News and Opinion

Women plan to block Entergy offices to protest Vt. Yankee power increase

November 7, 2005
By Susan Smallheer Rutland Herald

BRATTLEBORO — A group of women plan to block the office doors of Entergy Nuclear today to protest a proposed power increase at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

“We are a small group of women who feel we’re being used as guinea pigs,” said Sally Shaw of nearby Gill, Mass. “We’ve exhausted all possible means of participating in the official process.”

“We are worried Vermont Yankee will shake itself apart when you ramp it up.”

On Thursday, the NRC staff released a draft safety evaluation permit concluding that the power boost won’t pose a health or safety risk to people living near the plant.

Shaw said she couldn’t believe the results of the NRC review, noting that the NRC had had numerous and lengthy questions about Entergy’s plans.

Entergy spokesman Robert Williams could not be reached to comment on the planned protest.

Shaw said at least six or seven women will block the doors of Entergy’s corporate offices on Ferry Road in Brattleboro for as long as possible.

Shaw said the group deliberately chose a work day. “This is our work as mothers and grandmothers,” she said. “We are willing to sacrifice our usual schedules to make a strong and much-needed statement. We have had enough of the subtle pretense of democracy and biased NRC oversight.”

Shaw, 49, mother of a 7-year-old daughter, is an ecologist who has worked at the University of Massachusetts and for the Nature Conservancy. She said that all of the women who will protest Monday live within the emergency evacuation zone surrounding Vermont Yankee, which is located in Vernon on the Vermont-New Hampshire border, and only a few miles from Massachusetts.

“This is a very maternal thing that we’re doing,” Shaw said, noting that all the women were either mothers or grandmothers.

Shaw said the breaking point came for her a couple of weeks ago when the Rutland Herald reported that Entergy would load super-enriched uranium fuel during its upcoming refueling shutdown, in anticipation of getting federal approval for its 20 percent power boost. Until it gets final permission, Entergy must operate the nuclear reactor as if it has regular fuel in its core.

“That fuel burns hotter and faster,” Shaw said. “I know, it really doesn’t burn. But it will reduce operator reaction time. And they don’t have final approval yet from either the Vermont Public Service Board or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; it’s sheer arrogance.”

Shaw said her group has been in contact with the Brattleboro Police about their planned demonstration. She said Police Chief John Martin had been very “accommodating.”

She said that there was no plan at the moment for the civil disobedience to end in arrests, but she said it was a “good possibility.”

Shaw said that the women considered demonstrating at the plant’s gates in Vernon, but decided against it because of the security concerns. Vermont Yankee has spent more than $8 million to beef up security at the plant after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Shaw and the other women plan on starting their protest Monday at 10 a.m. Any women are welcome, she said.

“We’re asking men to come as support people,” she said. “We really feel this is coming from a very maternal place. If we do get arrested, we will need someone to take care of our children.”

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.

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