Per today’s Rutland Herald:
Entergy Nuclear unveiled a new public relations campaign Thursday as Vermont regulators and the Vermont Legislature will consider the future life of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
The advertising campaign also comes on the eve of the company’s expected release of its contract offer to Vermont utilities for power from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
And, of course, there’s this.
Williams refused to say how much Entergy Nuclear was spending on the print and television ads, but said the ads would begin running in statewide media this week.
What gems? What words of wisdom are part of Vermont Yankee’s campaign?
Well, they warn us, without VY, “electric rates could rise” and we could experience “vulnerability to fluctuations in the regional power market.”
Wow. I had no idea. With VY, electric rates never rise, and we’re never vulnerable to fluctuations in the regional power market. It’s very nice of them to tell us this. Without the money they’ve spent on this ad campaign, I might never know how much I love Vermont Yankee. I even went to their website and filled out a form, explaining why I support VY.
I wrote that all the good VY does gives me a warm glow inside.
is reporting that it will be receiving big money from Entergy in the near future? I mean why not get Entergy’s new gimmick website’s URL out there before you actually get the check? Looks like a win-win for a revenue and reporter starved newspaper.
Ha – the legislature and Vermont citizen groups are not allowed to discuss safety, but here we go again. In Entergy Nuclear’s new VY campaign, it talks about safety. Even though the AG’s office made Entergy remove safety from its preceding advertisement campaign: safe, clean and reliable!
Yet here we go again.
From their new website http://www.iamvy.com
My firm Fairewinds Associates, Inc does nuclear safety engineering analysis all over the country. Most recently we did a major safety analysis of Fermi Unit 3 under construction and its lack of a cohesive QA program, which the NRC is attempting to overlook. See the story and report here: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/h…
No firm and no individual has evaluated ENVY for safety issues. My firm’s preliminary analysis of ENVY’s aging management issues does indeed show that safety systems are compromised, and in my opinion the plant is not safe to operate for another 20-years. However, due to federal pre-emption and jurisdictional issues, we are not allowed to bring these concerns to the Legislature. We have been informed that if the Legislature discusses or listens to arguments regarding safety issues, the NRC and Entergy will sue the state of Vermont claiming that only Entergy and the NRC may analyze and discuss safety.
So much for state’s rights and meeting the NRC charter of protecting public health and safety.
…and we have to get a few hundred miles upwind to put safety aside, there is another factor that will deep-six ENVY in just a few years. In rough numbers, the worldwide nuclear power industry uses about 65,000 metric tons of nuclear fuel each year. The world mines about 40,000 tons. The other 25,000 tons comes from reprocessing and decommissioned nuclear weapons.
The nuclear weapons portion of the mix will run out around 2014, leaving a deficit. According to what I have read, the industry is scrambling to open enough new mining capacity to meet the shortfall, but given the necessary lead time for development they are not going to make it.
Around 2014 the price of uranium will rise until there’s enough demand destruction to close the gap. How much will that affect nuclear electricity prices? I don’t know, but I imagine that ENVY won’t be generating bargain basement discount electricity at that point.
Stick it together with duct-tape and chewing gum, pronounce it reliable, and then blow the remaining Entergy budget on PR. If it works for the pharmaceutical industry, why not for Neanderthal Nuclear?