Must Visit and Must Bookmark Web Site – www.IAMVY.com – Using Web Power To Put a Face On Nuclear Power!
This morning I saw a couple of Twitter posts from friends who write about nuclear energy. They linked to a site called I am Vermont Yankee. The site is compelling. It uses readily available web tools and a clean, easy to navigate interface to help you find short video clips of Vermont Yankee employees telling their stories. There is a straightforward page of facts and links.
(Hint to the site designers: – think about linking to some nuclear energy blogs, not just the standard links to the DOE, the NRC, the ANS, the WNA, and the NEI. We will link back and help to spread your story and get it picked up by search engines; good luck getting links and publicity from those three letter organizations.)
The videos are simple and direct. They are real people with real faces – and Vermont accents – telling the world why they work where they do, why they feel safe and secure in raising families near the plant, what motivates them to go to work on all shifts and to study hard to learn their assignments. I particularly like the story from the father who has encouraged both of his daughters to intern at the plant. One of them even decided to seek and find a job there after leaving the state for a while and then deciding to come home.
I hope that we will be seeing more videos like the ones posted so far on the site so that those who support the continued operation of the plant can have their stories heard – even if they are not the kinds of people who take to the street and carry signs aimed at attracting the commercial news media looking for a controversial story to cover. When workers get their stories out, it makes it more difficult for people to demonize the place where they work. When worker stories are readily available, activists are shown to be anti-jobs when they continue pressing for the plant to be shutdown. It removes the ability to portray the battle as one against an out-of-state corporate owner.
Many people think that electricity is a magic service that simply comes out of a wall socket on demand; the people that produce it understand that it is a quality product that requires carefully maintained machinery, raw material and a dedicated, 24 x 7 work force. Go to I am Vermont Yankee and show your support. Do it now, before you get busy doing something else.
Rod,
I’m figuring that this blog site is yours and not just one to which you contribute your fine writings. If my note does get to you, I want to say that you are about as clear a communicator on nuclear issues as I’ve run across. I’ve enjoyed your “Arnie Gunderson” piece and the “Best Defense……good Offense” piece immensely, and have forwarded these to concerned Vermonters who I have been in communication with to attempt to provide a more measured understanding of what is going on at VY. My native state is Vermont and I’m now living and working for FPL in Florida and maintain a home in Vermont where I hope to some day be able to enjoy some free time.
I agree with you, that Arnie is not dumb, but see in his behavior, a trait common to people that are proud to call themselves “Nuclear Whistleblowers”. These folks are generally really smart people who become so invested in their narrow issue (concern) that their lives become forever anguished. It is common to hear their pronouncements that they are not against nuclear power; however, “there is no one working in that field and running these plants that is really capable of that job; like I am, of course, and they all lie; I do not, I only misconstrue the facts whenever necessary”.
I worked with Arnie at Northeast Utilities decades ago in their nuclear program. When Arnie left NU, he was a working level engineer and went to a small company as a senior vice president which gives him tremendous image advantage. I also worked with other well known whistleblowers that you’ve likely heard of. My position when dealing with these folks was always one of trying to be understanding, and my working style was always aimed at trying to make sure they did not become isolated from their fellow workers. Once over the concern “hump” as I call it, though, there seems to be no getting these folks back over to the other side of that sinusoidal wave. I do not know one so called whistleblower that was not, at their basics, a good person, though.
Keep up the fine writing as I think laymen can readily understand the way you explain complex topics.
George:
Thank you for the kind words and the background information on Arnie Gundersen.