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  1. Hi Rod.
    Indeed. Tritium destroys trust. Well, maybe. In my opinion, it destroys trust in those whose mind is already made up, and they publicize it, and other people get scared.
    I was at the NRC meeting Monday in Brattleboro, and the only people there were dedicated antis, a few dedicated for-Vermont-Yankee people (me, Howard, some plant guys, Patty O’Donnell, the representative to the legislature from Vernon). The anti-s were yelling “shut it down,” etc. They had no trust to begin with.
    The problem with my blog is that it IS about Vermont Yankee, which means I don’t get a break. I don’t get to cover bad-today but good-tomorrow. Today VY, tomorrow Vogtle. No, it’s all Vermont Yankee. It’s all bad. Sorry, a bit down and all that, but still.
    At the beginning of the NRC meeting, the moderator introduced all the various legislators who were in the audience and encouraged them to stand up. (They had signed in earlier.) Okay, the anti-VY legislators got lovely rounds of applause. it was their crowd, their people, their admirers. Okay.
    Did the crowd have to BOO Representative O’Donnell from Vernon, fighting to keep her constituents employed? Did they have to do that?
    They did.

  2. Oops. I forgot. The Vermont distribution utilities have signed a contract with J P Morgan and another contract with Merrll Lynch energy trading group. I blogged about it a while ago. You know, newspaper headlines “utilities scramble to replace Yankee.” Here’s my post with the links.
    http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2010/02/vote-is-coming.html

    1. I would prefer a truck full of coal dipped in green paint dumped on the State House’s lawn at Montpelier as part of a drive to support “Green Power For Vermont”, or even a demonstration as to “how to make green power”, you get a big pile of black coal, and then activists pick up each piece of coal, and delicately paint it green for the public to watch.

      1. Does it count for extra points if the paint is ‘environmentally-friendly’?
        As an aside, my wife tried to paint an unfinished wood cabinet using low-VOC ‘organic’ paint. Results were frustrating. After 3 coats, I told her to just use the ‘normal’ paint that actually dries properly. Sigh.

        1. Oh, I remember when my Dad talked about those who made sure that society was “safe” from the “horrific danger” of high-VOC stains. My Mom usually gave to the Greenpeace kids who came by our house soliciting, one time she mentioned it during dinner, and him and her got into an argument. He said something along the lines that Mass Pirg was making it impossible to do business because of the VOC laws, and that “the last manufacturer out of Massachusetts, please be sure to turn off the lights before you leave!” This was back when I thought Democrats rhymed with Thundercats, I only remember it because it was a really rare occurrence for them at the time.
          I know what produces 99.9% of VOCs, and it sure ain’t any kind of coating product. Rather, it’s gasoline venting from vent-caps on gas tanks. But – oh noes! – we have to restrict ALL VOCs – and this has made it very hard for the paints/coatings and the chemical industry, at large, to produce user-friendly, high-quality products of many types.

  3. I always find that direct comparisons of radiological “hazards” to be quite compelling. IIRC, if one were to drink only the leaked titrated water, the “hazard” (using linear, no threshold – not that I think this theory is true) would be about equal to eating a banana every day. After addressing that, the other direct comparison might be to the amount radiological releases from power sources that might substitute for VY. To drive home this point, one would note that the leak at VY was fixed and stopped, but that the releases from the substitute power sources would continue on as part of normal operation.

    1. Only part of a banana each day. One would have to learn to store partially-eaten bananas for about ten days, I think, until one could finish them off. Yet another problem posed by nuclear:-)

  4. It appears if the NRC does its job this problem will disappear, as from the NYT article, “James P. Riccio, a nuclear expert at Greenpeace, says that while nuclear plants have permits that allow them to emit material into surface water and the air, they do not have permits that let them release material to groundwater”. Does anyone know if there is a hurdle to the issuing of tritium emission groundwater permits?

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