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Anti-Nuke Vermonters Claim Progress

Randolph, Vermont - November 7, 2009

Vermonters opposed to nuclear power say their campaign to close the Vermont Yankee plant is picking up steam. They attended a statewide conference on Saturday.

The Environmental Action 2009 conference at Vermont Tech was put on by the main environmental groups, including VPIRG, the Vermont Natural Resources Council and Toxics Action. It broke up into small workshops. One of their goals is to force Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to shut down by denying it a license extension.

Organizers say they have brought about a shift in public opinion through media coverage of the plant's problems, such as a collapsed cooling tower. Gretchen Kruesi of VPIRG also credits their own public campaign. "The previous summer, we had a lot of support as well, but we had to educate people a bit more on the issue," she said, "where now they're done with education. They know where they stand, they read about it every day in the paper, that we just can't trust Entergy as a corporation."

The environmentalists say wind power can replace Vermont Yankee, if not immediately, over a period of years. They point to New York's north country as an example. Peter Van der Does, an anti-nuclear activist, referred to "huge, huge wind turbines there that are saving the local farms from going under. And they're part of 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy that the state of New York is in the process of encouraging and deploying. So the replacement scenario for Vermont Yankee is a foregone conclusion at this point."

Some of those who attended the conference count themselves as long-time opponents of nuclear power who feel that their efforts are beginning to pay off. Mary Belenky, a member of the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance, said, "Nuclear issues have been, are, uncomfortable. People don't like thinking about it, they don't like talking about it. Most of us didn't know very much for a long time. So I love this work."

Although a handful of national environmentalists have come around in support of nuclear power as a hedge against global warming, organizers of this conference think they're on the verge of victory in the Legislature with a vote next session to shut down Vermont Yankee in 2012.

Andy Potter -- WCAX News