Like most people, I found it incomprehensible that Vermont Yankee employees did not know that underground, radiation-carrying pipes exist at Vermont Yankee. A glance at the simplest of blueprints would have revealed the pipes.  More to the point: for safety, plant operators must know where radioactive material is going at all times.  To believe that the lies concerning the pipes were an “oversight,” one must accept that the employees are hopelessly inept.  Perhaps I am naïve, but I cannot believe that Vermont Yankee employees are this hopeless.  So, why did management lie when the odds were good they would get caught?

I suspect Entergy knew about the leak before they testified.  I believe they took a calculated risk in playing dumb about the pipes with hopes that the leak would not be discovered until after the relicensing process is complete-and in their favor.  I’m not an engineer, but the contaminated area is large by anyone’s standards; this leak did not begin recently.

Of course, I know of no proof of this, but my theory goes a long way in explaining the laughable lies that were attempted.  I can think of no other rationale.

I don’t have the legal wherewithal to pursue this, but I wish someone would file a suit (if that is what one does in this case) to see when Entergy knew about the leaks.  I also wish they would close the plant now.  A “little” radiation is too much.

(Continuing the policy of promoting diaries from officeholders and officeseekers – promoted by odum)

A new Senate proposal would tax the paychecks of nearly 330,000 wage earners in Vermont. The tax increase would affect the average wage earner in Vermont by about $40-$80 per year. I know we need creative ideas to fix the challenges we face, but this is the wrong idea at the wrong time.

Montpelier underfunded our unemployment insurance program by increasing benefits without increasing contributions paid by employers to support the fund.  Now, when we need it the most because unemployment is at nearly seven percent, the fund is out of money.   President Obama has made a wise decision to boost the no-interest loans to states adversely affected by the downturn. We should use this opportunity to reset our economy, get people the help they need and start creating jobs by supporting existing businesses in Vermont that are ready to grow. The last thing we should do is take more money out of a family’s budget or spike unemployment taxes on small businesses.

Increasing taxes on working Vermonters will hurt families that are already struggling.  We should instead take advantage of emergency aid available through federal programs to help us ride out economic storm.

President Obama has made a wise decision to boost the no-interest loans to states adversely affected by the downturn. We should use this opportunity to reset our economy, get people the help they need and start creating jobs by supporting existing businesses in Vermont that are ready to grow. The last thing we should do is take more money out of a family’s budget or spike unemployment taxes on small businesses

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

In Maputo, Mozambique I had the opportunity to sit in on a workshop organized by Prolinnova, the Spanish NGO Centro de Iniciativas para la Cooperación/Batá, and the National Farmers Union of Mozambique, UNAC, about different agricultural innovations. But the farmers weren’t there to be trained by the NGOs. Instead, they were in Maputo to share their experiences and learn from each other about different innovations each farmer was practicing in her or his community

Energindo Paulo, from Nicassa province, for example, was there to explain how to make pesticidas natural, natural, non-toxic pesticides to protect crops. His ingredients-including leaves from the Neem tree-were displayed on the floor in front of him as he talked about different methods for controlling pests. When Energindo finished his presentation, the group of 50 farmers asked questions about how to apply the pesticide-directly on the leaves-and how long they should wait after applying the pesticide to eat the produce-two or three days.

Throughout the morning, farmers presented other innovations and practices-including how to prevent diseases that affect their crops and fruit trees and how to raise farmed fish.

According to Santiago Medina of Batá, this workshop was the culmination of a series of workshops that Batá/Prolinnova/UNAC held in 2009 to help farmers identify innovations in their communities and then share them with other farmers. They plan to identify 12-14 innovations and practices identified at the workshops for a book which will be translated into three of Mozambique’s languages, allowing these different innovations to spread throughout the country. And the workshops help farmers value-and invest in-their own local knowledge.

The following is on the Progressive Party website:

Seventy Progressives met in Royalton on Sunday for their quarterly State Committee meeting and passed the following resolution on a Just Transition:

The rest flows below the fold …

Why the Vermont Progressive Party Champions a Just Transition Resolution

Whereas: Job displacement that results from economic, ecological or social imperatives must be dealt with as the other side of the “social good” coin, and not cost workers or communities their health, wealth or assets. The cost of such changes should fall on those who can afford it; and

Whereas: The Vermont Progressive Party understands that climate change, the preservation of the environment and the danger of nuclear pollution are issues that directly affect working people because they are the most vulnerable and have the fewest resources to deal with these problems; and

Whereas: It will take the united efforts of all affected Vermonters to cope with these problems, especially those workers most directly affected by environmental protection measures and the closure of Vermont Yankee including their Trade Unions to bring about real change; and

Whereas: While it is true that a state-based single-payer or self insurance system is the only effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing costs by saving millions annually wasted on administrative costs and insurance company profits while covering all Vermonters, it is also true that this will result in job losses for those currently employed by health care providers and insurance companies in processing insurance claims.

Therefore be it resolved: That the Vermont Progressive Party strongly advocates a “Just Transition” to a sustainable economy, always demonstrating a deep concern for both jobs and the environment.

Be it further resolved: That the closing of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee plant must include provisions for a “Just Transition” for the local community which faces the loss of revenue, and the VY workers who lose their jobs, and may, in this economy, never have a family wage job again. A “Just Transition” includes a firm commitment to guarantee jobs (at union wages) or income, as well as necessary retraining.

Be it further resolved: That the Vermont Progressive Party’s fight for a state-based single-payer system include provisions for a “Just Transition” for all those who lose their jobs because they are employed by health care providers to process insurance claims.

Howard Dean will be in Brattleboro on February 17, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. to speak at the inaugural Timothy J. O’Connor, Jr. Awards which will occur at the Ramada Inn at 1380 Putney Road.  (Exit 3, head north on Route 5 a half mile, it’s on your left.)  

His speech will be substantial (about an hour and a half) and include a town-meeting style Q&A with the audience.  Admission is by suggested donation of $25 with all proceeds going to support the Brattleboro Democratic Committee.  

Governor Dean will speak about health care, other national and local issues, and whatever anyone wants to ask him about.  I’d love to see some GMD readers attend.  

This will be the former Governor’s first trip to Brattleboro in five years so it’s a great chance to catch him at a great price.  

Hope to see you there!

James Valente

Chair, Brattleboro Democrats

This is clearly a fairly busy week to be a PR person for Vermont Yankee.  A whole lot’s going on, starting with testimony from Arnie and Maggie Gundersen, representing Fairewinds Associates:

The Free Press summarizes the testimony thusly:

Vermont Yankee could stop adding to the tritium leaking into the groundwater around the Vernon plant if it were to shut the plant down while searching for the leak, Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear engineer, told legislators Wednesday.

This is also covered in the Rutland Herald.  

While this is going on, we also now have pressure from New Hampshire and Massachusetts:

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch wrote the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking that the federal agency “thoroughly investigate the safety and management of the plant” before extending its license, which expires in 2012.

And Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick asked the NRC to increase testing for potential radioactive leaks at both Vermont Yankee and its sister plant, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass. Both plants are owned by Entergy Nuclear.

In the meantime, IBEW Local 300, is pushing for continued operation of the plant:

Those jobs equal about $93.3 million in annual wages for Vermonters and residents of other nearby states who work at the facility, according to George Clain, president of IBEW Local 300.

“I’ve yet to see a discussion started about the economic impact of Vermont Yankee,” Clain said during an afternoon press conference at the Statehouse in Montpelier. “That needs to be brought to the forefront.”

That’s something I find kind of odd.  I just did a google search for the phrase “Vermont Yankee” “economic impact.”  

I got over 4,000 results.

But, hey, what the hell.  It’s not like I know anything about using Google to look things up or anything.

From the Vermont Health Department online:

On January 7, the Vermont Department of Health was notified by Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station that samples taken from a ground water monitoring well on site (identified as GZ-3) contained tritium.  

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. It is a by-product of the nuclear fission process in a nuclear reactor, and also occurs naturally in the environment in very low concentrations. Most tritium in the environment is in the form of tritiated water, which easily moves about in the atmosphere, bodies of water, soil and rock.  

The finding of tritium in ground water signals that there has been an unintended underground release of radioactive material, and that other radioisotopes may have contaminated the environment.

A Vermont Health Department notification of a house fire might read as follows:  

Notice of Rapid Oxidation and Chemical Process of Combustion:

On February 11, The Vermont Health Department was notified by local private authorities that a previously unknown section of a house was found to be on fire*. Samples were taken from a monitoring portion of the site (identified as 1-SOH ,1-Side of House).    

*Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Most rapid oxidation in the environment is in the form of fire and may easily move about. We would stress that lower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not considered to be part of this definition.

The discovery of fire in monitoring area 1-SOH (1-side of house) signals there has been an unintended combustion process occurrence that may need further voluntary monitoring.

Vermont officials are conducting a thorough investigation to identify the magnitude of the occurrence and the source of the combustion process. Assistance will be provided by a number of private and state agencies, a team of Rapid Oxidation Experts (ROE’S) will be on site to analyze data.  

This process if unchecked has the potential to cause physical damage through burning and can occasionally result in a phase transition in the affected mass if the temperature of the flame is hot enough.

Weakly, updates will be scheduled, soon

(Continuing the policy of promoting diaries from officeholders and officeseekers, with some copy bumped below the fold – promoted by odum)

February 7, 2010

A year ago we had great hopes for serious healthcare reform on the national level.  However it’s becoming more and more clear, especially after the recent election in Massachusetts, that we cannot count on Washington to do the job we need to do ourselves here in Vermont – transform our healthcare system.

Let’s face it.  Healthcare costs are driving most of the financial problems in our state.

Bankruptcies?  Healthcare.  School budget increases?  Healthcare.  Teacher pension fund?  Healthcare.  Small business costs?  Healthcare.  Most of the state budget deficit?  Healthcare.

We can cut back on reimbursement to providers from state programs; we can slash low-income children off the rolls; we can lay off teachers; we can raise taxes; we can force everyone to have high deductibles.  All will be short-lived fixes unless we fundamentally change the system.

Over the last two decades, Vermont has tried a variety of small changes here and there to solve the looming healthcare crisis. It is now clear that they have failed, and in some cases have made things worse, as we have subsidized more people’s care without effectively addressing the core cost drivers.

The Vermont legislature is now facing a horrible decision: Will we stop serving our citizens or will we cause even more cost shifting for hospitals by cutting reimbursements below what it costs to do a procedure?

If we raise taxes today to cover the deficit caused by healthcare costs and do nothing to change our system, we will find ourselves in exactly the same situation next year.

Instead, we can do what large businesses do and self-insure Vermonters under one system to increase our buying power, reduce administrative costs, and guarantee that everyone pays and everyone is covered.  The fact is that some large companies employ and cover nearly as many people as we have living in Vermont.

When I was the head of AmeriCorps*VISTA, I self-insured all 6,000 people working for me, not because it was the right thing to do. . . but because it saved money. We then used those resources to achieve our core mission.

With one large pool, the state will then have the buying power to change the way we reimburse for medical care — rewarding doctors, hospitals, and citizens for prioritizing healthcare activities that lead to health outcomes, rather than paying per procedure. Hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic have demonstrated that better care can come at dramatically lower cost. We can bring these demonstration projects to scale.

When I was in the Senate, I proposed adopting an electronic healthcare record system similar to what VA hospitals have been using for years. We successfully created VITL organization, but unfortunately, four years later and despite financial support from Senator Leahy, the administration has not finished the job. This system would allow hospitals to share information with each other. This will allow us to measure the effectiveness of our healthcare providers, reduce medical errors, and help prevent expensive and unnecessary mistakes.

If mechanisms are not found to cut the ever-spiraling costs of medical procedures, prescriptions drugs, and hospital visits, our towns will continue to run deficits to devastating effect.  Vermonters will continue to go bankrupt.  Our business growth will be stifled, prolonging the recession.  Taxpayers will be saddled with huge tax increases. Our hospitals and doctors will be focused on uncertain revenues and paper work, not making people well. And our ailing friends, neighbors and relatives will continue to suffer because they cannot afford, nor will they seek out, even the most basic of healthcare.

Now is the time for Vermont to use its scale, sense of community and our in-state expertise to lead the nation in healthcare reform. As urgent as it is, such a change will not happen overnight. The legislature must take steps now, like initiating a statewide hospital budget, so we can start to achieve real cost-containment in the near future. Vermonters must let our elected officials know that change must start this year and demand real leadership on this issue for the future. We cannot wait any longer.  

This is the second in a two-part series about my visit to the Rainman Landcare Foundation in Durban, South Africa. Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

The Rainman Landcare Foundation, founded by Raymond Auerbach, is training farmers living outside of Durban on how to grow food without the use of artificial pesticides, insecticides, or fertilizers, as well as permaculture methods that efficiently use water and build up soils. “But it won’t be enough to just grow organic food,” says Raymond. “You also need to market it.” Check out this video where Raymond explains how, in addition to teaching farmers organic agriculture practices, the Rainman Foundation helps them establish links with the private sector:

Earthmother Organic Store and Restaurant is an example of a business that is also providing a link for farmers to the private sector.  Check out this video of Danielle explaining how the store and restaurant gives farmers, like those trained by the Rainman Landcare Foundation, a market for their produce.

This is the second in a two-part series about my visit to the Rainman Landcare Foundation in Durban, South Africa. Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

The Rainman Landcare Foundation, founded by Raymond Auerbach, is training farmers living outside of Durban on how to grow food without the use of artificial pesticides, insecticides, or fertilizers, as well as permaculture methods that efficiently use water and build up soils. “But it won’t be enough to just grow organic food,” says Raymond. “You also need to market it.” Check out this video where Raymond explains how, in addition to teaching farmers organic agriculture practices, the Rainman Foundation helps them establish links with the private sector:

Earthmother Organic Store and Restaurant is an example of a business that is also providing a link for farmers to the private sector.  Check out this video of Danielle explaining how the store and restaurant gives farmers, like those trained by the Rainman Landcare Foundation, a market for their produce.