News and Opinion

Referring to the recent evacuations of Franklin County (MA), SW NH and SE VT evacuations due to extreme flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Tammy, Sunny Miller wrote on October 11, 2005:

I write with an urgent concern over another possible evacuation. What
would the Salvation Army do if all of Franklin County, Whindam, Hampshire,
Hamden, Cheshire, and other New Hampshire and Massachusetts Counties needed
evacuation?

The lure of enormous profits is tempting our neighbors to the north to
plan for and invest in betting on an 18-second MARGIN to MELT-DOWN, at the
Vernon reactor. They call it a safety margin. I wonder what happened if
they discover a problem a minute or two later than they would like. I know
all human beings, however well-intentioned and competent, are fallible.

Two men on the Vermont Public Service Board need tremendous support
now, and perhaps great spiritual equanimity to refuse the dangerous proposal
for increasing risks and profits at the Vernon reactor. (I enclose their
address below. I’m sorry I don’t know these gentlemen’s names. Perhaps Sally
Shaw, a Traprock Core Group member and Gill-Montague School Board member,
included them in the attachment above. Certainly she shares useful, and
crucially valuable information there.)

Public officials need support. In addition we together need support to
reduce our collective electrical consumption, expected to exceed capacity in
New England in a year or two! How can we prevent a melt-down while being
the ones paying for more and more electricity?

On Sunday evening after the Woolman Hill (Quaker) annual meeting, Don
Campbell of Northfield explained PHANTOM electrical consumption, as used for
instant-on features for television sets and sleep modes for computers. These
convenience features draw tremendous amounts of electricity that we don’t
see being used. Beyond previous and usual efforts to turn off of lights,
it’s not surprising that in the nuclear age we now need to deal with
INVISIBLE concerns.

Elevated levels of breast cancer mortality in Franklin County are one
good reason to look at our energy usage and concurrent contamination levels.

Perhaps you know that we are asking for donations of one baby tooth and
information on a very simple questionaire to assess strontium 90 levels. In
a 50-mile radius of Vernon, VT–that goes all the way to the CT border, we
are asking for donations of one baby tooth. Cows, moms, infants … all
mammals, treat radioactive strontium 90 like calcium, and it is concentrated
in milk so that infant calves or infant children can grow bones in a very
short amount of time. Thus the miracle of life is damaged by ignoring some
elemental biological, chemical and physical realities. We’ve been paying for
the release of strontium into our air at the Vernon reactor.

Thank you for using and inviting spiritual strengths to address very
human needs, whether those needs are for cots, shelter, or radiation
monitors in our schools, nursing homes and hospitals.

At our next meeting I will make a motion that the Interfaith Council
co-sponsor a meeting on the proposed nuclear uprate, energy alternatives,
and safety concerns, including the difficulties of evacuation. Please
consider in advance when we would want to do this, whether your faith group
can offer to host such a meeting, and who should get a special invitation.

Best regards,

Sunny Miller, 413-773-7427

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Underlying other news of the day this question remains:
What wouldn’t you do to prevent a melt-down?

Background:
The Vernon, Vermont reactor is just 15 miles from here.
In June the Vermont legislature gave away the store, linking
payments for new radioactive waste storage on the shores
of the Connecticut River to a 20% increase in power output.
No reactor we know of has achieved this much power increase.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledges problems
concerning vibration, overpressure, cracking and _________
when lesser uprates have been allowed.

What can you do to stop the loss of a back-up cooling pump,
increased water pressure and operating temperatures, and
the reduction of the ’safety’ margin from emergency shut-down
to the beginning of a melt-down to only 18 seconds.
Why aren’t these details front page news, this week?

For a brilliant assessment of radiation health risks, read
a contemporary of Albert Einstein, Dr. Ernest Sternglass.
The concluding chapter of “Secret Fallout” is just one chapter
you can see or download free on line if you google it.

Sternglass’s research helped President John F. Kennedy
as he appealed for the support of citizens to end open
air bomb blasts in Nevada + the Pacific. The Senate ratified the
treaty that stopped enormous amounts of fallout from raining
down on all the southwest, mid-west and New England after
1963. Nuclear reactors built in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s
produced lesser pockets of fall-out.

See the Montague Reporter this week, Oct.13-18, for the only
media coverage of his important talk co-sponsored by All
Souls Church in Greenfield. Why isn’t the possibility melt-down
front page news?

Request:
We appeal for your initiative to preserve this land,
these communities we love.
Please call a reporter, editor, or media news desk.

Truth matters - Labors matter - Gifts matter

in a Neighbors’ Network to End War

Vermont Public service Board
112 State Street, Drawer 20
Montpelier, 05620-2701

clerk@psb.state.vt.us