At the end of this post, I have an annotated list of resources  about the first topic, why Summer was cancelled.

The Human Cost

On Facebook, one friend wrote about how difficult the Summer closure was for his family.  I will not quote his statements here, but his post made me feel very sad for all the hard-working people at Summer.  I mean I was feeling bad already, but his post made me feel worse. The cancellation of Summer had a huge human cost. You can't lay off 5600 people without immense pain, and immense ripples in the community.

It is too mild to say that the layoffs themselves were not handled well.  In my opinion, the way the layoffs were handled was certainly immoral, and may have been illegal.  In this article, Fired nuclear construction workers crash State House, workers said they had "no warning from superiors before being let go about lunchtime Monday." In a video at WLTX, workers said "We met at our lunch location and they read these letters to us...."

It's impossible to get numbers, but most sources say 5000 people were affected by the equivalent of letters-read-at-the-lunch break.  In the video above, a worker says that he has never heard of so many people being laid off at one time.

My first reaction was that I thought that such a layoff was simply illegal.  A federal law, the WARN act, requires employers to give advance notice of large layoffs. Nolo.com has good article on the WARN act and South Carolina. (Nolo sells consumer-oriented legal books and software.)

WARN and the big boys

WARN covers employers who have at least 100 full-time-equivalent employees.  If 50 or more employees are laid off at one job site, WARN requires sixty days notice. (You can read the fine print at Nolo.com)

On Facebook, I said that I thought the short warning of this layoff was probably illegal. One person commented that I was making unwarranted assumptions.  In his opinion, a big employer would read the laws and obey them. Okay.  Basically, he was right about the biggest of the big boys on the job site: SCEG. According to this video and article from WISTV, SCEG notified the state of 615 layoffs at Summer (layoffs of their own employees), giving the requisite 60 days notice according to the WARN requirements.

However, they gave Westinghouse no such 60 days notice, because Westinghouse is a contractor, not an employee. Westinghouse immediately "furloughed" 870 employees, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  However, these employees have no reason to believe that they will be called back from  this "furlough."  According to Post-Gazette article, a field engineering manager at Westinghouse has sued Westinghouse for violating WARN. He is attempting to achieve class-action status with his lawsuit.

SCEG covered its own employees, but employees of large and small subcontractors seem to be subject to the largest sudden layoff that I have ever heard about.

WARN and the not-so-big-boys

Westinghouse, with hundreds of employees on this project, is one of the big boys. Nevertheless, it seems to have issued as quick a lay-off notice as might have been issued by any local supplier of portapotties. Westinghouse is now being sued.  I suspect that many of the other contractors may also be sued.

Chess Pawn, Wikipedia

Opening Gambit or Closing the Door?

Why did the layoff happen in this sudden way?  It saved some money for SCEG, until they get sued, of course. It devastated towns and businesses and gave locals a pretty grim idea of what their utilities think about their welfare. Looking at a project that is over budget by billions of dollars, I don't think saving two months worth of salaries was the entire motivation. Decades of bad feelings are likely to arise from the sudden layoffs, and two months payroll was saved? To me, it doesn't make sense.

That is just my opinion, of course, but there it is.  Sometimes, dramatic events are the opening moves in fierce negotiations.  "Now that I have  your attention...."

Sometimes, of course, dramatic statements are the closing moves: "Look, I mean it, and nothing you can do will change my mind." However, that sort of statement often comes after a long fruitless negotiation.  Not always, but usually.

Games people play

If this were a chess game, I would say: This is more likely to be an opening gambit than a closing statement.

But wait, V.C. Summer is not a chess game!  In a chess game, the pawns are little pieces of plastic or wood or ivory.

At V.C. Summer, the pawns are more than 5000 real live people.

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Addendum:  Why V.C. Summer was cancelled.

I recommend three excellent blog posts on the reasons for the project cancellation.

In 2016, Will Davis wrote at ANS Nuclear Cafe: Nuclear Plant Costs-- A Look Back and Ahead 
This post describes the cascading effects of various types of cost overruns, including changes to the specifications, delays, and incomplete planning.

On July 31, 2017, Dan Yurman at Neutron Bytes wrote Utilities Pull the Plug on AP1000s at V.C. Summer.  He looks at the cost overruns, but also notes that Santee Cooper refused to go along with a plan to complete just one of the reactors.

On August 1, 2017, Rod Adams wrote: Tragic day in South Carolina as 5,000 people lost their jobs at VC Summer. Rod's post concentrates on design changes, specifically the Aircraft Impact Assessment Change.  There are 120 comments on that post.  Many of these comments are from very knowledgeable people.

Fired or Laid-Off?

The Carnival
Almost every week, there's a nuclear blog "Carnival"--a compendium of important nuclear blog posts from the last week.  This week Rod Adams hosted Carnival 308 at Atomic Insights.

(I have hosted the Carnivals on many occasions. For example, Carnival 304 was at Yes Vermont Yankee.)

What "Laid-Off" actually means
My recent post on Cinco de Bye-O is one of the posts in Carnival 308. As customary, I sent Adams a link and a proposed  "blurb" about the blog. (The Carnival hosts can edit what they receive, but it is polite to send them something so they don't have to start from scratch, summarizing all the posts.)

Adams edited my description, and I think his edits and comments are worth sharing.  He changed the words "laid-off" to the word "fired."He didn't just do this in a vacuum. Here is his comment on the change.

Aside: I changed the submitted description of the article to use “fired” instead of laid off. Too many people have forgotten that “lay offs” was originally intended to describe a temporary condition in which employees were asked to stay home while waiting for work to return with the season or the end of a sales slump. The 100 people who left the premises of Vermont Yankee on May 5th have no prospect of returning. Their plant’s productive capacity has been destroyed. End Aside.

 I appreciate Rod Adams "Atomic Insights"  of all kinds.

Read the Carnival!
I encourage you to read the Carnival this week.  There are links to posts (and comments about the posts) on interim storage, decarbonizing Britain,  the environmental impacts of fracking, an e-book edition of the book Nuclear Firsts, innovative power plants, and more.  

I think that reading the Carnival is the fastest and most pleasant way to keep up with nuclear industry news.  Read it this week.

Cinco de Bye-O at Vermont Yankee

It's today

Well, today is the day.  About a hundred people will be laid off from Vermont Yankee, leaving a small staff of about 140 until such time as the fuel is moved into dry casks.  (See the Mike Faber article in Vermont Digger for a history of the layoffs.) This will take place several years from now, around 2020, I believe.  I think the fuel moving will be done by contractors, some of whom may be former Vermont Yankee employees.  For now, however, the plant will be close to its shut-down goal of Cold and Dark.

A Fine Little Plant

My Facebook feed includes many Vermont Yankee employees. Oddly, I see more happiness than sorrow in the posts on FB.  I realize that FB can be misleading, but still.  I see pride in the excellent little plant. I see gratitude for the good work and the good companions. I see Cinco de Bye-O parties.   I see humor. A bit of gallows humor, but still humor.  The comment: "Tomorrow is the last day my husband will be getting up at 5:30 to go to the plant" is followed by: "Hey, maybe I'll go in late. What are they gonna do? Get rid of me?"

As I said, I know Facebook can be misleading. Still, I think the mood is basically far more upbeat than depressed. There is so much pride in the plant, and in work well done, and so much love for the co-workers. It's amazing to me.  The mood is so different from the mood two years ago, when the "lists were up." The "lists" defined who would have one more year at Vermont Yankee, and who would have two years.  I called the post about that day: Paint It Black.  The day the "lists were up" was not covered in any local paper.  They weren't interested in the pain of the Vermont Yankee workers.

In contrast, no doubt, there will be stories and op-eds galore about today. I'm not looking forward to some of the op-eds that will be published, though I think I could write some of them myself. I suspect Governor Shumlin (he who recently tried to destroy emails that may show some serious issues) will make a statement. Once again, Shumlin will look forward to the bright renewable future that is just around the corner for Vermont.  As he has looked forward to it, so many times in the past.

(Enough about our current governor.  With any luck, Vermont will get a special prosecutor about those emails.  What goes around may yet come around. )

You Done Good

Governor Salmon making a statement in favor of VY
PSB hearing, November 2012

Many VY people will be laid off today.  But, as we saw in the video posted yesterday, many VY people are leaving Vermont. So why despair?  There are other places, and other jobs, far away from here.

Many don't have such jobs.  Some are being moved into retirement, whether they like it or not.  Still, overall the mood is good.

Why is the mood good?  It's because Vermont Yankee was a great plant, with great people.  People who worked there had reason to be proud of their work!  That makes a difference, even when the work ends.

As Governor Salmon wrote in December 2014: Governor Salmon praises 42 year of Vermont Yankee.  As George Clain, Past President of IBEW at Vermont Yankee wrote: Vermont Yankee Union President: You Done Good.  December 2014 is when Vermont Yankee went offline forever.

And I say:

Vermont Yankee, you done good for Vermont.  Thank you.  

You finished strong. 

May everyone in the Vermont Yankee family go from strength to strength in their lives.  

You finished strong and you will be strong.  

I hope your futures will be filled with happiness. 

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.

Timeline, Layoffs and an Insult

Fuel Removed and NRC Notified 

On January 12, Vermont Yankee sent a letter to the NRC: it stated that all fuel has been removed from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pool.  It further stated that the reactor is no longer producing power. The letter was reported by WCAX.

There's a time-line to decommissioning here, and the letter is part of it.  First, Vermont Yankee filed its PSDAR (Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report) with the NRC on December 23, 2014. (They had told the state of Vermont that they would file by the end of the year.  The plant went off-line forever on December 29, 2014.)  There is a 67 day comment period, during which people can comment on this document: the comment period ends on March 23, 2015.  As I understand it, either on March 23 or sometime thereafter when the NRC accepts the PSDAR, Vermont Yankee will be officially in the status of "decommissioning" rather than holding an operation license.  At that point, Entergy will be able to access the decommissioning funds for decommissioning activities.

Layoffs Coming Next Week 

Fuel Pool at Areva

Meanwhile, next week, many people will be laid off at VY. How many people?  I have seen conflicting numbers in the newspapers, and so I called Martin Cohn at Entergy this morning for an update. (For the most recent complete newspaper article, I recommend Susan Smallheer's article in the Times Argus.)

When I talked to Cohn, he explained that some numbers have not changed: There are 550 people working at the plant right now, and after the layoffs, 316 people will be working there. Those numbers have been announced for a long time.  In other words, 234 people will not have jobs at the plant next week.   However, as Cohn said, other numbers are more of a moving target.  Cohn said that as of ten o'clock this morning: 40 people are retiring and  80 people are transferring to other Entergy plants. Of the remaining 114 people, only 8 people remain jobless, as of his knowledge.

Soft Landings Aren't All Soft

Virginia Magnolia
They don't grow in Vermont

I am happy that so many people are having a fairly soft landing. Still, even soft landings can be hard.  Many Vermont Yankee people are leaving the area, including leaving their friends, their kids' schools, their churches, their doctors, their favorite restaurants, their church choirs, or their poker buddies.

My husband's family moved cross-country when he was eleven, because his father lost his job.  My husband still remembers, quite vividly, the sadness and dislocation, even though the new place was (of course) interesting and new.  The new place was also difficult and odd and painful.  His mother was especially hurt by the move: she had a very active engagement with her local church, and a basement with shelves full of home-canned fruits and vegetables. These fruits and vegetables could not make the move, and they represented something.

My husband was also hurt: the three boys that were his cousins and best friends lived fairly close by until they moved.   As a matter of fact, while my husband's father was fighting WWII and my husband was a pre-schooler, my husband lived with these boys and their parents. When George was eleven years old and his father moved, these cousins disappeared from his young life, for years.  Catching up with these cousins later wasn't exactly the same. (Though now, they all are great friends and visit every year or two.)

I have basically been so sad about Vermont Yankee layoffs that I have found it difficult to blog.

So, I will switch gears from sadness to anger.  That might help.  Alas, my anger is not about the plant itself right now.  It's more personal.
----------

New Insults to Bloggers, Including Me

Now, I realize this may seem a rather self-centered section of the post.  Skip it if you want.  There are bigger issues, and I discuss them above.

This section is about an insulting blog post from an anti-nuclear group.  Yes, insulting anti-nuclear posts are a dime a dozen.  So why am I writing about this one?  Here's the story.

 On New Year's Eve I wrote a  blog post, For the Happiness In My Life.  In this post, I looked at the good things in my life as a way of dealing with the sadness of Vermont Yankee closing. My post started out with the statement: "To say I have been miserable about Vermont Yankee going off-line is putting it mildly."

A rather nasty anti-nuclear group put up a post on their blog called Nuclear Industry Goes Hysterically Ballistic About Vermont Yankee Shutdown.  No, I'm not going to link to it...you can probably find it on-line if you care to read it.  In that post, the author quoted a bunch of us pro-nuclear bloggers, including me, as examples of "hysterically ballistic."  For me, he quoted the paragraph  starting: "To say I have been miserable about Vermont Yankee..."

Well, that was a good example of "hysterically ballistic," wasn't it? (Sarcasm alert.) And yes, some of us bloggers answered and some of the answers got published and other bloggers got banned from his blog and it was all a tremendous waste of time and energy.

At any rate, when he quoted the pro-nuclear bloggers, he named the bloggers.  Except for two.  One he didn't name was "NEI blog" which kind of makes sense, though the authors generally sign their posts.  They have a lot of authors.  The other blogger he didn't name was me.  I was "a blogger at Yes Vermont Yankee." He named the male bloggers, to put it bluntly.

Was this guy dumb and couldn't figure out who wrote that post?  Or is he the kind of person who doesn't notice that women have names? I don't know.  At any rate, I have added my picture and name to my blog now.  I probably should have done this ages ago. Now everyone can see the person who writes most of the posts. Therefore, I suppose that some good came out of the situation.

And yes, I deliberately did not use his name in this blog. This was not an oversight on my part.  It was deliberate.

Rally for Vermont Yankee, 2011

Meeting about Decomm and Important Posts about Closing Vermont Yankee

Marlboro College
Graduate School Building
graphic from Wikipedia

The Meeting and the Comments

Yesterday, I posted about ways to comment about Vermont Yankee's decommissioning plans. The comment period is only open until Tuesday.

Tonight, there is a meeting in Brattleboro of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen Advisory Panel (NDCAP).  The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Marlboro College on Vernon Street.  Here's a link to the agenda. Regrettably, I still have a rather bad cold, and I will not be attending.

Did I say "regrettably"? Hmm....I try to be more honest than that!  These meetings can be very hard to attend because the nuclear opponents tend to dominate the conversation.  However, I have heard that this NDCAP meetings have been far more civilized than the earlier VSNAP meetings.  I encourage people to attend and support Vermont Yankee's continued operation and careful closing.

The 165 Layoffs and the Pain

As Vermont Digger posted yesterday, Entergy has announced that 165 Vermont Yankee workers will be laid off on January 19. According to an Entergy press release, 69 of these workers live in Vermont, 48 live in New Hampshire and 39 live in Massachusetts.  (I linked to the Digger article rather than the press release because you can comment on the Digger article.)

Evan Twarog at the left
Speaking at Rotary Day  at the U N

Today, I have a guest blog post at NEI Nuclear Notes about the spreading pain of Vermont Yankee closing. I attempt to cover layoffs, taxes, the grid, and my opinion that the Entergy payments for Windham County development won't help Vermont Yankee employees that much. I hope you read it and comment on it.  Pain from Vermont Yankee Closing Spreads Far and Wide.

Evan Twarog about the pain on the grid

Evan Twarog, the son of a Vermont Yankee employee, is now a blogger at Atomic Insights.  Today he has a very well-researched and thoughtful post about the price rises on the grid.  Power in New England: Why are Prices Increasing So Rapidly?  As usual, at Atomic Insights, the comment stream is also worth reading.

Those of you who follow this blog may remember that Twarog has been a frequent guest blogger, and was a summer intern at the Ethan Allen Institute Energy Education Project, two summers ago.

NEI Report on Vermont Yankee

This week, the Nuclear Energy Institute has written an excellent multi-faceted report on Vermont Yankee.  My blog post (linked above) was the final step in this report.  I encourage you to read the entire report, bookmark it, and use it!

Blog posts:

Closing Vermont Yankee, and All That It Means (overview and market problems)
Vermont Yankee and the Looming Energy Crisis (the energy market shortfalls)
Vermont Yankee and All That It Does Not Produce (effect of closing on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative)
Pain From Vermont Yankee Closing Spreads Far and Wide  (my post, referenced above)

The report itself (Permanent at the NEI site, not blog posts):

Closing Vermont Yankee (overview and links to other pages, including great links about the energy markets, nationwide)
Nuclear Plant Shutdowns Reveal Market Problems
New England's Looming Energy Crisis
Vermont Yankee Closing Will Challenge Region's Emission Goals

Living Well after Vermont Yankee

ANS Nuclear Cafe on Living Well After Vermont Yankee

This morning I have a post about people who work at Vermont Yankee at ANS Nuclear Cafe.

 What are the next step for them?  I discuss older workers, younger workers, nuclear-specific workers and people with generalized skills.  The post is optimistic (without being saccharine).  I specifically mention the everyday pain nuclear opponents inflicted on Vermont Yankee workers.  The situation of Vermont Yankee workers is not covered in any of the mass media.

I hope you will read my post and comment on it.

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2014/03/06/moving-forward-and-living-well/

Say it with music

Two songs that express my feelings.

Farewell to the Monty describes the pain of a coal mine closing. My father-in-law was a coal miner. (He had left the mines and gotten other jobs before I met him.)  Farewell to the Monty is from an album of industrial folk music The Iron Muse.




The second song is very close to my heart.  LeChaim, from Fiddler on the Roof.  

Life has a way of confusing us, blessing and bruising us: Drink LeChaim, to Life! 


 


Enjoy the music.  I hope you read the post, Moving Forward and Living Well, at ANS Nuclear Cafe.  I hope you comment on it.

Paint It Black

A horrible day

Today was a horrible day at Vermont Yankee.

A year from now, the plant will be closed.  Most people who work at the plant will be able to work there for only one more year.  However, some people will (probably) be involved in doing the decommissioning assessment, and they have two years of work ahead of them.

Today, Entergy announced who will have a year, and who will have two years. The people at the plant referred to this as "the list was out."

 I wasn't at the plant of course, but from what I read (mostly on Facebook) this was the worst day ever at the plant.  Gratitude if you were one of the "lucky ones" was offset by misery at the fact that so many of your friends were "unlucky."

What can I say?  I wanted the plant to keep operating. People work together for years to do something good, and in an afternoon, most of the good feelings were destroyed.

Grief.  A horrible day.

A friend screams

I need to tell a story about a layoff.  I was working at a software company, and there was a massive layoff.  I survived it, and thought I was so very lucky.  I guess I was.  A woman I knew --- she screamed when our boss told her.  I heard her.  Everybody heard her. It was horrible, hearing that scream.

Well. The thing about being laid off is that the person generally gets another job.  But where do they get a job? Obviously, they get a job at a company that is hiring.  A company that is growing.  A company that is doing well.

And that is what happened. She got a job within a few months and rose very quickly at that new company. Meanwhile, lucky me, the not-laid-off-person, well...I stayed at the same company and merely hoped to survive the next layoff.

I also thought...man, if I am the next person laid off, I am definitely looking my friend up!  She's doing so well! She might be able to help me!

Who is lucky and who isn't?  It isn't clear.  In general, one year or two years from now, there will be no comparable jobs in Windham County.  One or two years from now, people will be deciding to stay or to leave.  I personally think that the people who leave will get good jobs...at companies that are hiring.

This is a miserable situation and I don't mean to be a Pollyanna. People are being torn right out of their community of work and friendship.

Still, people will go on and have good lives.  This event is a lot closer to a divorce than a death.

Paint It Black

Grief doesn't know, though. Grief feels like grief even if it is "just a divorce."

To me, this very dark song has always been somewhat comforting.  So I share it.  I mean well by sharing it.  I know it won't be everyone's cuppa.

Yankee Rowe and the Soul of a Nuclear Worker

An Invitation

About two weeks ago, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion. This panel is happening tonight in Brattleboro. The Commons of Brattleboro is sponsoring the panel, which is titled:

The path toward a post-nuclear economy.  Life After Vermont Yankee: What's next?

I was unable to be  on the panel, because I had a conflict tonight.  I write more about the panel, near the end of this post.

A Panel Member: Dr. John R. Mullin

Of course, I was curious about the panel, though I couldn't attend.  I studied the short descriptions of the panel members. (Double-click on the announcement to do the same.)

One name on the panel was new to me: John R. Mullin.   He is a professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has an impressive Curriculum Vitae. On the panel description, he was listed as: a co-author of the 1997 paper “The Closing of the Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant: The Impact on a New England Community.”  With a short search, I easily found both his paper  and a recent interview with him on Radio Boston: Lessons From the Closing of Mass. Nuclear Plant.

Economics and Property Values

I agreed with many of the statements that Mullin made on the radio program. He acknowledged that closing the plant has a  huge economic impact, and similar jobs do not exist in the areas near the plant.  On the other hand, he claims that property values fall because people are living "in the shadow of a (decommissioned) nuke."

Hmm...everybody was living in the "shadow of" a working nuke before!  It is clear to me, despite my lack of a Ph.D. in urban planning, that when a plant is decommissioned, property values fall because high-paying jobs go away. Property values don't fall because the dry casks are still at the site.  If the casks were at the site but the plant was operating and lots of workers were on-site...property values wouldn't fall.  Well, that is my opinion anyway.  In Mullin's opinion, the big question is: "Would you want to be living within the shadow of a nuke?" (From the Boston Radio interview.)

The Soul of the Nuclear Workers

Near the end of the 1997 paper on the Closing of Yankee Rowe is a section called Future Prospects for Dismissed Employees.  This section notes that  "There are simply no jobs in Rowe that match their skills, nor any local plants where pride of work is so high." Employees that remain in the town can expect jobs with less pay and less status.  That is all true, and it is sad.

However, some of section seems to reflect some schadenfreude on the part of the authors of the paper. It seems to have a little sneaking joy in other people's misfortunes.  Here's the quote that annoys me:

What is especially different at Rowe, however, is the degree of alienation likely for those who stay. Rowe and its neighboring communities were dominated by YAEC, and most employees seemed to think the plant would last forever. From this lofty situation to "just a job" is a real comedown. The decline in status will be particularly difficult because for years the Yankee employees often were regarded with some jealousy.

"Just a job," huh?  Working at a nuclear power plant is "just a job" and the workers just recently found that out?   When I read about the "real comedown" for the workers, it seemed to me to be mean-spirited.  But worse; it  missed the point!

The Motivations of the Soul

Firefighters from Wikipedia

This quote shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the motivations of certain types of workers: nuclear workers, utility workers, fire-fighters, police, doctors, nurses, paramedics.  From my own knowledge of such workers,  they don't see it as "just a job."  These types of jobs all have requirements above and beyond the nine-to-five jobs in offices and factories.  This work keeps the lights on (day and night), keeps people safe (day and night), saves lives (day and night).

In most places, work of this type is accorded high status because people acknowledge the necessity of this work to keep the community safe.  People also acknowledge the sacrifice that such work can demand. (Hail to those who carry pagers!)

Of course, these jobs are also a way to earn a living.  Everybody has to earn a living.  But many people who hold these jobs think of them as a calling. For example, my husband's family includes three generations  of fire-fighters.

Man's Search for Meaning.  Working in a nuclear plant is a "job" with the gift of meaning.

Vermont Yankee Workers by Cheryl Twarog

Let's end on a high note here, with a more upbeat quote! Cheryl Twarog, wife of a long-time Vermont Yankee employee, wrote this letter to the editor, which is appearing in several local newspapers: Vermont Yankee Workers are Great.  Quotes from her letter are below:

Thank you for being the greatest group of people John has ever worked with.....

Thank you for remembering what is important, even at a time like this, when so many are jubilantly celebrating the impending job losses...You continue to go to work each day with the safe operation of the plant as your top priority, shutting out the ignorance of others. You are a highly skilled, dedicated and caring group of people, and you deserve all of the good that can come your way.Wishing each one of you the best.

-------

More about the Panel

When the panel organizers  asked me to be on the panel, my first question was: "Can you hold it a night OTHER than Wednesday night?"  Well, they couldn't. I have a conflict tonight and cannot attend.  It is important to me to share that I was asked, however. When I put the panel announcement on the Save Vermont Yankee Facebook page, there were comments to the effect that most of the people on the panel had never supported continued operation of the plant.  So I need to state for the record that I am not on the panel because I had a conflict today, not because they didn't want me.

Here's the announcement of the panel in The Commons. The event is coordinated by journalist and Commons contributor Leah McGrath Goodman and her associate, Morgan Milazzo.  I am grateful for the invitation.

Alas, I know that Guy Page of VTEP (a frequent guest blogger on this blog) also had a conflict.  I know this because he emailed me and the organizers, and the organizers immediately asked me if I could try to manage to attend. I couldn't.  I am disappointed that Guy won't be on the panel, but since I can't be there, there is nothing I can do about it.   

Thirty Jobs by Year-End. Vermont Yankee Job Elimination

Thirty Jobs to Be Eliminated at Vermont Yankee

On July 20, I wrote a post Layoffs Possible at Vermont Yankee.  At that time, the best estimations I could get were that 65 jobs would be eliminated at Vermont Yankee.

July 30 was the official announcement. As Susan Smallheer at the Times Argus reported: "Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will lose 30 of its 650 employees by the end of the year."  It wasn't just chance that the announcement was July 30: that was also the day that Entergy announced its second quarter earnings and had its earnings call.

Jobs Before the End of the Year

Judging from various reports, Entergy announced an initiative called "Human Capital Management" some time ago. They acknowledged that this initiative would lead to workforce reductions. (Snark alert: "Human Capital Management."  Don't you just love these corporate euphemisms?  End snark.) However, until July 30, Entergy did not announce how many jobs would be eliminated.

During the earnings call,  Entergy CEO Leo Denault announced that 800 jobs would be eliminated, company-wide.  After the call, Terry Young, an Entergy Vice President, spoke about the merchant plants, and was quoted by Smallheer:

Indian Point

Young said it would mean the loss of about 30 jobs at Vermont Yankee, and similar losses at Pilgrim Nuclear in Massachusetts — in both cases a 4 percent reduction in the workforce. The FitzPatrick plant in Oswego, N.Y., will lose 35 positions, or about 5 percent.
At the Indian Point nuclear plant outside New York City, which is a two-reactor site, job losses will affect 75 people, a 7 percent cut in the workforce. 

Whose Jobs?

The number of jobs to be eliminated is known at this point: 30 jobs. However, whose job will be eliminated is not yet known.  The Vermont Yankee organization has been redesigned. New organization charts are being distributed.  Current employees will apply for a new position that is a new slot in the organization.

In Terri Hallenbeck's article in the Burlington Free Press:

Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon, said he’s spoken with people who work at the plant who were relieved the announced layoffs weren’t higher. “Many of these cuts are going to be attrition,” he said. “I know a lot of folks who are slated to retire. They just won’t be replaced.”

Some people at the plant may be laid off by the end of the year, but attrition and retirement will also eliminate some jobs.  In other words, somewhere between zero and thirty people will actually lose their jobs at the plant by the end of the year. Six hundred and fifty people work at Vermont Yankee.

The Plant Will Stay Safe

Plant opponents have had a field day claiming the plant safety will be compromised by this layoff.   However, the plant will continue to be safe, for three main reasons:

1. It's a relatively small cut in staffing. By the time retirement and attrition are considered, I suspect that only about 2% of the workforce will actually be cut.  Pretty much any big business can handle this level of reduction.
2. Entergy is committed to safe operation.  Entergy VP Terry Young was quoted in an article by Andrew Stein at Vermont Digger  "We will pay special attention to ensure the changes we are making do not impact the hands-on, core functions of daily operations of plants, so that there’s no impact on safety and reliability."
3. The NRC is committed to safe operation. The NRC has seen reorganizations before and knows how to ensure safety during the process. Quoting the Vermont Digger article:  “There have been reorganizations in the past at other U.S. nuclear power plants,” (NRC Spokesman) Sheehan said. “As in those cases, the NRC (continues to use)... our Reactor Oversight Process. …"  The NRC also accepts allegations from any member of the plant staff who has a safety concern.  In other words, the NRC has seen reorganizations before, done this before, and the plants continue to operate safely.

My Conclusion

Job elimination is a painful and miserable process.  I had a hard time writing about it because it is difficult to keep an appropriate tone.

Rebecca

What is the right tone, after all?  I feel a mixture of sadness that this is happening at all, and relief that only a few people will be laid off at the plant. (IBM recently laid off more than 400 people in Vermont.) However, the people who are laid off may be badly affected, because there just aren't that many jobs in Windham County.  It may be hard for people to get another job without moving away. The last thing I want to do is appear as a Pollyanna about this announcement. 

Still, I think that Entergy is committed to continued operation of the plant. Furthermore, the vast majority of people working at the plant (96%) will continue to have jobs. Vermont Yankee has the lowest percentage job reductions of any of Entergy's merchant plants.  And  Vermont Yankee will continue to operate safely.  

I hope I can make these somewhat upbeat statements without being a Pollyanna. 

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(I couldn't find a picture of Pollyanna, so I used Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm instead.)