For some people, the Yankee sale is personal

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2002 by Marcel, Joyce

In Rutland, Burlington and Montpelier, the sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon to Entergy Nuclear is talked about in the language of dollars.

"Obviously, if the sale is approved, then the utilities' costs and risks, both financial and operating, improve," said Chris Dutton, president of Green Mountain Power. "And in the deal, the average price of electricity we're paying to Entergy is something like $42 a megawatt hour. The average estimated price that we'd be paying if we continued to own and operate the plan is about $48 a megawatt hour."

Lowered liability risks, financial rewards, cost per megawatt hour-this is the language of the sale.

But in Windham County, especially after September 11, many people are talking in an entirely different language: the language of love.

"I love this community," said Judy Davidson, 56, a psychologist with a therapy practice in Brattleboro and a home in Dummerston Center. "I've lived here 30-odd years, and I want to spend the rest of my life here. This is my community, my home, my friends, my business. I don't want to move. If there was a severe accident at the plant, basically my whole life style would vanish."

There have always been people against nuclear energy; people have protested since the idea of a US nuclear power industry was first launched.

But Davidson is representative of another kind of person-one who is deeply rooted in her community, highly respected, hard-working, taxpaying, and not usually inclined to protest. Davidson and her family moved to Vermont from New York City in 1970 and bought their house in 1971.

"We wanted to put down roots and be part of a community," Davidson said. "After living in New York, we absolutely, definitely wanted a small town. We've lived here ever since."

In 1994, Dummerston was involved in two controversies. The town had to decide whether or not to allow a large landfill to be built next to an organic farm, and whether to restore or replace its historic but creaky covered bridge. As a result, Davidson ran for and won a seat on the select board.

"There was a lot of controversy, and I was worried that the town was getting polarized," Davidson said. "There were those who were for the issues and those who were against. I thought that even though I had strong opinions on those issues, I also had the people skills to foster a dialogue and allow people to express their differences."

Davidson was a strong force in the eventual reconstruction of the covered bridge; for a variety of reasons, the landfill was never built.

"The select board was a real learning experience, exhausting but great," Davidson said. "I learned a tremendous amount about local government. I found that if you were really patient, you could be effective. Things take a long time to happen."

After she left the board, Davidson got involved in the Dummerston newsletter and the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program. She put her political activism on hold.

"To be totally truthful, I didn't pay attention to the issue of Vermont Yankee," Davidson said. "I was uncomfortable with it, like a nagging worry, but not enough to get involved. I'd say the usual things, like 'I'm glad I don't live in Vernon,' which is ludicrous, since anything that happens to the plant will affect everybody in the area. I was concerned about the disposal of nuclear waste, and hoping we'd find a solution to that and get the spent fuel out of Vernon. But it wasn't a concern on a major level until September 11."

Davidson started seeing anxiety in her patients after the terrorist attacks.

"Some people are thinking about relocating," Davidson said. "I'm not prone to anxiety attacks. I get stirred to action."

She started doing research.

"First I worked on the issue of protecting the plant from the air," she said. "The initial concern was about the spent fuel pool-the most vulnerable part of the plant in an air attack. It became very evident by talking to people in the state's Emergency Management office that we weren't going to be able to protect the plant from the air. First the feds lifted the no-fly zone, and secondly, the person I talked to said the only way to protect the plant was an anti-aircraft gun. The state doesn't have them. The federal government was not going to mount an anti-aircraft gun at Vermont Yankee. And even if you shot down a plane, it would land in downtown Brattleboro."

Next, Davidson learned exactly how vulnerable the spent fuel pool is.

"If terrorists get into the plant, they can drain water from the spent fuel pool and create a disastrous fire that could release cesium-137," Davidson said. "It can destroy an area the size of New England. That got me really concerned about the safety of the plant."

Davidson worked on the law that provides potassium iodide to Vermonters, especially to small children, and focused her attention on Yankee's evacuation plan.

"They've planned for a critical event that would still give them time to evacuate people," Davidson said. "For example, their plan for children and nursing homes involves getting buses from as far away as Rutland, because they don't have enough buses here. If I were a bus driver in Rutland, there's no way I would drive down to Brattleboro. And school bus drivers are mothers, of course, and there's no way they would drive to the high school. They'd go and get their own children. I don't think there's a way. In terms of a serious incident at a plant, I think planning is futile."