Politics Start to Go Nuclear

For more than three decades, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has been the subject of intense public debate throughout the state, especially in Windham county. In the past few years, several towns passed Town Meeting resolutions calling for the plant to be closed when its operating license expires in 2012. The state legislature has spent countless hours passing laws relating to Vermont Yankee. Dozens of people have been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the plant’s gates in Vernon, and at the Brattleboro office of Entergy Corp., the reactor’s Louisiana-based owner.

Wikipedia Distorts Nuclear History

There are only seven Web sites that more people use than Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that lets anyone edit most of its articles. None of the sites that are more popular than Wikipedia have as their main purpose producing information about the world. The top sites, Google and Yahoo, mainly function as links to other sites. Facebook and Myspace, which people use to keep in touch with their friends, are third and fifth most popular, respectively.

What Can the History of Nuclear Power Teach Us About Whether Vermont Yankee Should Operate After 2012?

Two lessons can be taken from the history of the nuclear power industry. First, the 103 reactors now operating at 65 locations around the United States should be closed immediately. Second, ordinary people, acting together, can close existing nuclear power plants, and stop new ones from being built.