James Tillingham

Physics support a waiting period for decommissioning

Primordial radionuclides heavier than lead end up at the stable lead endpoint. Lighter primordial nuclides like 40K have a different endpoint; likewise, fission products and activation products.

What really helps you by waiting is reduction in exposure from cobalt-60 (60Co). With a five-year half-life, you can get over a 99-percent reduction in exposure rate by waiting for 40 years.

Unless it is a low-leakage (neutrons) core, 60Co builds up in the reactor pressure vessel walls and liner as well as the core support structures.

So, yes, the physics does support a waiting period for radioactivity reduction.

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We reap what we sow

Well, it sounds like a variation of the proverbial “you reap what you sow,” only in this case, Windham County will reap what those in Montpelier and elsewhere have sown. Just remember: I told you so.

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How many marchers worked to shut down VY?

So how much greenhouse gas did this group generate driving in cars or taking buses (15 of them from Vermont) down to New York City? How many of these people had a hand in shutting down the Vermont Yankee plant, a facility that supplied 70 percent of the electricity...

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