A steady drumbeat of protest aimed at shutting down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, rather than having it remain in operation another 20 years under a renewed license, is planned for March by a coalition of groups led by Safe and Green and the Sage Alliance.
The series of demonstrations started March 3 with the “PowerShift” march by Greenfield Community College students, who walked from Greenfield’s Court Square across the Vermont border to the plant in Vernon, Vt., not far from Brattleboro. Among the other events being planned at press time:
“Women Say No to Nukes!”, a program planned for March 9 at 2:30 p.m. at Vermont Yankee. On hand will be Diane Wilson, Texas shrimper and environmental activist, who will speak in Northampton the evening before the action (see related brief “Celebrating Unreasonable Women“).
In Sunderland, the Sunderland Safe Energy Affinity Group will meet at the intersection of Rtes. 47 and 116 at 1 p.m. March 10 and march to the Connecticut River Bridge to call attention to the proximity of that section of river to Vermont Yankee, just 21 miles upstream.
A mock evacuation starting from the Transportation Center on Flat Street in Brattleboro is planned for Sunday, March 11 as part of the “First Anniversary of Fukushima” commemoration (Vermont Yankee’s reactor is similar in age and design to the Fukushima reactors). The “evacuation” begins at 12:45 p.m.; at 5 p.m. there will be a “Fukushima and Vermont Yankee Forum” led by nuclear experts Arnie and Maggie Gundersen and Chiho Kaneka, a Vermont resident born in Japan, who will offer eye-witness information about life in the area around Fukushima in the wake of the nuclear disaster there.
March 21, the last day of Vermont Yankee’s previous licensure, will see the “Vermont Yankee Retirement Party” and vigil beginning at 4 p.m. at the Statehouse in Montpelier.
And on March 22, when the plant moves into its period of renewed licensure in spite of a negative vote by the Vermont state Senate, the demonstration “Occupy Entergy Headquarters” begins at the Brattleboro Common at 11 a.m. In the weeks prior to that action, nonviolence training will be offered at several times and locations in Vermont and Massachusetts; for more information, check http://sagealliance.net/action_center or www.safeandgreencampaign.org.
