tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post2588621839645016740..comments2023-04-07T05:19:44.951-04:00Comments on Yes Vermont Yankee: Questions I Frequently Ask Myself about Vermont Yankee ClosureMeredith Angwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-62205986479833063272013-09-02T13:10:11.936-04:002013-09-02T13:10:11.936-04:00Anon:
Yes. That is correct. This isn't a che...Anon: <br /><br />Yes. That is correct. This isn't a chess game, as I said in the first of "my own FAQs." (The question is near the top of the post.) <br /><br />VY is closing.<br />Meredith Angwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-4723396348687872882013-09-02T13:00:46.975-04:002013-09-02T13:00:46.975-04:00Just wanted to state a fact. Once a company files ...Just wanted to state a fact. Once a company files it's intent to shut down for good, it is a done deal. No going back with the NRC.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-74613344421631068582013-08-31T00:57:21.566-04:002013-08-31T00:57:21.566-04:00Thanks Meredith for your post, running a modern po...Thanks Meredith for your post, running a modern power system is a complex business. When people complicate that by subsidising specific projects or forms of generation it gets much more complicated. If carbon free electricity is an objective of the community or the state, there should be open tenders for X GWh/year, let the cheapest generator win, but please make it contestable and for a limited time. The other thing that pops up is how VY won't receive any credit for reducing demands on the grid as a base load generator does, while wind farms don't get charged for cost of beefing up the grid to cope with their variable output.<br /><br />Last but not least, negative pricing should never be allowed, the market distortions they create are colossal. If there is more renewables or 'must run' capacity than demand then operate a 'must run dispatch auction' where generators pay to generate but the market prices never goes below zero.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03336605696216477413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-21682728143998931912013-08-30T19:37:37.210-04:002013-08-30T19:37:37.210-04:00That natural gas gets such a universal passs from ...That natural gas gets such a universal passs from everyone, the public, the media, and "environmentalists", is an unbelievably ignorant and sad state of affairs. Just a recent study from NASA Goddard showed that on a per-weight basis, methane is 33 times more damaging to the atmosphere than CO2 when interactions with other gases are accounted for (previously it was 25 times). Go to the websites for gas companies and you'll see maps of where methane is leaking from pipelines buried under most urban areas. I know in my town alone there are over a hundred such sites. And combustion of NG still releases tens of thousands of tons of CO2, just dumped willy-nilly into the air, free to go where it wants, uncontrolled, uncontained, and untaxed. Everyone talks about "potential disasters" from nuclear plants yet ignores actual disasters from natural gas plants. Just read about the explosions and fires at San Juan Ixhuatepec for a real, true-life horror story. But the media never reports anything about it. Its all Fukushima, all the time, never mind there were zero fatalities, zero injuries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-21116532894734775002013-08-30T17:37:30.207-04:002013-08-30T17:37:30.207-04:00Thanks Meredith, and I would have to add lawyering...Thanks Meredith, and I would have to add lawyering fatigues a company. They won the battle and lost the war. Sad, even friends do not understand the implications to utility consumers. Now one Canadian owned company will control it all. Vermont Yankee has been a well run plant and my heart goes out to their employees. It is hard to demystify why this happened and you have given it a good try. Still an executive will sleep better knowing a next adverse law or court action will not happen related to staying open. Humans can only take so much adversity. In our town we fight a natural gas pipeline that threatens miles of private property. nG seems to be getting a pass locally and Beyond and in the press while nuclear has been universally demonized. Thanks again.MaryTravelogue for the Universehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01127086480471321349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-76736524010338111842013-08-30T14:53:46.494-04:002013-08-30T14:53:46.494-04:00Meredith, thank you for all your effort and heart,...Meredith, thank you for all your effort and heart, fighting this good fight.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the rug was pulled out from under you, because this fight isn't just about VY, it's being fought on several other fronts as well and events on one of those other fronts (regulatory utility price structures) undermined your good work. <br /><br />Unfortunately, on those other fronts the foolish side is winning -- in large part because the wise side has no army and no funding. There are a few folks like you doing all they can, but on the national level, pro-nuclear has no voice. There is no one to fund it. No media outlet that will publish it. No popular reporters who go to a knowledgeable nuclear friendly source first for news on these issues.<br /><br />The situation is frightful.<br /><br />If someone had told me 20 years ago that the American public could be convinced to demand measures that would make their electricity and water (water depends on electricity) two or three times as expensive and much less reliable without reducing pollution one iota, I would never have believed it. Yet here we are. On that path.<br /><br />Bah. I digressed. The real point is that I admire your work. I want to say thank you for trying to make Vermont and the world a better place. And we'll all keep on trying.traghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567888742411686266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-37688649287499278552013-08-30T06:36:54.840-04:002013-08-30T06:36:54.840-04:00I am angry and deeply saddened by this. However, ...I am angry and deeply saddened by this. However, I have been expecting this result - though not specifically at VY. <br /><br />I have long long long felt that Global Warming / Climate Change was an excuse to sell more power at a higher price to the benefit of those already in power. Especially the Fossil fuel industry. I enjoy and use fossil fuels and I have doubted climate change. Why? Because the solution to CO2 became obvious to me once I understood nuclear power. <br /><br />The numbers were so obvious, the potential flexibility so great, the safety factor so wide that the only reason to NOT use Nuclear power was that SHAZAM it would take market share away from existing power companies!!! (excuse me while in insert a few more) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Hum, a few short of the hundreds of billions of potential dollars lost but perhaps I am close to the point). <br /><br />I could see the scam. I hate scams. I deeply hate scams. I hate them even more when they are foisted on me by legal decree. <br /><br />One of the best summaries of the responsibilities of Government ..... <br /><br />From the Magicians Nephew, by CS Lewis<br /><br />Between Aslan and a London Cabby who was to be King of Narnia, <br /><br />"Well," said Aslan,"can you use a spade and a plough and raise food out of the earth?"<br />"Yes, sir, I could do a bit of that sort of work: being brought up to it, like."<br />"Can you rule these creatures kindly and fairly, remembering that they are not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in, but Talking Beasts and free subjects?"<br />"I see that, sir," replied the Cabby. "I'd try to do the square thing by them all." <br />"And would you bring up your children and grandchildren to do the same?"<br />"It'd be up to me to try, sir. I'd do my best: wouldn't we, Nellie?"<br />"And you wouldn't have favorites either among your own children or among the other creatures or let any hold another under or use it hardly?"<br />"I never could abide such goings on, sir, and that's the truth. I'd give 'em what for if I caught 'em at it," said the Cabby. (All through this conversation his voice was growing slower and richer. More like the country voice he must have had as a boy and less like the sharp, quick voice of a cockney.)<br />"And if enemies came against the land (for enemies will arise) and there was war, would you be the first in the charge and the last in the retreat?"<br />"Well, sir," said the Cabby very slowly, "a chap don't exactly know till he's been tried. I dare say I might turn out ever such a soft 'un. Never did no fighting except with my fists. I'd try -that is, I 'ope I'd try - to do my bit."<br />"Then," said Aslan,, "You will have done all that a King should do. Your coronation will be held presently."<br /><br />-----------<br /> <br />No Favorites!!! <br /><br />Energy producers should be on a level playing field. If CO2 is really a problem... then forming neutral legislation to allow people to produce massive amounts of low CO2 power should be the real goal. <br /><br />As I see it the real goal by the "greens" is to replace reliable power with unreliable power that can squeeze more money out of consumers and tax payers. Davidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-80717408157053271332013-08-29T21:46:47.798-04:002013-08-29T21:46:47.798-04:00I have a change in policy on comments.
I will n...I have a change in policy on comments. <br /><br />I will no longer publish comments that denigrate nuclear plants or the people who work at nuclear plants. I never liked those comments, but I published some of them. <br /><br />With all the pain at Vermont Yankee I decided:<br /><br />If someone wants to say bad things about nuclear plants or the people who work at nuclear plants, that person can go to some anti-nuclear blog and write the comment. Such comments will not be published here.Meredith Angwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-81885746048321257842013-08-29T18:36:16.569-04:002013-08-29T18:36:16.569-04:00James, you're right, if they are serious, it s...James, you're right, if they are serious, it should be a national policy issue. But as far as nukes go, nobody on the political side will touch it. It's too unpopular, or just isn't on the radar.<br /><br />As far as the business aspects go, I think we may see in the nuclear business what we have seen in manufacturing. There will be "friendly" states or regions, and unfriendly ones. The friendly regions will be happy to have these facilities and the jobs they bring, while the unfriendly ones will run them out of town on a rail and think they can get by with either importing electricity or making it "some other way". Either way, they can shove it, and I wish them nothing but shortages and hardship.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-9514849218311372392013-08-29T16:15:46.993-04:002013-08-29T16:15:46.993-04:00Thanks for the breakfast, Meredith. Very painful.
...Thanks for the breakfast, Meredith. Very painful.<br /><br />There's another less fiscally complex but deeper question to me:<br /><br />In just standing by and watching our nukes shutter down, I wonder just how serious are governments are about climate change or is this "peril" REALLY all it's cracked up to be? If our -- and other governments REALLY felt this was a civilization-altering issue, logically and pragmatically they ought be husbanding every nuclear plant around the plant, whether by subsidy or complete takeover. I mean this IS supposed to be a human survival issue, right? If it's not then it's time to resolve this issue once and for all and save LOTS of dough and hang a lot of charlatans, or maybe like today find ourselves shooting our own life rafts from the decks of the Titanic.<br /><br />James Greenidge<br />Queens NY<br />jimwghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06964988758509076556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-27008057499680727122013-08-29T14:51:43.625-04:002013-08-29T14:51:43.625-04:00I believe that Meredith is correct (for all of the...I believe that Meredith is correct (for all of the reasons she cited): for example, the currently rising price of natural gas may well soon end its huge price advantage. An additional point is the need from a point of view of long term energy policy to preserve a diverse array of energy choices and contributors to our total energy needs. However, the wisdom from a national policy perspective does not necessarily translate into good business sense for a single corporate entity (even a large one). My best guess is that there will someday be regret over the decision, but the regret will probably be by consumers paying more (and, indeed, they may not even realize at that time that their "regret" ties back to this decision. It is quite likely that Entergy executives will NOT feel any such regret (at least not to a large extent) since they will be about the business in the future of providing energy from the resources that they have available at that time (which is, after all, the reason they are in business).<br />--- Sam HobbsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-28402963660403210532013-08-29T14:11:04.515-04:002013-08-29T14:11:04.515-04:00Another note. This blog post was long enough, but...Another note. This blog post was long enough, but there are of course other factors I could have mentioned. The lack of a power purchase agreement made VY more vulnerable to the grid prices. For all nuclear plants, there's an unknown cost out there, as NRC continues to look into Fukushima upgrade requirements. Etc. <br /><br />The unknown-cost-business is true for all nuclear plants, but I don't know if a power purchase agreement would have made a difference for VY. It might have. For political reasons, GMP purchased from Seabrook instead of VY. <br /><br />There will be much more to discuss, for certain.Meredith Angwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-87977363557577188322013-08-29T14:06:47.748-04:002013-08-29T14:06:47.748-04:00Vermont Yankee can either be in SafStor (part of t...Vermont Yankee can either be in SafStor (part of the decommissioning process) OR keep its license, not both. To keep its license, it would have to keep paying license fees to NRC and being inspected and have to have many of the employees working and available. In other words, it's expensive. <br /><br />As I understand it, Entergy begins the process to surrender their license and start the decommissioning-license process within a few weeks. They won't give up their operating license in a few weeks, but they will officially announce their intention to do so, ask NRC what the steps are for beginning the decommissioning process, etc.<br /><br />That is my understanding.<br />Meredith Angwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-37922940058459033962013-08-29T13:38:57.142-04:002013-08-29T13:38:57.142-04:00Can Vermont Yankee keep its license in SafeStore? ...Can Vermont Yankee keep its license in SafeStore? In two years, if power prices rise and natural gas prices rise, can Entergy restart Vermont Yankee?Robert Hargraveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06846491141058940965noreply@blogger.com