Shut out during the shut down, as once again Entergy tries to control media access to a select few.
When independent documentary filmmaker and public television videographer Robbie Lepzer registered to film a public tour of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (VY), he expected it to be a rather standard process. After all, Entergy regularly admits the press and TV cameras for site tours. This tour, scheduled for Thursday April 29 is for members of the Public Service Board (PSB) and the media.
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Update #1
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (together, "Entergy VY"),have determined to allow credentialed media, including Tuming Tide Productions, to take photographs of or film the areas to be visited during the site visit.
[See complete Downs, Rachlin, Martin response to the Public Service Board in last attached document.] Turning Tide Productions is Robbie Leppzer's film company.
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Leppzer's shut out during shut down by Entergy has resulted in a PSB demand for information from Entergy as to why a journalist is not being allowed to film when other TV media is filming and has been filming. [Emphasis added.]
MEMORANDUM
To: Parties in PSB Docket No. 7600
From: Susan M. Hudson, Clerk of the Board
Re: Turning Tide Productions' Request to Film Site Visit
Date: April 27, 2010
On April 27, 2010, Robbie Leppzer sent the attached e-mail to the Public Service Board ("Board") requesting that the Board take action to allow Mr. Leppzer to bring television cameras to the site visit in Docket 7600 scheduled for Thursday, April 29. The Board requests that Entergy submit a response to Mr. Leppzer's request by noon on April 28. In particular, the Board requests Entergy to address whether Entergy is permitting news organizations to have television cameras, as Mr. Leppzer indicates. If so, Entergy should explain why Mr. Leppzer is being treated differently from those news organizations. The Board also requests that Entergy explain what, if any, restrictions on cameras are
necessary to ensure that Entergy fulfills its security and safety obligations.
Other parties may also submit comments by the same deadline.
cc: Robbie Leppzer
Leppzer has more than 30-years of documentary film making [see Leppzer's resume below the fold]. In preparation for a documentary film on the relicensing of VY, he has been filming testimony presented to the Legislature and its committees since January when discussion of both the leak and Entergy's request to relicense the nuclear plant began in earnest. Given that Vermont is the only state in the country to have the legal right to decide if VY should receive its Certificate for Public Good (CPG), it makes sense to me that someone would want to create a documentary about this subject. I also expect that Entergy would try to thwart such an effort.
At the very time Entergy is claiming a new policy of openness to Vermont State officials, boards, commissions, the legislature and the media, it has denied Leppzer permission to film the tour even though he is filming for CCTV Channnel 17 out of Burlington, VT in addition to his own documentary work. Leppzer may, as Entergy's Smith informed him, may take the tour, but without any film equipment, a predicament that is challenging for a filmmaker.
Entergy's action has once again put them in the spotlight in a negative way. After being shut out of filming, Leppzer contacted State Representative Sarah Edwards from Brattleboro, who is a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel. Edwards wrote to Entergy requesting that they reconsider their decision and give Leppzer equal access. Smith still denied Leppzer access, so at that time, Leppzer sent the entire packet of email correspondence, herein reproduced below the fold, to the PSB.
The PSB has given Entergy until noon today to explain why they are preventing Leppzer from filming.
More below the fold, including the entire email correspondence between Leppzer and Entergy's Smith.
I first met Leppzer in January when he was filming testimony given to the Natural Resources Committee regarding leaks at Vermont Yankee, and have seen him, along with many other members of the media, at almost every nuclear testimony and event I have attended since January from hearings to the NRC meeting in Brattleboro on April 19.
I find the decision to exclude Leppzer as odd since this is a public meeting that includes the media. While NRC Region 1 Spokesperson Neil Sheehan has denied me permission to be on the NRC email list and claimed that Green Mountain Daily is not bona-fide media, even the NRC allowed Leppzer to film their workshop and meeting. [As NRC and Entergy should be learning, attempting to shut out the media only results in more press and more scrutiny.]
In prior public touring events, for example the Stakeholder's Meeting and press conference, which Entergy hosted at Vermont Yankee on March 25, 2010, a member in attendance wrote that
multiple media outlets were granted access to photograph, film, and videotape the plant. The only restrictions on media coverage that day were that photographers could not shoot any of the security towers or security personnel. The media was walked from the Hunt House to the excavation area, then around the back of the plant to the area where dry casks are stored. Plant officials showed the media each of the well heads, including the drinking water well that had by then been removed from service. There were no restrictions on shooting any of these elements.
The PSB is having a formal public meeting tour because it is adjudicating a request by intervenors to shut down VY until the tritium leak, which was uncovered January 7, was stopped. Entergy maintains that the source of the leak has been found and stopped. The PSB, media, and intervenors were scheduled to have an opportunity to view the location of the leak on Thursday to see the repairs now that the leak has been stopped and the plant is shut down for refueling.
Leppzer appears to have followed every protocol required in order to film at VY, including registering with the Public Service Board, and filming for Burlington's Channel 17 Public Access television in addition to using the footage for his own documentary. See the entire chain of emails in the PDF below.
Leppzer began writing to Entergy's PR Staff members Rob Williams and Larry Smith April 8 regarding the Entergy's science fair hosted April 12 at the Ramada Inn. On April 18, Leppzer wrote:
As I mentioned in a previous email, I'm directing and producing an independent documentary about nuclear power in the new millennium, highlighting the debate in Vermont over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. This will be a feature documentary intended for national broadcast on public television or a national cable network. My previously produced documentaries and commissioned magazine segments have been broadcast nationally on PBS, CNN, CNN International, Cinemax, Sundance Channel and HDNet.
On Friday, I spoke with Judith Whitney, Deputy Clerk of the Vermont Public Service Board, and she informed me that the site visit by the Public Service Board to Vermont Yankee on April 29 is open to the press and media.
Below is information on our documentary television crew members, in accordance with Entergy regulations for people visiting the site.
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UPDATE #1 By the way if you look closely at Smith's last email to Leppzer, you will
notice three items.
•First, it is clear that Smith is quite aware that Entergy is denying access to
Channel 17 CCTV Public Access TV.
•Second, note that many upper management personnel at Entergy are contacted, not
just site personnel as well as someone with Enexus. Isn't Enexus defunct, or is
that another Entergy untruth?
•Third, Smith has copied their attorney Downs, Rachlin and Martin's John Marshall. I
guess Smith was clearly anticipating litigation push back.
