News and Opinion

Dear Stan and Steve,

I’ve just come from the Entergy HQ in Brattleboro where some area women (some of whom I’ve cc’d here) were speaking on the uprate the Vermont Yankee nuke is seeking (and will most likely get from the NRC). This whole situation with that tired old, leaky nuke being given a free pass to further endanger the region is a complete and utter disgrace. Some of the points these mothers and grandmothers are making include:

*The need to initiate legislation to change the evacuation plans from the meager 10
mile radius to a 50-mile minimum radius
*The need for Entergy to provide real-time radiation monitors for all
schools and healthcare facilities in a 50-mile radius of the Vernon reactor
*More support for health studies that analyze the increase in cancers, thyroid
disorders and immune deficiencies
*Aditional studies which will test soil, water, fish and milk for
radiation
*The need to initiate studies of radiation impacts on fish reproduction in the CT River
*The need to immediately intervene to object to the reactor restarting with the hotter
fuel rods.

The aged nuclear facility is, as you know, nearing its 40-year license termination and must not be allowed to uprate or re-license without an in-depth, independent safety assessment as provided at Maine Yankee.

They are asking you ,and I add my voice here, to do all you can to slow down the uprate process until these concerns are answered and demanding an end to further production of highly radioactive waste until a safe isolation system can be found that will endure for hundreds of thousands of years.

I hope you’ll do all that is in your power to remedy this awful situation.

Regards,

Don Ogden