The AP is reporting that Department of Health Commissioner Wendy Davis is now recognizing that, in the reporter’s words “the volume and direction of flow of tritium-tainted groundwater leads to the conclusion that it’s reaching the river.”
According to the report, Vermont Yankee officials agree with the conclusion.
(HT D.B. in the comments)
What’s next?!
“Who Dat” Flag Flies Over Entergy Corp. Bldg.
“Friday, we installed a very large, 15 foot by 25 foot ‘Who Dat’ flag on top of Entergy Corporation. Black and gold, large Fleur-de-lis with ‘Who Dat’ on it,” Entergy spokesman Morgan Stewart said in an interview with 99.5FM.
http://www.995fm.com/cc-common…
…of flushing all kinds of toxins and poisons down the nearest river. Go back a hundred years; just about every town in New England had factories lining its riverbanks. So Entergy is just harkening back to our forefathers: put it in the river, it goes with the flow, everything’s hunky dory.
Our guardian of public health, Dr. Nancy Davis, says so. Because of the Connecticut River’s heavy current, the tritium is quickly diluted. From the same AP story quoted above:
No matter what happens at VY, they keep telling us not to worry. Their credibility is being diluted about as quickly as all that tritium. (And by “they,” I mean all of ’em: the state, the NRC, and Entergy.)
that could make me rethink my current support of most of Vermont’s Democratic politicians.
This is an issue that involves public safety, public finances and our only source of food, water, air and shelter (aka the physical environment).
Entergy Yankee is a broken down plant that is still breaking down. Even a funky old truck can run good on the downhill, but wait until it reaches the bottom.
Louisiana Entergy wants to dump this decrepit plant (and others) into a Fairpoint style spinoff, and this will beyond a reasonable doubt end with Vermonters picking up the cleanup tab.
Entergy Yankee is currently dumping who knows how much tritium contaminated water with such water contaminated with tritium levels indicative of the insides of a reactor vessel. We don’t know how much even more lethal and much longer lasting radioactive elements are busting the joint!
This is a no fucking brainer, and if the office holder wannabes can’t see this there is something wrong with their thinking.
Timidity to score political points with the wrong people is the standard for the Democratic DC surrender monkeys. I hope Vermont’s Democratic office holders will not follow that path.
State Rep Lucy Leriche recently appeared before the Hardwick Select Board and there was a long conversation about Vermont Yankee. She said she has been getting calls regularly from her constituents begging the state legislature to shut down VY right now! Lucy has to explain to these callers that the state has no rights to determine the operation and future of VY. It’s only through the fluke of the Public Service Department that the People of the State of Vermont have any say about re-licensing at all.
And let’s not fool ourselves, the NRC exists to make sure the nuclear power industry is protected from We, The People. No one is talking about this, but what will happen if the legislature orders the PSD not to renew the Certificate of Public Good for VY? Or better yet, if the legislature takes no action and the PSD can not issue a new CPG? Well does anyone think for one second that the NRC will allow that to stand? No!
The NRC, the nanny-state regulator that makes sure nuclear power continues despite it’s deadly toxins and anti-Free-Market costs. The NRC will over-rule the State of Vermont and side with Entergy to supercede the PSD and order VY to operate for another 20 years anyway. And then what? A “state’s right’s” battle royale before the Federalist Society’s hand-picked Supreme Court? Yeah, we can all guess how that will turn out now that the Roberts Court has thrown out 100 years of decided law and declared corporate persons have more rights than human persons do.
The Federalist Society will side with fascism (defined here as corporate control over the government instead of the human voters) and order the NRC to allow VY to continue operating until it explodes, contaminating the entire New England region. And make no mistake, the NRC will allow Entergy to walk away from all responsibility for clean-up and decommissioning since that would negatively impact Entergy’s profits.
The conservatives are in full control of the Fed at every level. They will never allow nuclear power to be held accountable for their actions. VY will be allowed to ‘leak’ as much Tritium as they want into the CT river, to do otherwise would be an undue burden on the corporate personhood of Entergy. Under Conservatism, only liberal humans are accountable to the Rule of Law. Under Conservatism, corporate persons are above all law and above the US Constitution (which conservatives hate with a white hot fury).