Howard Shaffer's Viewpoint piece [“The Banana Menace,” The Commons, Nov. 10] questioned whether nuclear energy foes will ever put Vermont Yankee's tritium leaks into perspective. Consider what follows to be an attempt to do just that.
What we're dealing with is not simply the tritium (and cobalt, cesium, and strontium) that has been leaking into the public domain groundwater and probably the Connecticut River. The attention to tritium may simply be because the word tritium attracts more public attention than a scientific discourse on curies, picocuries, and roentgen equivalent men (rems).
VY's tritium leaks from underground pipes (that company officials initially denied even existed) suggest that some of the 38-year-old plant's infrastructure might be lacking in proper maintenance. Pipes might be corroding, regular inspections might have been neglected, and there could be metal fatigue. And to the extent that these variables could be applied to the plant as a whole - e.g. underground cables not certified for submersion in water - there is certainly cause for concern.
Also, let's not be fixated on the exact number of picocuries in a liter of tritiated water.
Open letter to James Volz, David Coen, and John Burke of the Vermont Public Service Board: Gentlemen, let me suggest a different perspective on the leaks and lies of Entergy Vermont Yankee. Please imagine that Entergy is coming to Vermont for the first time to ask the Vermont Public...
I find it frustrating that there is always something missing from articles about the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station. We read that the Vermont legislature will vote (this session, or, perhaps more likely, in the 2010 session) about whether to allow VY to operate for another 20 years beyond...
While grateful that the rancorous presidential and vice-presidential debates are finally over and an election has been held, I find myself profoundly frightened and frustrated. Eight years of the Bush Administration have done catastrophic damage to our Constitution, economy, environment, health care, education, and our standing with the rest of the world. As a matter of fact, it would appear that we in the United States no longer have a democracy - a government of, by, and for the people,
Instead of the barrage of typically depressing and/or frivolous and/or scandalous national and international news that we're all subjected to on a daily basis, wouldn't it be uplifting to hear about what's going right with the world? Let's hear more about the 1 to 2 million nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world working to heal the planet. Rather than being cowed into fear, submission, and impotence by the major news corporations, let us be motivated by the wisdom of this...