Vermont's first real chill of cool fall weather sets the stage for the 26th year of the Vermont Film Festival, which began yesterday (Friday October 21) and runs through Sunday October 30.
Check out the list of films,17 of which have been created by Vermont filmmakers! Many of the films also include panel discussions, food samples, or time to meet writers and directors.
My first choice today is Transparent Radiation, a film created by the Gund Institute filmmaker Hillary Archer that debuts today at 5 pm at the Palace 9 Theater in South Burlington. This free showing includes a follow-up panel discussion with Ms. Archer and her colleagues from the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at UVM.
For anyone who has been following Arnie Gunderson on Fairewinds’ videos since the Fukushima meltdowns it may be no surprise that they are attracting considerable attention. Not surprisingly the videos, produced on a shoestring, are straight forward and informative.
Pro nuclear power blogger Rod Adams has noticed too, and this isn’t the first time. Last March, Adams was taken to task by the Brattleboro Reformer for an unsuccessful effort to smear Gundersen’s reputation. He penned a letter to the editor attempting to blunt Gundersen’s critique of Vermont Yankee by attacking his reputation. The Reformer called out his methods in an editorial titled: If you can't refute the message then try to discredit the messenger.
It’s archived unfortunately, but in it the Reformer noted the ongoing efforts at personal destruction:
That's the tactic several Vermont Yankee advocates have taken to impugn the character and devalue the experience of Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear safety advocate who has been highly critical of the operation of the nuclear power plant in Vernon.
The writer [Rod Adams] of Atomic Insights (atomicinsights.blogspot.com) accused Gundersen of inflating his resume…,
Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, was once praised by the Chairman of the NRC for his congressional testimony about problems in the nuclear industry to the Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1993. Former NRC Chairman Selin said “Everything Mr. Gundersen said was absolutely right; he performed quite a service....”
Fast forward to the latest effort (here) where Adams pulls no punches and accuses Gundersen (not TEPCO) of causing fear, uncertainty and doubt. He confesses to being tired due to the effort required to respond and debunk what he says are false claims. Yet Adams marshals enough strength to author a long attack piece and at the close flatly explains he believes it is simply more effective to attack the messenger rather than argue the facts. His confessed tactic in simple and straight forward terms:
Several people have challenged me with regard to my efforts to expose Gundersen as having strong personal and financial motives to attack his former industry. [Note: Adams has had a business relationship with the French nuclear firm Areva currently contracted by TEPCO and is marketing small nuclear reactors] They do not like my efforts to show that he has not been completely forthcoming about his experience. They have told me that it is not fair to focus on the messenger; they say I should focus on countering his assertions instead.
My response is to remind people that it is often far more effective to aim at the archer than to aim at the arrows. (Of course, I am speaking figuratively here. My weapon is my keyboard.)
The Energy Collective blog is an energy industry (Siemens AG) sponsored site with a variety of bloggers that offers interesting information on all forms of power sources in that context. It is significant that Adams is readily taken to task in the comment section by a fellow Energy Collective diarist for his tone and destructive methods on what should be his home turf.
This [Adams' diary] post doesn't create the context that correctly illustrates the news reporting climate that's shrouded Fukushima, in your article debunking Arnie. That includes those we would expect to hear from which includes TEPCO, the Japanese government and the IAEA. Gundersen has also been completely correct in many of his assertions from day one, but you haven't pointed that out.
Odd changes in Entergy's J. Wayne Leonard's compensation package according to the April 14 issue of Forbes.
I've been so busy worrying about the accident at Japan's Fukushima reactor, that I almost forgot about Vermont Yankee and all the doins here in Vermont. Although I haven't forgotten that VY is the same age and make as Fukushima.
An out-of-state friend was reviewing the compensation packages for utility execs in Forbes magazine and sent me this little gem today, and I just had to share it with Vermonters since the state is also being sued by Entergy.
Total Compensation
$18.12 mil
5-Year Compensation
$101.96 mil Education:
College: Ball State University BS '73
Graduate School: Indiana University MBA '87
J Wayne Leonard has been CEO of Entergy (ETR) for 12 years. Mr. Leonard has been with the company for 13 years. The 60 year old executive ranks 2 within Utilities
Leonard also ranks 65 in compensation compared with other corporate execs. Wow.
In 2009, the Vermont Yankee Public Oversight Panel recommended that Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) buy a new condenser for its reactor. Well, actually ENVY's own staff recommended that VY needed a new condenser all the way back in 1999. ENVY has claimed it does not have the $100 Million needed, but they did have the $100 Million to pay out over 5 years in a special compensation package for Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard!
Wow - Leonard could buy VY its condenser and still have more than $1 Million in compensation. Leonard could make a significant donation and ease VY's reliability issues and still be left with a pretty hunk of change. Of course, he still couldn't change VY's Fukushima Mark 1 BWR design.
"We cannot just go back to business as usual," [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel said, adding that events in Japan "teach us that risks that were thought to be completely impossible cannot in fact be completely ruled out".
Just when I thought it could not get any worse, it got worse.
As you all know, one nuclear plant had the top blow off and began to leak radioactivity into the air (Unit 1, built in 1970). Then a 2nd one it exploded yesterday (Sunday) (Unit 3 built in 1974) Tonight we received word at 8 pm that Unit 2 exploded (built in 1972 - the same year as Vermont Yankee). Each explosion has gotten worse, and the third explosion has severely damaged the containment building.
By the way, the 2nd reactor to blow - Unit 3 is burning MOX fuel - mixed oxide fuel, which has plutonium added. Did you know that plutonium is named after Pluto the god of hell?
Now Unit 4 has a fire in spent fuel pool caused by exposed fuel and burning hydrogen. A burning fuel pool fire is worse than a meltdown because the uranium and plutonium vaporize.
By the way, all 4 Japanese nuke plants in trouble are the same vintage, design, & model as Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek (NJ)(Exelon owned), and Pilgrim (MA - just south of Boston) (another Entergy plant)
It is very, very late Monday night, no early Tuesday morning. I am exhausted. Yesterday (Sunday) we researched and prepped for several radio shows and NY Times, Washington Post, and WSJ. This morning began with Chicago radio, where Illinois has 11 working nukes - 4 of its oldest units are like Fukushima. All the Illinois nukes are owned by Exelon, the corporation that was President Obama's biggest campaign donor.
Next Arnie interviewed w/ a Miami station. It always bothers us to do press in Florida, where we already did a nuclear case with a cancer cluster of 42 families exposed to illegal radioactivity from a nuclear power plant that was covered-up by the NRC.
After those two radio shows Arnie was on Democracy Now & will be again on Tuesday morning @ 8:10 a.m.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan is a terrible tragedy for the people in Japan, and for the people in the path of the moving radioactive cloud.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant was gravely impacted by the earthquake, tsunami, and additional earthquakes and aftershocks. It has been unable to cool the reactor core, and has had an explosion that severely damaged the containment. At the very beginning and half-way through this video you will see an explosive wave that shows that the top of the containment has blown off. A second reactor is also having great difficulty cooling its reactor core.
The Fukushima nuke plant is almost identical to Vermont Yankee (VY). It has a Mark 1 (earliest) containment. The fuel pool is on the top floor, and after the explosion the fuel pool is open to the environment. Many years of spent fuel (the used fuel that is the most radioactive,) is not being cooled and is in direct contact with the air so it is beginning to release significant amounts of radiation.
As a result of this devastating accident, radioactive Cesium, which lasts in the environment for 300-years and is absorbed by muscles in the human body, especially infant hearts, has been detected in the environment around the plant. People near the plant are already receiving as much radiation in an hour as they normally receive in one year. The delayed response to the accident has put thousands of lives in jeopardy. Like Three Mile Island (TMI), significant amounts of radiation are already in the environment, and like TMI, the government in Japan has waited too long to evacuate people. See the truth about TMI here.
The Fukishima Nuclear Power Plant is a General Electric (GE) Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) with a Mark 1 containment. NRC said in 1972 that this containment should never have been built, and the design was ultimately changed, but not until at least 22 Mark 1's were constructed in the US, and it is not clear how many throughout the world. Joseph Hendrie, inside the NRC, said, that the Mark 1 should never have been built, but he did not have the heart to shut them down (see end of post).
Noted physician and author Dr. Helen Caldicott spoke last night at UVM, spoke Tuesday at Middlebury College, and will be speaking tonight in Montpelier and tomorrow night in Brattleboro.
Hear Dr. Caldicott tonight: April 9 5:30pm
The Chapel, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 36 College St, Montpelier, VT
I was lucky enough to have lunch with Dr. Caldicott yesterday and to be part of a panel discussion with her that was hosted by Margaret Harrington on CCTV Burlington yesterday afternoon. More about both those items in a later post.
Dr. Caldicott co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization
of 32,400 medical professionals committed to educating their colleagues to the
dangers of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The international umbrella
organization, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
If you miss tonight's lecture, head to Brattleboro tomorrow, April 10 @ 7:00pm
Latchis 4, Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St., Brattleboro, VT (one door down from the main entrance)
Dr. Caldicott has spent 35 years as an advocate of citizen awareness regarding the world's nuclear and environmental crisis. Her international campaign strives to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior needed to prevent environmental destruction.
Trained as a physician and thoroughly versed in the science of nuclear energy, Dr. Caldicott is a knowledgeable and inspiring speaker. During the 1970's Dr. Caldicott was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and served
on the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center. One of the most influential women of the 20th century, she has received many awards for her
work. She is the author of seven books, including War in Heaven, (published in March 2007), Nuclear Power is Not the Answer (2006), If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992), and Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do (1979). She
has also been the focus of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981, and If You Love This Planet, which won The Academy Award for best documentary in 1982.
Dr. Caldicott's lectures are free and open to the public.
"Representatives from Vermont's Department of Public Service were heckled by anti-nuclear activists during a public meeting in Brattleboro last night.
The meeting was the last of four around the state that the DPS hosted to discuss the future of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
DPS Spokesman Stephen Wark was interrupted several times as he attempted to explain to the crowd of more than 100 people gathered at the Red Roof Inn the process behind the state's review of the power plant... the hearing in Brattleboro was meant to inform the Department of Public Service, the Public Service Board and the Legislature in its deliberations over Yankee's future."
It gets better.
"Off to the side, a pair of anti-nuclear activists performed a kind of street theater. A man wearing a placard reading "Public Service" and a woman wearing a placard reading "Nuclear Industry" mimicked a couple engaging in foreplay, bordering on sex.
At one point, Wark threatened to call the police to remove at least one of the loudest protesters.
"Some people here tonight are more interested in grandstanding than in participating," said Wark, after the crowd broke into five groups to discuss Vermont Yankee. "We're here for a period of time with a serious mission and that's to collect information for in-depth studies. We want to make sure we are hearing the people."
Wark said previous meetings in Burlington, St. Johnsbury and Rutland were not disrupted by protesters.
"This doesn't dissuade us from what we came here to do," he said.""
We need to really push right now on lack of faith in Vermont Yankee and its ability to maintain core safety standard. One way we can do this is to start pushing the Democratic/Progressive majority's energy plan NOW, before the legislature even gets back in session, to make it a top priority and make it politically difficult for Douglas to veto it again.
We need to start blanketing our papers with letters, not only talking about the dangers of nuclear power, but tying them in to three things:
The energy bill that Douglas vetoed and why it's more important to refocus our work on safe, clean and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power;
local economy and how when people are invested in their own community, they don't have to worry about their safety being in the hands of large corporations which see the surrounding communities in terms of profit and loss and little else;
that lack of regulation and supervision is a dangerous thing and if we can't adequately insure that VY is up to the task of maintaining their own equipment (be sure to mention the recent incident, the fire and the rods that they just couldn't find one day).
This is a big deal. We need to write letters about it. We need to make phone calls about it.
What you probably haven't seen or heard are descriptions of the cause of the problems or pictures of what the damage really entails. According to a filing yesterday by VPIRG, Arnie Gunderson, an expert on cooling towers,
the current damage and derate shares causes identical with the June/July 2004 fire, outage, and derate. Those identical shared causes are poor maintenance, lack of attention to detail in engineering, failure of aging management, and the impacts of extended power uprate (“EPU”).
VPIRG's filing also shows photographs of the failed cooling tower. The photos depict the wooden and metal wreckage of the cooling tower, with water flooding out of a huge broken pipe. It's pretty dramatic, and it certainly gives one pause about whether the MSM coverage has been enough to convey the scope of this problem.
Here's the most dramatic picture in the group:
Maybe, the next time we hear conservatives in the Douglas Administration bragging about Vermont's "clean" power portfolio, we should remind them of the costs of this "clean" power.
250-1
55-1
