A Good And Sweet New Year

I always find it interesting that the Jewish New Year starts in the fall. The timing made more sense in California, where the New Year coincided with the start of the rainy season, as it does in Israel. When the brown land becomes green, the year feels new!

In Vermont, the New Year comes at a very festive season: foliage season, harvest season. A time for enjoying the cool weather and the beautiful trees. A time for going apple-picking or at least buying local apples. I include a picture from my local farmstand: Killdeer Farms of Norwich.

Still, compared to brown-land-becoming-green, sometimes it doesn't feel quite like a New Year in the fall. This year, however, New Year in Vermont feels very new. We are recovering from Hurricane Irene. The roads are open. People are planning again, holding meetings, holding rallies. It feels like getting over an illness. A feeling of exuberance and joy.

May all my readers have a healthy and joyful year. A good and sweet year. A good and peaceful life.

L'Shana Tova.

Top photo: Traditional Rosh Hashanah foods, from Wikipedia. Apples, honey, wine, and pomegranates. Also, a shofar (ram's horn), a traditional part of the holiday celebration.

Bottom photo: Vermont Apples, from Killdeer Farm Facebook page.

Lempster Wind Farm

Approaching the Wind Farm

Yesterday, the Energy Safari course went to Lempster Wind Farm in Lempster, NH. We went on a lovely sunny day, which would have been great for the solar farm visit last week. Unfortunately, we went to the solar farm in the rain, and the wind farm on a clear, sunny day with almost no wind!

Bob Hargraves did an excellent blog post on our visit at the Energy Safari site. I am just adding my impressions.

The picture above shows the entrance to the wind facility. (If you enlarge it, you can see one of the turbines.) Unlike the solar farm, which is just a short walk from a few houses, with no locked gate, the wind facility is more heavily protected. There are moving parts overhead (it's all a hard-hat area) and people are not allowed to wander around it by themselves.

Several landowners still live within the wind farm boundaries, and I assume they can do as they choose about hard hats. (They probably signed something about liability. I am just guessing.) We were tourists, and we were well guided. Ed Cherian was the construction manager for the project, and he was our knowledgeable, patient and gracious host.

I admit I am rather fond of the photo on the right. We are standing at the base of one wind turbine, looking over at another wind turbine, and in between is a solar array to run a private communications tower.

Inside the Turbine Building

We had a great time and lots of access at the wind facility. At the left, you can see that they allowed us inside the turbine building. There's a readout there of the power production for the turbine. "Our turbine" went from negative production to positive production while we were there, as the wind picked up. Readout below.

Money

However, I did find it frustrating that the owners would not tell us the price at which they sold their power. They don't have to tell us, I know. They are a private company, and have every right to their trade secrets. Bigger companies, like Hydro Quebec, also do not share that information. We don't have any right to have that information.

However, we are the "energy safari" course and it just makes it harder to assess the success of the first wind project in New Hampshire. In contrast, the solar farm sells their power according to the Vermont SPEED program. The solar farm people were quite straightforward about their production and prices.

Safety

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had an excellent visit. We were allowed to see everything, everything was explained to us, and many aspects of the site were very impressive. For example, Iberdrola is very careful about safety. Everything is done from within the tower, or on the nacelle. Nobody is ever up there on scaffolding. If they need to work outside, like lowering a damaged rotor, they hire a crane. When the facility was under construction, they had helicopter landing pads in place to take any injured workers to the hospital. (The pads were not needed or used.)

The wind turbine base is sunk with 40 foot bolts into solid bedrock. The turbine itself is bolted to the concrete base. The bolts are covered with black plastic because otherwise they tend to collect minerals and salt, and therefore they attract moose. There's a lot of wildlife around the windfarm.

Factoid time: Why are wind turbines white or light grey? It's an FAA rule for pilot safety.

Jolly Group

I will finish with the obligatory picture of the jolly group! For a more complete assessment of the visit, please go to Bob Hargraves excellent write-up. We are grateful to Iberdrola Renewables for the opportunity to visit their facility. Out on a hillside on a sunny autumn day in New Hampshire! It hardly gets better than this!

All pictures are my own. Click on any picture to enlarge it.

Motive and Results for Vermont Yankee Rally: Guest Blog at ANS Nuclear Cafe

Today I was a guest blogger at ANS Nuclear Cafe. (ANS is the American Nuclear Society). I blogged about the pro-nuclear rally that we held earlier this month in Brattleboro.

When I blog for ANS Nuclear Cafe, I can be certain that most of the readers are in favor of nuclear energy, but that few of the readers are up-to-date on Vermont. So my ANS posts have a somewhat different slant. In this post, I wrote more about our motivation for the rally, and how we felt about it afterwards.

I hope my regular YesVY readers will enjoy my post on the ANS blog: Rally for Nuclear Power and Vermont Yankee.

The lower right-hand picture shows my husband, George T. Angwin, and Mary Daly, a recent candidate for the legislature. It's not the best picture of either of them, but it is the picture I have from the rally, so I thought I would include it here. For me, it brings back very good memories of that morning.

71st Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers at NEI Nuclear Notes

The 71st Carnival of Nuclear Enegy Blogs is now posted at NEI Nuclear Notes. David Bradish has assembled a thoughtful and very readable Carnival, with the subheading: Critical Reviews, History and Future Stuff.

History includes understanding Siemen's exit from the nuclear industry, courtesy of Dan Yurman's Idaho Samizdat. Siemens claims that they left the industry because of Fukushima, but maybe they just didn't want to compete with Areva? In another historical article, Will Davis at APR Atomic Journal uses newly-discovered information to describe the Elk River Nuclear Plant, built in the late 50s and early 60s. This was one of the earliest power reactors in the world, and an early pioneer in a uranium thorium fuel cycle. However, in my mind, the true historical block-buster article was Brian Wang at Next Big Future, showing that an early nuclear researcher knowingly lied, claiming that even low levels of radiation were dangerous. This researcher suppressed data that low levels of radiation are benign. His aim was to help stop above-ground atomic testing. This was a good thing to do. However, suppressing data has consequences, and one of the consequences of this choice was the early adoption of the LNT (linear no threshold) model of harm from radiation.

The Future includes upbeat information on the continuing builds in China (Next Big Future), nuclear-powered cruise ships (Margaret Harding at Four-Factor Consulting) and cost-effective Generation IV Nuclear Technology (Charles Barton at Nuclear Green). The future of nuclear looks pretty darn good!

The Review section is full of interesting stories. Steve Skutnik at Neutron Economy reviewed the book Uranium, and had a comment on his blog from the book's author. Rod Adams considers the companies and individuals who benefit from higher fossil fuel prices, and Steve Aplin reviews the Canadian Auto Workers alliance with a renewable energy association. The auto workers think renewable energy will create jobs: Steve begs to differ. Gail Marcus at Nuke Power Talk takes an inside look at the EIA's energy projection process. Considering how often I personally refer to EIA data as a gold standard, this is not a pretty sight. On my own blog, I review the Vermont Energy Plan. Since the plan has little content and almost no numbers, it was a quick job to review it.

NEI has hosted a fascinating Carnival. Enjoy it in the comfort of your own home. No pitchmen will attempt to sell you anything! The information is carefully prepared and free!

Come to the Carnival!

Taking the Petty Road: Governor Shumlin, Hurricane Irene, and Entergy's Charitable Donation

I wish Vermont had a governor who was a class act. I wish Shumlin was the kind of politician who does the right thing in public. The kind of politician who does the courteous thing. The kind of politician whose public face is thoughtful and non-vindictive.

You understand that I am saying "I wish we had the kind of politician who..." I do not expect that all politicians are wonderful people. I just expect that politicians will behave in a certain way in public because it is politically wise to do so.

We don't have that kind of governor.

The storm and the aftermath

Hurricane Irene did a lot of damage in Vermont. Hundreds of people lost their homes. There was a major need for disaster relief. In response, people and businesses have donated time and money to help those who have suffered.

Governor Shumlin recently held a press conference to thank the Vermont businesses who contributed large amounts to disaster relief. Shumlin thanked Vermont Public Radio for hosting a $625,000 fundraiser; Blue Cross Blue Shield for giving $150,000; ICG software for giving $30,000; and Coca Cola for giving $25,000. He thanked many other businesses for their contributions also.

He didn't thank Entergy. He didn't even mention Entergy. Entergy donated $50,000 to United Way of Windham County and also provided a matching grant of up to $50,000. Windham County is Shumlin's home county. All in all, Entergy contributed up to $100,000, depending on how well United Way is able to match part of the grant.

Shumlin didn't mention Entergy when he listed the businesses who helped their neighbors by giving large donations.

Petty petty petty

Would it have hurt Shumlin to list Entergy along with the others? I don't think so. Nobody would think that including Entergy's donation in a list would mean that Shumlin loves Vermont Yankee. Listing Entergy's donation wouldn't have hurt the state's case in the lawsuit. It wouldn't have hurt anything. It would just have acknowledged a major donation.

Instead, Shumlin had to be petty and leave Entergy out of the list.

I hope our next governor is more of a class act.

Update: Shay Totten of 7 Days wrote an excellent post about this snub to Entergy (snub is his word and I agree). Among other things, Totten found that Entergy had donated $130,000 to local charities, just for disaster relief..

Rally Retrospective: On the Sidewalks for Vermont Yankee

This is an edited version of an article I wrote for True North Reports. The picture in that article was correctly critiqued by Rod Adams, so this version has a better picture. Pro-Vermont Yankee people on the right side of the picture, opponents on the left side.

Rally for Nuclear Power and Vermont Yankee

On Monday, September 12, the lawsuit between Vermont Yankee and the State of Vermont began at the federal courthouse in Brattleboro, Vermont. The "Safe and Green Campaign", an opponent group, announced they were holding a "silent vigil" in front of the Courthouse from 7:30 to 9 a.m. that day, just before the hearing started. The group had held a similar vigil in June, when the preliminary injunction hearings took place.

Nuclear energy has supporters, but they are seldom visible. The opponents organize marches, vigils, skits, demonstrations, and puppet shows. Some of us decided to hold a rally to help correct the visibility balance. Rally participants came from the Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute, the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society, and the Coalition for Energy Solutions.

Many people support nuclear, and by 7:30 a.m. there were about 25 of our group on the sidewalk in Brattleboro. We had decided to stand across the street from the Courthouse: we had several practical reasons. Where we stood, we weren't blocking the Courthouse steps. There was "no parking" on our side of the street, so our signs would be more visible.

Furthermore, when we arrived, a green pickup truck was already further down the block on our side of the street. It had several green VY4VT signs, and was driven by a representative of the Vermont Yankee union, the IBEW. The pick-up was not there by chance. We had asked if some people from IBEW might come, and they came to support us!

At first, there were more supporters than opponents. Most, but not all, of the opponents stood on the other side of the street, near the Courthouse. More and more opponents came as the morning wore on. By the time we left at 9 a.m., we were outnumbered, probably 60 to 25. However, we were still a big group and very visible. As we waved at the cars going by, we got many waves and "thumbs-up" from the drivers. One young woman who was walking by asked for a pro-Vermont Yankee sticker and she carefully attached it to her backpack. We had excellent signs, and white t-shirts saying "Nuclear Power Yes Please."

Our Policy: No Confrontation

I had briefed everyone before the rally about the opponent's love of "street theater." We had all agreed to walk away from any confrontation. We weren't there to argue. In general, things were calm, but not always. One of the opponents came to our side of the street, holding a large sign. He positioned himself on the street, standing in front of one of the women in our group, who was standing on the sidewalk. He held his sign up, and hid her from passing traffic. She objected, and told him he was being very rude. He said he was doing this because he loved democracy. Since she has served in the state house, this "love of democracy" business was not going over with her!

I dashed over and headed off the argument, allowing him the victory. However, a certain amount of escalation followed, with people from their side coming over and people from our side stepping into the street to remain visible. Eventually, the police told everybody to stay on the sidewalk! That was a good thing!

Interestingly, many of the opponents were carrying Vermont flags, "Supporting Vermont" in the lawsuit. One opponent had a sign, "State's Rights Trump Feds." (You can see the sign in the this video.) I was a young adult in the 1970s, and the sight of counter-culture demonstrators with state flags and "state's rights" signs made my head spin!

I also knew that some of the people waving Vermont flags lived in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I live in Vermont, and I should have had a flag! After all, by supporting Vermont Yankee, I support clean air and a good economy for Vermont. I support Vermont!

Afterwards, some of us had breakfast together. We were a jolly and enthusiastic group, who felt we had made a difference. We had made nuclear supporters visible. People had honked and waved at us. We were a presence.

At breakfast, several people asked: "When are we going to do this again?"

To learn about our next event, contact meredith@ethanallen.org

Even If Vermont Yankee Wins the Lawsuit, Opponents Plan Direct Action to Shut It Down, But They Don't Commit Arson

This is a Youtube of a recent concert in Brattleboro. The concert was the main event at the Positively Charged Music Festival. The purpose of the festival is to kick off a citizen effort to be sure Vermont Yankee closes in March, as reported in the Brattleboro Commons. In that article, Dan DeWalt, the concert organizer, describes the current lawsuit as a blatant attempt by Entergy Nuclear of Louisiana to use the right-leaning federal court system to usurp Vermont law.

Well, so much for the Constitution and the balance of powers.

If you want to hear DeWalt's plans for Vermont Yankee, move the slider to about the 4 minute mark and listen. Amusingly, he talks about the recent demonstration at Vermont Yankee, and states that some people knew and some people didn't know about the activists who were arrested at that day. He doesn't note that the activists got very little publicity because they chose to hold a demonstration and be arrested the first day after the hurricane was over. Reporters and first responders were busy elsewhere! That day, first responders were evacuating people from dangerous situations, bringing supplies to areas that were cut off, and so forth. These activists made sure that some first responders were kept busy at the plant, arresting them.

Well, so much for caring about what happens to other people.

DeWalt and other activists also told about their plans in an early-summer article in my local paper, the Valley News.

What This Is About. What This Is NOT About.

This is about the fact that some plant opponents will keep up their activities no matter what. Neither law nor hurricanes will deter them from anti-Vermont Yankee activities. In response to this, plant supporters must encourage the rule of law, and must continue to be visible and present. In other words, we must write more letters to the editor and hold more rallies!

This is not about blaming plant opponents for the recent arson fires at the plant headquarters. Every plant opponent spoke out against arson in a recent Brattleboro Reformer article, and I believe them. We will have to wait for the investigation to find out who did it. Free speech against the plant is free speech. Arson is arson. Very very different. There's also a campaign of non-violent direct action to close Vermont Yankee, complete with an Action Camp for training. I don't think they train people to commit arson!

We also have to guard against the situation I might call: "The Usual Suspects." After the Oklahoma City bombing, many people were sure that some Islamic group had done it. Actually, of course, it was a home-grown terrorist, Timothy McVeigh. Similarly, in this arson case, despite all the heated rhetoric against the plant, I suspect that the person who did it was some odd and disgruntled person. I don't think this person was connected to the opponent organizations. Hopefully, the investigation will find out who did it, and lay to rest any knee-jerk accusations.

Just like the lawsuit outcome, at this point...we must simply await events.