It is time for Vermont to become independent of our apparent need or self-proclaimed right to burden future generations of Vermonters with disposing o

Times Argus: "Radioactive waste a permanent issue

July 6, 2005

The big nuclear news of the Independence Day weekend this year headlined with, 'Entergy offers to increase safety margin at Vermont Yankee.'

This was inherently warped. During the sale and uprate cases before the state's regulatory Public Service Board, and occasionally before the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel, Entergy, the rent company of Vermont's sole nuclear reactor, repeatedly stated that neither the uprate nor their out-of-state, for-profit ownership of our nuclear reactor would … 'cut into safety margins.'

Apparently now this is not the case.

It is time for Vermont to become independent of our apparent need or self-proclaimed right to burden future generations of Vermonters with disposing of our nuclear waste so we can have 'cheap' electricity. Surely when factoring in the cost of protecting this toxic waste for thousands of years any illusion of 'cheap' or affordable disappears.

The time for independence from this toxic tea tax and undue corporate burden is now. Our legislators proved themselves servants of the corporate oligarchy.

The 600 jobs and baseload power source are temporary shortsighted good fortune for Windham County and the state. There is nothing temporary about radioactive waste.

Gary Sachs

Brattleboro
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