Leslie Sullivan Sachs
Ten years later, how are the people of Fukushima holding up? Not well.
Ten years ago, I wrote these words from a well of grief after the multiple nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan:
“I imagine being told to evacuate my family (three children and two pets), along with 140,000 other people, into a homeland that is already a disaster from an earthquake and a tsunami. I imagine myself knowing I am leading them into a radiation zone. I imagine not being able to smell it, see it, feel it.”...
The refugees were escaping the wind
By 2011, hundreds of people within Vermont Yankee's nuclear evacuation zone had read and written and studied about nuclear power - some for over three decades. We understood what was happening.
Ten years ago on March 11, the world watched in horror as a massive tsunami created by an earthquake thundered over the coast of Japan. We watched as entire neighborhoods were swept out to sea. Then the news broke that four nuclear reactors were in its path. As The...
No parades for NorthStar
‘Forgive me if I am skeptical that this agreement will stick throughout decommissioning. For how long has our trust in Vermont Yankee’s agreements with the state been violated?’
On March 22, I will be showing up for another meeting on Vermont Yankee. We will hear presentations about the latest ownership deal with Vermont Yankee: the sale from Entergy to NorthStar, for decommissioning. Here is what I will say. * * * Thank you for working together on...
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I want to believe them
Our corner of the state could be at the start of the biggest industrial project in Vermont's history: the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee. Someday, right across the street from the Vernon Elementary School, cranes and bulldozers will be taking down radiated buildings and digging up acres of toxic dirt at the nuclear power station. The complex was built in the late 1960s and early '70s, before the laws regulating toxic and hazardous materials were enacted. No one knows for sure...
Don’t just sit back and cheer; help Bernie win in N.H.
If you're among the 75 percent of Windham County who voted to elect Bernie Sanders to the U.S. Senate - and perhaps among those who have voted for him in every election since 1990, like me - you were probably mighty excited when he announced that he would run for president. With a win in Vermont's primary assured, we are left looking for an outlet to share our enthusiasm where it will make a difference. And just across the river...
We must not forget that this was a battle
Something I never thought I would see in my lifetime has me glued to the Internet. I can't stop reading and watching, crying and laughing. The United States Supreme Court said yes to gay marriage. Love has prevailed. Despite being raised Catholic, I never caught homophobia. Maybe it's because I grew up surrounded by family friends who wore long dresses (priests and seminarians), and by classical musicians who, in the bubble of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, didn't need to hide...
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist
The decommissioning of Vermont Yankee will be one of the most significant undertakings in the state's history. We need to pay at least as much attention to decommissioning as we are paying to the economic impacts of Yankee's closure and who gets how much money from what fund. On Feb. 19, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be in Brattleboro to hold its one public hearing on Entergy's decommissioning plan, the Post Shut down Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR). This coming...
A activist responds
There is plenty to criticize in Tom Salmon's ode to Vermont Yankee, but two paragraphs are particularly odious. He writes, “Eight years ago […] I began to notice the heat being turned up on Vermont Yankee. A rather fierce ideological battle from the hard left ensued. Some were Vermonters, but the vast majority lived in other states. […] “However, in Windham County, a hardy band of citizens said, 'We want to be heard on these issues.' And so the nonprofit...