A No-Brainer

The NRC logic (4.00 / 4)

NRC Logic:  VT Yankee is completely different than Fukushima Daiichi.  

Our control room is labelled in English and theirs is Japanese!

Our plant is on a river, not an ocean.

Our plant is on an inactive fault line, not an active one.

Entergy says our plant is perfectly safe, TEPCO says ...  oops, forget that one.

Our plant can't possible go worng!

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by: Comrade Rutherford @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 19:02:15 PM UTC

And... (4.00 / 2)

...we have Champ, a 'nice' monster, while Japan has Godzilla, a 'radioactive' monster.
AND...Tom Salmon will do a campaign event at Vt. Yankee next year, in which he will drink a gallon of our new Tritium 'Boost' Springwater and say: "Man, that's an energy rush!"

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by: PeteySweety @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 19:15:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don't (4.00 / 2)

let that energy drink company know about this! Entergy could end up getting sued! Monster boost tritiated energy drink! It's what all the cool kids are drinking these days.

Groundwater at VY, the only water we really want sucked up and tricked away!  

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by: bmike @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 20:52:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Radithor, the Health Drink for the 20s (0.00 / 0)

That would've been the 1920s, that is. I don't have the book with me, a history of forensic toxicology in NYC in the early 20th century, but the author mentions Marie Curie's two "Radium Tours" of the U.S. And that after the discovery, radium was considered a health-enhancing substance, sold, among other conveyances, in a "health drink" called "Radithor."

Despite the relatively quick deaths of tens of Radium Girls who licked their brushes to points before painting radium onto watch and clock dials to make them glow in the dark.

And, as my spouse, (looking over my shoulder at the airport) says, I'd pay to see Salmon drinking tritium water at Entergy's nuke plant.

NanuqFC
The human race has today the means for annihilating itself ... by careless handling of atomic technology through a slow process of poisoning and of deterioration in its genetic structure. ~ Max Born (Nobel Prize winner for Physics, 1954; from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 1957)

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by: NanuqFC @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 17:10:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Brockovitch (4.00 / 1)

It reminds me of that great scene in Erin Brockovitch where she tells the corporate lawyers that the water on the conference table is from toxic wells around the plant, and to go ahead and drink it if there's nothing really wrong with it.

I think that Salmon would have enough money to challenge Sanders if everyone who is interested actually did pay to see Salmon drink Entergy's water (instead of carrying Entergy's water!).

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by: Comrade Rutherford @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 12:17:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

So, eh (4.00 / 5)

the headline:
Vermont Yankee Spring water seen boosting Salmon run

Come on.I've been set-up,I swore to my family,never to pun again.Really

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by: BP @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 21:32:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Maybe it (4.00 / 1)

is not a pun at all, just a quip? I can quit anytime,really.

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by: BP @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 21:36:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

LOL! (0.00 / 0)

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by: simplify @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 17:26:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Some simliarities (4.00 / 1)

erie similarities

Japan Extended Reactor's Life, Despite Warning

The decision to extend the reactor's life, and the inspection failures at all six reactors, highlight what critics describe as unhealthy ties between power plant operators and the Japanese regulators that oversee them. Expert panels like the one that recommended the extension are drawn mostly from academia to backstop bureaucratic decision-making and rarely challenge the agencies that hire them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03...

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by: BP @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 03:36:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Spreading the wisdom... (4.00 / 1)

I was heartened to read that the NRC has sent some experts to Japan. Their wisdom and expertise will come in handy. As will their practiced use of the phrase "no current threat to public health or safety."

They might be able to teach the Japanese a thing or two about Friday afternoon press releases, too.

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."  --Frank Zappa

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by: jvwalt @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 19:45:38 PM UTC

Immediate (4.00 / 2)

Isn't their standard phrase "no immediate threat to human health"? Of course, we all know by now that radiation can work slowly, especially an accumulation of low-level radiation.

NanuqFC
In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. ~ George Orwell  

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by: NanuqFC @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 18:16:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Immediate (0.00 / 0)

Isn't their standard phrase "no immediate threat to human health"? Of course, we all know by now that radiation can work slowly, especially an accumulation of low-level radiation.

NanuqFC
In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. ~ George Orwell  

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by: NanuqFC @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 18:16:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yup (4.00 / 2)

'Immediate' is a glaring fudge word.  A few score died in the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl; many, many thousands died later.

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by: ntoddpax @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 18:20:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

A simple solution (4.00 / 2)

Every commissioner and employee of the NRC, in order to keep their jobs, should live within 3 miles (preferably downwind) of an operating nuclear plant. My guess is that safety modifications might be taken just a tad more seriously. And decommissioning...

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by: Tom C @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 20:04:34 PM UTC

Did they lose the fence sitters? (4.00 / 1)

It might arguably have reassured doubting Vermonters who may be on the fence (there are some I think) about nuclear power if any hint of legitimate introspection had been shown by the NRC after the Fukushima meltdown or AKA partial meltdown.

But when all is said and done was there anyone who ever thought the NRC would say anything but yes ,yes ,yes ?

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by: BP @ Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 23:32:43 PM UTC

Lawsuit coming (4.00 / 1)

VY needs to be shut down in 2012. But it look like Entergy will keep operating, claiming that Vermont has no jurisdiction. Is there any way for the state to sue them now, in advance, rather than waiting for them to thumb their noses at us? There's probably a lawsuit coming in any case.

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by: buster @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 20:12:24 PM UTC

They can't (4.00 / 1)

Part of the MOU is they acknowledge we do have jurisdiction.  (*cough*seemydiary*cough*).  And really, when has the NRC had jurisdiction over anything but "safety" certification anyway?  Licensing doesn't mean we have to accept a plant.  But before I try to find the Federal law governing their authority, maybe somebody could point it out to me...

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by: ntoddpax @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 22:45:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Law governing nuclear power (4.00 / 1)

It's the Atomic Energy Act.  Here's what the Supreme Court said about it:
"From the passage of the Atomic Energy Act in 1954, through several revisions, and to the present day, Congress has preserved the dual regulation of nuclear powered electricity generation: the Federal Government maintains complete control of the safety and "nuclear" aspects of energy generation, whereas the States exercise their traditional authority over economic questions such as the need for additional generating capacity, the type of generating facilities to be licensed, land use, and ratemaking." (PG & E v. State Energy Comm'n, 461 U.S. 190 (1983)

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by: John Greenberg @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 12:54:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thank you! (0.00 / 0)

That gibes with my perception, but I didn't have any citation.  Thanks.

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by: ntoddpax @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 13:44:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lawsuit coming (0.00 / 0)

VY needs to be shut down in 2012. But it look like Entergy will keep operating, claiming that Vermont has no jurisdiction. Is there any way for the state to sue them now, in advance, rather than waiting for them to thumb their noses at us? There's probably a lawsuit coming in any case.

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by: buster @ Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 20:12:37 PM UTC

Holy Crap! (0.00 / 0)

So Vermont will have to sue Entergy over breach of contract, since Entergy will flout the Rule of Law by ignoring the State.

I realized last night that I am suddenly in favor of State's Rights!

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by: Comrade Rutherford @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 12:19:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Can't wait (4.00 / 2)

for the states rights folks to find a rip in the space time continuum with this one, followed by the 'socialism' of building and insuring nuke plants. As well as the 'redistribution' of wealth that happens when billions of dollars in subsidies and insurance underwriting provided by the taxpayers is used for profit... its not like we're seeing a dividend check every year from our 'investment' in nukes.

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by: bmike @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 14:10:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Socialized risk is okay! (4.00 / 2)

It's fine that we have spent hundreds of billions subsidizing nuke power for several decades.  Just so long as the corporations get to keep the privatized profits.

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by: ntoddpax @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 14:31:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I so (0.00 / 0)

Need to get with the program...

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by: bmike @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 14:57:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]