Through freezing, dismal weather that had others in the region huddling in their houses, people from Vermont and Massachusetts walked 126 miles over 12 days— from Brattleboro to Montpelier, from Jan. 2 to 13—to ask the Vermont Legislature to vote against extending the life of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant near Brattleboro, close to the Vermont-Massachusetts border.
Seventy people left Brattleboro on the first day of the "Step It Up to Shut It Down" march, picking up more as they passed through the towns on the way. Some made the whole 126-mile trip; others joined in for a day or a few hours. In all it's estimated that 175 people went along for all or part of the trek, which met with cheers from onlookers along the way. Schools, churches and individual households provided food and shelter to the marchers, who traveled between seven and 16 miles a day to reach the Vermont Statehouse on the afternoon of the 13th.
The Legislature is expected to vote this year on whether the operating license of the nuclear plant should be extended for 20 years after its originally scheduled shutdown date of 2012. A series of malfunctions topped off by a dramatic collapse of a cooling tower in 2007 has intensified fears that the plant would not be safe to operate for years longer than its design called for, and so far its owner, Entergy of Louisiana, has not offered the state attractive prices for future power.
