New EnglandCoalition on Nuclear Pollution
The People’s Advocate for Safe Energy Since 1971
P.O. Box 545, Brattleboro, VT 05302 802-257-0336
Since 1971 NEC has advocated for safe energy in New England and has provided education and resources for alternatives to nuclear power.
Our Campaign through 2008 is focused on challenging Entergy Nuclear's petition to the Vermont Public Service Board to operate their Vermont Yankee nuclear power station 20 years beyond it's current 2012 license expiration.
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NEC
COMMENTS ON "MORE CRACKS FOUND IN VY STEAM DRYER" - NOV. 12, 2008
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH/RADIOLOGICAL HEALTH RULES - OCT. 30, 2008,
VT STATEHOUSE
Thank You to Harvey Wasserman, author, historian and long time safe energy activist for his engaging, fact filled and visionary presentation October 25, 2008 at the School for International Training/World Learning in Brattleboro,VT. The evening was a fundraiser to support the Coalition's advocacy for the people of Vermont, and the region, in the current Vermont Public Service Board proceedings where Entergy Nuclear is seeking a "Certificate of Public Good" to operate their atomic reactor in Vernon, VT for up to another 20 years. Additionally we thank the SIT Environmental Working Group for being the host sponsor for the event as well as providing an honorarium so that Mr. Wasserman could be with us from Ohio.
Is the VT Dept of Health protecting the public or Entergy?
Step 2 - New England Coalition files
first set of information requests served upon Entergy.
Step 1 - New England Coalition files as intervenor on behalf of citizens to the Vermont Public Service Board where Entergy Nuclear seeks state-level regulatory approval for 20 more years.
THE NEC v NRC ASLB &
ENTERGY TRIAL CONCLUDED THURSDAY 7/24/07 - read the report.
| NEC BOARD OF TRUSTEES |
Dear Friends and Neighbors, |
| Nancy Braus Eleanor Gavin Jake Stewart |
Thank you for visiting our website. You are amongst thousands in the region who share our deep concern over the threat that Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee poses to health, safety and economic stability of our region. We are at a critical juncture in determining if this aged and deteriorated plant will be relicensed for another 20 years. The hearing was the climax of a two-year legal battle which began with New England Coalition's ground breaking intervention on May 23, 2006. Along the way, NEC has staved off ongoing powerful attacks from both Entergy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission lawyers while setting national records for the number and quality of technically, scientifically based arguments admitted for hearing. Recently the NRC’s Office of the Inspector General reported that NRC staff had simply “cut-and paste “ copied whole sections of license renewal applications into Staff Safety Evaluations leaving no evidence that NRC staff had, in some areas, actually reviewed anything. Further, the OIG reported to NRC, that its Staff had destroyed numerous staff and licensee renewal working papers, effectively breaking the trail to their conclusions. NEC has opened a national legal battle, by joining with intervenor groups from NY, NJ, and Mass. in moving that the NRC halt all relicensing proceedings until those irregularities had been investigated and rectified. The Massachusetts Attorney General filed to intervene in both Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim License Renewals contending that the environmental impact of storing an additional 20 years worth of spent fuel, including both accident and sabotage risks, must be considered. NEC has filed in support of the Contention; and joined MA in an appeal and a rulemaking when the NRC rejected the AG's initial plea. (Please Donate) In mid May the NRC cited VY for a serious security breech, which occurred in February (see attached article). Given the high profile of nuclear targets in post 9/11 even the smallest lapse in protecting nuclear fuel from accident, theft, or sabotage represents a significant danger to public health and safety. VY has emplaced a solid line-of-sight barrier wall at its dry fuel cask storage site as a direct result of NEC's intervention before the legislature and the VT Public Service Board. More work, of course, and better protections are needed. |
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On Other Fronts |
When brakes failed on an aging crane on May 12, a 100-ton cask lifting intensely radioactive nuclear fuel dropped to the spent fuel pool refueling deck. (See attached article). Contrary to NRC's assurance that this was a non-reportable incident, NEC's technical consultant, Ray Shadis, pointed out that had the cask dropped into the spent fuel pool, it could have broken open the bottom of the pool, releasing the water that cools the spent fuel and causing a widespread release of deadly fission products. NEC had raised, unheeded, issues of crane overload, testing, and qualifications before the VT Public Service Board and Entergy in 2006. Time and again, NEC's legal initiatives have derailed Entergy's plans to drive an old reactor hotter and longer than its designers ever intended. NEC has denied Entergy investors regulatory certainty and cost them years in effecting uprate and license renewal. This summer at the NRC formal hearings in NewfaneVT July 21- July 25, NEC once again stood as the sole intervenor; in a proceeding so important that it could set Vermont finally off the poison power path and firmly on the road to safe, secure, sustainable energy. NEC employs science and engineering experts of stature; and competent, principled attorneys wielding facts, clear logic, honest interpretation of the regulations, and persistence, dogged persistence. All of them have generously given NEC very low public interest rates. Even at that, the costs are staggering and often overwhelming. We urgently need your financial support now to cover legal expenses and to pay our expert witnesses. (Please Donate) An unsolicited letter in the Brattleboro Reformer stated, “…New England Coalition has been carrying on the fight in the courts for all these years and needs to raise, for a small organization, relatively huge amounts of money...They are fighting for you and for me and I don't have to tell anyone that their small but knowledgeable, well prepared group of lawyers and experts .. is up against an extremely formidable, highly paid team of lawyers and industry professionals.” We cannot continue our work without your support. The timing is critical and this chance will not come again. Please make as large a contribution as you are able online or by mail. With your help we'll be able to carry this important work forward. Sincerely, Jake StewartPresident New England Coalition (Please Donate Now!) |
ANNOTATED GUIDE to the ASLB Hearing Newfane VT July 21-25, 2008 html or Word
of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
ISSUES:
NAS Study Claims: No Safe Radiation Dose
NAS Study points to vulnerabilities of Spent Fuel Pools
Nuclear NOT the answer to Global Warming (Washington Post article)