76th Carnival of Nuclear Energy at Next Big Future and the Green Bag Luncheon about Activism

The 76th Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up at Next Big Future. Brian Wang has put together a great carnival. With movies! Will Davis at Atomic Power Review has posted an enlightening set of Japanese videos on Fukushima, and Brian put several of the videos directly on the Carnival.

Another fascinating post: Rod Adams reviewed the PBS special on Chernobyl, Radioactive Wolves. His review was insightful, thoughtful and controversial. The post has over 150 comments as people argue the validity of the Linear No Threshold theory. The comments are well-thought out and occasionally acrimonious. Fun and informative.

The ANS Convention

I am at ANS Winter Meeting in Washington D.C. Many important people are here (for example, NRC Chairman Jaczko). For me, the most important people here are people I have met on-line that I am finally meeting in person. Margaret Harding. Dan Yurman. Laura Scheele. Ulli Dechter, Steve Skutnik, Jim Hopf, David Mohre, Paul Bowersox. Also, it is wonderful to see people whom I have met before but see very rarely: Fritz Schneider, Jackie Clark, Rod Adams, Gwyneth Cravens. It is a wonderful experience for me.

Howard Shaffer and I gave a luncheon talk, the Green Bag luncheon. Dan Yurman has two posts at ANS Nuclear Cafe that mention or describe our talk.

Hall Talk Monday: What Does the News Media Want From Nukes and What Works in Vermont

Hall Talk November 1: Vermont, Do You Know Where Your Electricity Comes From?

Interesting comments from people who don't live in Vermont, on the Vermont situation.

I hope to blog more about this convention in the future.

Comments on the Vermont Energy Plan. Comments due by November 4.

The comment period for the Vermont Energy Plan has been extended until November 4. I will be at the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting for the next few days, and I won't be posting very much. So...here's some help for commenting!

The Vermont Comprehensive Energy Plan

You can continue to comment on the Vermont Comprehensive Energy Plan through November 4. Unfortunately, the plant is so long (600 pages), so internally inconsistent, and so lacking in numbers (costs, for example) that commenting is difficult. However, in another way, it's easier. For example, you could just say it doesn't work as a plan, and it doesn't work for Vermont. The plan can be vague and you can be vague!

Okay. Being vague is a bad idea. Here are some blogs and articles that can help you define your comments.

Here's the plan.

http://www.vtenergyplan.vermont.gov/

You can use the following email address to comment.

PSD.energyplan2011comments@state.vt.us

I explore some of the problems, including the gas pipeline.

Geoffrey Norman asks: what's the rush?

http://www.vermonttiger.com/content/2011/10/death-to-moby-yank.html

John McClaughry details twenty points: what is wrong with the plan http://www.energyeai.org/eai_energy_plan_comments.pdf

McClaughry backs up his twenty points with references to more complete articles

http://www.energyeai.org/eai_energy_plan_appendix.pdf

Milton Eaton notices the lack of cost information.

http://www.vermonttiger.com/content/2011/10/energy-planeaton.html

Art Woolf: Mercantilism won't work.

http://www.vermonttiger.com/content/2011/10/energy-planning-i.html

I explain that depending on biomass for baseload would be a bad thing. As well as impossible.

http://truenorthreports.com/biomass-in-the-vermont-comprehensive-energy-plan

The Rally: Links to Descriptions

The rally in support of Vermont Yankee went very well.

Here are some links to descriptions of it:

My post at ANS Nuclear Cafe.

The Rally for Vermont Yankee: At the Plant Gates During the Refueling Outage

Brattleboro Reformer article:

People Gather to Show Support for Nuclear Plant Employees

Commons article (Brattleboro paper) also reprinted in Vermont Digger:

Pro-Vermont Yankee Rally Shows Support for Plant Workers

Picture gallery at Vermont Yankee Facebook Page

Susan Smallheer had an excellent article in the Rutland Herald: Vermont Yankee Supporters Hold Rally. However, it is behind a paywall.

A Song for the Outage: These Plants Are Your Plants

These Plants Are Your Plants

Finally, a sing-along! Gail H. Marcus, former president of the American Nuclear Society (among other achievements and honors) wrote These Plants Are Your Plants. She posted the lyrics on her blog, Nuke Power Talk. She has written other songs, too, like Neutron Doodle.

Marcus was inspired to write nuclear songs by the way the depression-era hydro projects were encouraged by songs. The best song was Roll on Columbia by Woody Guthrie: "Your power is turning our darkness to dawn."

These Plants are Your Plants

(sung to the tune of "This Land is Your Land," by Woodie Guthrie)

Lyrics by Gail H. Marcus

Copyright Gail. H. Marcus

These plants are your plants

These plants are my plants

From their cooling towers

To their nuclear islands

From the U.S. Heartland

To its coastal waters

These plants were made for you and me.

As I was walking

That ribbon of highway

I saw before me

A smogless skyway

And sparkling waters

Were flowing my way

These plants are good for you and me.

The children were laughing

And people were singing

At all the wonders

The power was bringing

The lights were shining

And the bells were ringing

These atoms split for you and me.

And at the plant sites

The workers labored

To use the atom

To help their neighbors

With clean safe power

To fuel all nations

These plants bring joy to you and me.

These plants are your plants

These plants are my plants

From their cooling towers

To their nuclear islands

From Europe's vineyard

To Asia's water

These plants were made for you and me.

--------------
The Original

Warning: The verses about the hydro projects and the river locks (for navigation) are terrific. However, some of the Guthrie lyrics are very distasteful. The "wild Indian warriors"? Ouch. We forget how prejudice was part of standard speech, back in the Good Old Days.

Nuclear Bloggers Carnival and the Rally at Vermont Yankee

The 75th Nuclear Bloggers Carnival is up at Atomic Power Review. Will Davis starts the Carnival with a picture from the nuclear past: what is this? I kinda guessed, but, close is no cigar...

Many of the posts are about nuclear communication, including Suzy Hobbs on a Facebook debate with celebrity Christie Brinkley. Yes, Ms. Brinkley considers herself an expert on the dangers of nuclear energy. Brian Wang wonders how wrong Armory Lovins can be, over the years, and still be considered an expert. (The jury is still out on that one). ANS Nuclear Cafe features stories of mothers in the nuclear industry. Steve Skutnik of the Neutron Economy acknowledges the fear that civilian nuclear development is a cover for more warlike intentions, but that is not how things really happen.

This is a very enjoyable Carnival!

Rally to Support Vermont Yankee, Just Outside the Plant Gates

I have spent the past two days assisting Howard Shaffer in planning the Rally at the Plant. Fifty people came to show their support for Vermont Yankee. We came at shift change. As cars went by, we held signs, waved, and encouraged the people who are working the refueling outage. They get a lot of negative feedback, what with the anti-nuclear puppet shows and all. We wanted to be sure to give them some positive feedback. After all, they supply our power!

I will blog about this more in future days. but for now, I will just link to the Brattleboro Reformer article about the rally, and include one picture I swiped (with permission) from the Vermont Yankee Facebook album. The man sitting on the chair is 92 years old, and came out to support the plant. The rally included children, workers, tavern-owners, and retirees. It was a great family occasion!

More later.

Rallies and Protests at the Vermont Yankee Plant

Tomorrow: A Rally For the Plant, At the Plant

Vermont Yankee is holding a refueling outage. They are moving ahead to keep that clean electricity flowing, despite the uncertainties of the court case. Many of us appreciate that, and we are holding a rally at the plant gates tomorrow afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., shift change. We want the people at the plant: regular employees, contract workers, and managers who made the decision to load fuel...to see we support them! More details in the previous post, which includes email addresses and phone numbers to reach the organizers: Howard Shaffer and me.

Retrospectives on the Morning Street Rally and the Evening Plant Rally of September 12

On the morning of September 12, the Entergy versus Shumlin/State of Vermont lawsuit began in at the Courthouse in Brattleboro. Early that morning, the Safe and Green Campaign held a vigil in front of the Court House, and several pro-nuclear groups held a rally. The pro-nuclear groups included the Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute, and the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society. I am director of the Energy Education Project, and I blogged extensively about our rally.

The Evening Puppet Show and Protest

The morning vigil and the rally were not the only activity on September 12, however. In the evening, at 6 p.m, the Clamshell Alliance held a protest at the gates of the plant in Vernon Vermont, a few miles from Brattleboro. The protest featured a Puppet parade, radical marching band, street theater and direct action.

At first, I read nothing about that protest in the press. On the evening of September 12, all the reporters who cover Vermont Yankee were busily filing their first-day-of-the-Federal-trial stories, not racing to the plant to see yet-another-opponent-demonstration.

The Aftermath

The evening protest did eventually get covered in the press. Obliquely.

During the September 12 protest at the plant, people parked across the street from the plant at the Vernon Elementary School. As the Brattleboro Reformer wrote on September 28: The Vernon School Board is weighing a new ordinance to prevent non-school related parking on the property after receiving several complaints following a recent protest against the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Board members said Monday night that protesters, gathered at the plant’s gate just across the street from the school, were using the parking lot for unauthorized purposes.

On October 5, the protesters showed up in the press again. Susan Smallheer at the Rutland Herald (behind a paywall) wrote that (A) group of protesters, who were arrested for the first time at Vermont Yankee’s gates on Sept. 12, are due in court later this month. A call to the Vernon Police department revealed that the arrests were for trespassing on Vermont Yankee property.

Apparently, puppet shows and direct action lead to problems in the parking lot and arraignment in court. In my opinion, the parking ban will pose a bigger difficulty for the plant opponents than the trespassing charges.

Looking Forward

The Clamshell Alliance is going to be holding a rally at the plant on October 30. Here are notes from one of their recent planning meetings.

One of the points made at the Clamshell Alliance planning meeting: State of VT is an ally; don’t alienate with arrests

Oops.

Rally This Sunday in Support of Vermont Yankee

Rally in Support of Nuclear Power

Supporters of Vermont Yankee to hold rally Sunday, Oct. 23 outside the plant gates

On Sunday, October 23, from 4:30 – 6:30 pm outside the front gate at Vermont Yankee, there will be a rally of support for the plant staff and the outage team.

“We need to show them that they are appreciated,” said co-organizer Meredith Angwin, director of the Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute. “We will show our support for nuclear energy!”

“Why are we doing this now? Partially because of the outage: we want to support the plant and the workers. Also, the following weekend, an opponent group is holding a shut-it-down rally at the plant,” Angwin said. “We discussed holding our rally the same day to provide balance, but decided that was a bad idea. Multiple rallies held near the plant gates can raise security issues. So we are holding our rally this weekend.”

"The people working the outage will appreciate our support," said co-organizer Howard Shaffer, coordinator of the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society. "We are grateful to Entergy for giving us permission to be at the Governor Hunt House for the rally."

Contact:

Howard Shaffer

Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society

hshaffer3@myfairpoint.net

603-632-5139

or

Meredith Angwin

Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute

Meredith@ethanallen.org

802-291-9172

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This is a press release I sent out earlier today. Last time we held a rally, we were in downtown Brattleboro near the Federal Court House. This time, we wanted our rally to be visible to people at the plant.

About the Governor Hunt House. It was built in 1789 by Governor Hunt, who was the last Lieutenant Governor of the independent Republic of Vermont. It is now near the gate to Vermont Yankee.

Photos below of the house. (From the Restoration Trades Directory Portfolio)