The intolerable costs of nuclear power and benefits of saying no

Welcome to the nuclear renaissance.


Entergy Corp, one of the largest nuclear-power producers in the U.S., issued a surprise press release Tuesday, saying it plans "to close and decommission its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vermont. The station is expected to cease power production after its current fuel cycle and move to safe shutdown in the fourth quarter of 2014." Although the press release came from the corporation, it was years of people's protests and state legislative action that forced its closure. At the same time that activists celebrate this key defeat of nuclear power, officials in Japan admitted that radioactive leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe are far worse than previously acknowledged.

Vermont Fracking Ban: Green Mountain State Is First In U.S. To Restrict Gas Drilling Technique

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday signed into law the nation's first ban on a hotly debated natural gas drilling technique that involves blasting chemical-laced water deep into the ground.

The Democrat, surrounded at a Statehouse ceremony by environmentalists and Twinfield Union School students who pushed for the ban, said the law may help Vermont set an example for other states. The ban may be largely symbolic, though, because there is believed to be little to no natural gas or oil beneath the surface in Vermont.

The gas drilling technique, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves the high-pressure injection of water and chemicals into the ground to split rock apart and release natural gas or oil.

Quebec-Vermont Wind Turbine Dispute Threatens To Become International Incident

A Quebec town on the Vermont border is threatening to shut off the water supply to a neighbouring American town if a plan to build windmills on the U.S. side goes ahead.

The mayor of Stanstead, a town in the Eastern Townships that controls the water serving the U.S. town of Derby Line, has said he would shut off the water valves if two wind turbines are installed just outside the limits of his town, on the American side.

“This is not a municipal council decision, but it is a measure I am proposing so that we can be heard,” Mayor Philippe Dutil said in a phone interview.

Dutil is furious. A few weeks ago, citizens and local elected officials learned that the company Encore Redevelopment, based in Burlington, planned to install wind turbines near the Canada-U.S. border.

It turns out the Americans intended to install the windmills only a few metres from the residential area of the Canadian town, but far from the houses on the U.S. zone, the mayor explained. Stanstead residents are outraged.

“They (Encore Redevelopment) want to build two wind turbines only 150 metres away from about 50 or so houses, the Stanstead Mayor declared, while on the American side, there are no houses within at least six kilometers from the proposed location of the wind turbines.”