Four activists were arrested Monday in Brattleboro for holding signs during a speech by Vermont Governor Jim Douglas and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy about the federal economic stimulus program. The signs said, "Veto Nuclear Jim in Nov. 2010." Douglas is up for re-election next year.
The protesters are all in their 30s and all live near Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vt. VY is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone's throw from New Hampshire. The arrested protesters were Jonathan Crowell of Newfane; Amy Frost of Guilford; and Eesha Williams and Elizabeth Wood of Dummerston. Wood, Crowell, and Frost are all farmers.
On Friday, the Vermont House passed a bill that would require VY's owner to strengthen the fund set aside for dismantling the reactor when it stops operating. The bill would require Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. of Louisiana to pay more than $350 million into the decommissioning fund during the next decade. The fund is now worth about $300 million. The cost of cleanup is estimated to be more than $1 billion. The Senate is expected to pass the bill. Douglas says he will veto it.
The four activists released the following statement:
"We respectfully call on Sen. Leahy and Gov. Douglas to use the taxpayer-funded federal stimulus money to close Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear power plant and replace its power with energy efficiency programs and renewable energy. The Vermont Legislature will decide whether to allow VY to continue operating after 2012. Please contact your legislators and ask them to vote to close VY, and make a donation and/or volunteer for www.vtcitizen.org or www.vpirg.org.
"The nuclear waste generated by VY is so deadly that it must be guarded around the clock for the next 1 million years, according to the National Academies of Science. An accident or act of sabotage at Yankee could kill thousands of people.
"If New Englanders took the money they now pay Entergy Corp. of Louisiana for electricity from VY and instead spent it on energy efficiency programs, VY could be closed, consumers' electricity bills would go down, and there would be a net increase in jobs. That's according to a study by Amory Lovins, published in the journal Nuclear Engineering International.
"We also stand in solidarity with the movements for marriage equality, democracy (campaign finance reform), and universal health care, all of which Jim Douglas has vetoed or said he will veto."
