Are we still on Orange Alert? I think so. Maybe newspapers, as a public service, should begin posting our Homeland Security status in the upper right corner of the front page, next to the weather brief. “Today – cloudy, showers, high 65 – alert status: Orange.” It might make us feel more secure if we could glance at the paper and know how poised our government is to defend us. The operative word is “feel;” feeling secure and being secure are different things.
Way down in the southeast corner of Vermont is the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. If terrorists decide to attack anything in Vermont, it will probably be Vermont Yankee. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security are in charge of making sure that doesn’t happen. The NRC is also charged with preventing accidents at Vermont Yankee and FEMA is supposed to have contingency plans ready if an attack or accident occurs. This time the operative word is “supposed.”
Each year, on February first, the governor of Vermont is supposed to certify to FEMA that each town within a 10-mile radius of Vermont Yankee has an approved emergency response plan. Emergency response plans for communities near nuclear reactors are a condition of a nuke plant’s license to operate. There are six towns within 10 mile of Vermont Yankee; by February first, none had an approved emergency response plan. By March first, none had a plan, nor by April first, nor by May first. Sunday is June first, anybody want to make a prediction?
Which is not to say nothing is happening. Emergency response plans have been proposed, but town selectboards have rejected them as implausible, unworkable and inadequately funded. As with so many issues lately, money is a stumbling block – although not the only one. Our Republican governor, Jim Douglas, says the towns need another $300,000 for emergency planning. Our Democratic auditor, Elizabeth Ready, agrees. So far, so good. Vermont is facing a $30 million budget shortfall this year, but the extra money would not come from the state. Under the terms of a contract Vermont has with Entergy Incorporated, the Alabama company that owns Vermont Yankee, the state can require Entergy to give us the extra $300,000 in safety money. All we need is legislative approval.
The Vermont legislature is minutes away from adjourning for the year. Neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate has called for the additional emergency planning money in its budget. Why? Why would the legislature, in the middle of a fiscal crisis, fail to ask an out-of-state corporation for 300 large, to be spent on the safety and security of their friends and neighbors?
Maybe there are some back room deals getting cut with Entergy. Maybe, but that doesn’t make sense. Three hundred grand is spit in the ocean to Entergy, Inc. and a small price to pay if it means holding onto the NRC license and keeping the plant on line. After all, Entergy is in the business of operating nuclear power plants, not shutting them down. It would be an economic catastrophe for both Entergy and Vermont if the electricity generated by Vermont Yankee suddenly disappeared.
But that won’t happen. FEMA accepted Vermont’s emergency response plan, even though none of the most vulnerable communities signed off on it. The NRC accepted FEMA’s approval of the emergency plan without question. Huh?
The message is clear: if local officials attempt to hold nuclear power companies to high standards of safety, they will be brushed aside and lost in the paperwork and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security will not do a damn thing to stop it.
There are nuclear power plants in 37 states. What’s going on in your backyard?
Safety, Schmafety
Are we still on Orange Alert? I think so. Maybe newspapers, as a public service, should begin posting our Homeland Security status in the upper right corner of the front page, next to the weather brief. “Today – cloudy, showers, high 65 – alert status: Orange.” It might make us feel more secure if we could glance at the paper and know how poised our government is to defend us. The operative word is “feel;” feeling secure and being secure are different things.
Way down in the southeast corner of Vermont is the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. If terrorists decide to attack anything in Vermont, it will probably be Vermont Yankee. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security are in charge of making sure that doesn’t happen. The NRC is also charged with preventing accidents at Vermont Yankee and FEMA is supposed to have contingency plans ready if an attack or accident occurs. This time the operative word is “supposed.”
Each year, on February first, the governor of Vermont is supposed to certify to FEMA that each town within a 10-mile radius of Vermont Yankee has an approved emergency response plan. Emergency response plans for communities near nuclear reactors are a condition of a nuke plant’s license to operate. There are six towns within 10 mile of Vermont Yankee; by February first, none had an approved emergency response plan. By March first, none had a plan, nor by April first, nor by May first. Sunday is June first, anybody want to make a prediction?
Which is not to say nothing is happening. Emergency response plans have been proposed, but town selectboards have rejected them as implausible, unworkable and inadequately funded. As with so many issues lately, money is a stumbling block – although not the only one. Our Republican governor, Jim Douglas, says the towns need another $300,000 for emergency planning. Our Democratic auditor, Elizabeth Ready, agrees. So far, so good. Vermont is facing a $30 million budget shortfall this year, but the extra money would not come from the state. Under the terms of a contract Vermont has with Entergy Incorporated, the Alabama company that owns Vermont Yankee, the state can require Entergy to give us the extra $300,000 in safety money. All we need is legislative approval.
The Vermont legislature is minutes away from adjourning for the year. Neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate has called for the additional emergency planning money in its budget. Why? Why would the legislature, in the middle of a fiscal crisis, fail to ask an out-of-state corporation for 300 large, to be spent on the safety and security of their friends and neighbors?
Maybe there are some back room deals getting cut with Entergy. Maybe, but that doesn’t make sense. Three hundred grand is spit in the ocean to Entergy, Inc. and a small price to pay if it means holding onto the NRC license and keeping the plant on line. After all, Entergy is in the business of operating nuclear power plants, not shutting them down. It would be an economic catastrophe for both Entergy and Vermont if the electricity generated by Vermont Yankee suddenly disappeared.
But that won’t happen. FEMA accepted Vermont’s emergency response plan, even though none of the most vulnerable communities signed off on it. The NRC accepted FEMA’s approval of the emergency plan without question. Huh?
The message is clear: if local officials attempt to hold nuclear power companies to high standards of safety, they will be brushed aside and lost in the paperwork and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security will not do a damn thing to stop it.
There are nuclear power plants in 37 states. What’s going on in your backyard?