From the “methinks thou dost protest too much” department…

I find it interesting that the Republicans are pushing so hard to give Democrats a black eye over the fact that the law has unexpectedly provided an opportunity for shady operators to access the personal financial information of Vermont taxpayers through Town Offices. Consider some of those shady operators who are swooping in, doing that vulture-thing (from VPR, emphasis mine):

 

There's disagreement among town clerks – and among state officials – about whether the income adjustment information should be public.
 
Secretary of State Deb Markowitz has said it should be kept private.
 
But Montpelier's clerk relied on advice from the (Douglas) Tax Department. So she released 24 pages of data to two individuals who asked for it. One of the requests came from the state Republican Party.
 

Uh-huh. I guess they were for it before they were against it (before they were for it, since the changes in the law that created the privacy loophole were approved with a bipartisan majority). Or maybe they want to exploit the privacy hole themselves and close it up behind them as soon as possible.

Real class act, the Vermont GOP… 

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.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

You know the saying that one picture is worth a thousand words? Here's a case where that is true.

You've probably heard the stories about Vermont Yankee having to reduce power, and you've seen the press reports that it was caused by “problems” in the cooling towers.  Wooden components and piping had failed in one of the towers, said Sheehan and Robert Williams, spokesman for plant owner Entergy Nuclear.

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.

Well the press may not be taking this seriously (click here for the pictures, – they are pretty shocking – or just scroll down) but at least somebody is:

August 23, 2007

The Honorable Dale Klein
Chairman
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Dear Chairman Klein:

We are writing in response to the alarming events that occurred at Vermont Yankee power plant on August 21, 2007.  It is our understanding that a non-safety related portion of one cooling tower cell at the plant collapsed.  We further understand from your staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that there was no threat to the public's health with this accident and that the plant began to power down to 40% immediately following the accident. 

We are concerned about the cause of this structural failure, especially about the implications for the cooling tower cell(s) that are related to the safe operation of the plant.  We understand from your staff that the licensee, Entergy Vermont Yankee, is currently examining this accident to determine the cause of the collapsed tower and whether there was any evidence of structural deficiencies prior to the collapse.  However, the NRC, has not yet committed to undertaking a thorough investigation of the safety related cooling towers cell(s) that are located on the same site and could potentially have similar structural issues.  We find this extremely troubling.     

We therefore request you undertake an immediate and thorough investigation to determine if there are similar structural deficiencies in any and all portions of the safety related cooling towers cell(s) at the facility.  Furthermore, we ask you to examine the structural integrity of the remaining towers and institute any additional precautions to prevent other collapses that would jeopardize the safety of the cooling towers and that could present a risk to the public's health or safe operation of the facility.  Finally we request an evaluation of any preventive actions that the licensee and/or NRC took in the past related to the safe and efficient operation of all of the cooling towers at the facility.

Please continue to keep us thoroughly informed as more information becomes available. We are committed to assisting Vermont and the NRC to ensure the safety at Vermont Yankee. We appreciate your timely attention to this issue. 

PATRICK LEAHY        BERNARD SANDERS              PETER WELCH