Meeting Success Story in Chattanooga

The meeting

The NRC meeting about MOX fuel was a success story for nuclear advocates "showing up."  Many ANS members (including students) came to the meeting, wearing colorful ANS shirts.  Many students and ANS members testified. No anti-nuclear zombies showed up. Maybe the zombies knew there would be pro-nuclear people at the meeting.

The press coverage noted the pro-nuclear presence, though it was still slanted anti-nuclear, in my opinion.  But pro-nuclear people were there, and the press had to cover their statements.  Here's the Times Free Press article on the meeting.

Visibility

Great shirts for visibility!

Plus, Suzy Hobbs Baker supervised the making of some great signs.  One anti-nuclear speaker called the students "cheerleaders" and requested "solutions" instead.  Actually, of course, the students are the future, and the future solutions.

Living in the Past with the Electrician

But you can't expect your average anti-nuclear person to understand that the students are the future.  They are still talking about the electrician who used a candle at Brown's Ferry 37 years ago.

Ah well. They need something to talk about. The fact that MOX fuel has been used all over the world for 30 years is NOT what they want to talk about.  So...back to that electrician!

Showing Up.

It works. 

It has never been more important.



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Laura Scheele of ANS (ANS Nuclear Cafe blog) Steve Skutnik of University of Tennessee (Neutron Economy blog) , and Suzy Hobbs Baker (Popatomic Studios) did an immense amount of work to make this meeting a success for the nuclear side.  We owe them all a big thank-you!

Links to other blogs about this meeting can be found at my previous post  MOX and hearings in Chattanooga.

Rally for Nuclear Power and Vermont Yankee

The Rally in front of the courthouse yesterday was a lot of fun! Here's the press release that announced it.

It was fun because there were so many of us, and we were so visible, and we supported each other.

We had about twenty-five people there: there were twenty on the sign-up list, and they all came and some brought friends. The Rally started at 7:30, and we had more people out there than the opponents did, by far. At 7:30. By 9, when court opened and we left, they had more people, but we were still a very major presence.

Note the T-shirts. Note the truck, driven down by one of the men from the plant, representing IBEW. Great platform for us. Note some of the opponents standing in front of the truck. (They didn't make much headway where we were standing, and tended to go away after a while. They were in full force across the street.) Yeah, there is a picture with me in it, and a picture of Robbie Leppzer, the documentary maker, taking pix of us. Also, the blue banners are Vermont flags. The opponents carried them to show that they "support Vermont" in the lawsuit. Since we support Vermont, too, (though not in this lawsuit), I have wondered if we should have also "wrapped ourselves in the flag", as it were. Well, lessons for next time!

Our Handouts

We had a neat tri-fold brochure and a set of FAQs about Vermont Yankee. They are posted at the Energy Education Project website of the Ethan Allen Institute. George Angwin and Richard Schmidt were the main authors.

The Trial

For updates on the trial, I recommend the Vermont Law School blog. They are live-blogging the trial.

End note: I apologize for the formatting. I have never added this many pix to a blog post, and I am running out of time to make the formatting better.

Montpelier and more

Tomorrow, the anti-Vermont Yankee walkers are holding a press conference in Montpelier at 12:30 at the State House. I blogged about this a few days ago, including a link to parking areas in the city. I will be there.

My original sign will not be there, alas. I called the Vermont Sergeant At Arms, and big signs are not allowed within the State House. Signs have to be "no wider than you are and only 12 inches tall."

I go to potlucks, and I obey rules about signs (true dedication). I made a new little sign that meets these criteria. It says Yes Vermont Yankee, of course.

If you aren't going to Montpelier, you might enjoy reading two excellent blog posts that illuminate some of the topics I have covered recently.

One about tritium and bananas. The drinking water limit for tritium protects you against the radiation you would get if you ate a banana. The second half of the post is about tritium.

The other about steam dryers. Excellent explanations about yet another way the anti-s mislead people.

Just think. You will be all warm and toasty, reading interesting blogs, while I brave Montpelier ( low of zero, high of 22 degrees, cloudy and probably windy). I'd love to see you there, but frankly, it also sounds like a good day to stay home.