Dear Editor,
I share Ann Darling’s sentiments regarding a desire for more public participation around the decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. From what I understand, it is and has been the largest, most costly industrial project in all of Vermont for the past several years. But Darling provides no specific direction on what she thinks Vermont Yankee’s Nuclear Citizens Advisory Panel should do to fulfill its statutory obligation to “provide a forum for public engagement and education” around decommissioning issues.
The NDCAP does a fully adequate job at publicizing its work and meetings through general Vermont Department of Public Service outreach. This work is documented through its website and presence on Brattleboro Community Television.
Darling chose not to mention the work of NDCAP’s Federal Nuclear Waste Policy Committee, which draws a robust national following. It meets quarterly, in addition to the three or four annual full NDCAP meetings. The committee makes NDCAP one of very few decommissioning nuclear reactor communities that have any presence at all in terms of informing the public of a national problem of stunning proportions — where to put the country’s nuclear waste and more pressingly, how to pay for it.
NDCAP’s annual budget of $35,000, provided by NorthStar, the decommissioning company, is clearly underutilized. For instance, more panel members should be actively supported to better educate themselves. Citizen volunteers (unlike most NDCAP members whose government or corporate salaries cover their participation) should receive honoraria that better reflects the work required. Perhaps more of an investment could be made in social media outreach and participation in appropriate conferences.
The fact is this: A large concentration of high level radioactive waste may very well be stored in the southeast corner of Vermont forever with no federal compensation in sight for our communities in assuming this burden. More people should care.
Lissa Weinmann
Brattleboro
(NDCAP citizen appointee and chair of its Federal Nuclear Waste Policy Committee. Her views are her own.)
Read the story on VTDigger here: Lissa Weinmann: Vermont Yankee’s Nuclear Citizens Advisory Panel does an adequate job publicizing its work.