The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant may be more dangerous when it closes later this year than it is now, an expert told the Valley Post this week. Vermont Yankee is so dangerous that no insurance company will cover it. The facility gets its insurance from the federal government. A major accident or act of sabotage at Vermont Yankee would cause thousands of “prompt fatalities,” and leave an area the size of New England uninhabitable for generations, according to a report by the federal government.

Vermont Yankee is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone's throw from New Hampshire.

Entergy officials say they decided to close Vermont Yankee because of the low price of natural gas. If that's true, why is the company continuing to run its five other nuclear power plants, including Pilgrim near Boston and Indian Point in New York?

In a victory of people power over corporate power, Entergy's CEO said on August 27 the company will close its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in 2014. The move comes after years of protests by thousands of people in the Valley. Hundreds were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. Thousands attended marches and rallies, spoke out at public hearings, and went door-to-door to educate their neighbors about the dangers of nuclear power.

A coalition of labor, religious and community groups is seeking volunteers to gather signatures on petitions that would let Massachusetts voters decide whether the state’s minimum wage should stay the same or increase, and whether workers should have the right to miss work when they’re sick. The group, Raise Up Massachusetts, filed the two proposed ballot questions with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office last month. It has the support of both the state’s U.S. senators. The group can be reached via www.MassUniting.org.

On July 15, eight women were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Vermont Yankee is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone’s throw from New Hampshire. Among the women was Hattie Nestel of Athol, Massachusetts.

In June, more than 100 Wal-Mart workers went on strike to protest low wages paid by the billionaire Walton family, the richest family in the world. The Waltons own Wal-Mart and pay barely above minimum wage. The strikers, including Aubretia Edick, who works at the Chicopee Wal-Mart, drove to Arkansas and held a protest rally at Wal-Mart’s annual shareholder meeting. The workers’ right to strike is protected by federal law. But Wal-Mart broke the law and fired 10 of the strikers. Edick’s boss told her after the strike that if she went on strike again she will be fired.

The last time that a nuclear power plant was ordered and built in the United States was in 1973. There are 61 nuclear power plants in the nation. On June 7, the owner of the San Onofre nuclear power plant said it will close the plant permanently. San Onofre is about 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles. “This nation does not need nuclear power,” Shaun Burnie told the Los Angeles Times. He works for Friends of the Earth www.foe.org which for decades fought to close San Onofre.

On August 10, activists in kayaks and canoes will protest near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which is on the Connecticut river. The public is invited to join the protest. Vermont Yankee is three miles from Massachusetts.

The event is being organized by the same group that organized a protest against Vermont Yankee in Brattleboro last year that drew 1,500 people, 137 of whom were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. The group’s web site is www.SAGEalliance.net. More information is available by calling Deb Katz of www.NukeBusters.org at (413) 339-5781.

The president of one of the biggest unions in western Massachusetts will face a challenger in an election next month. UAW Local 2322 is based in Holyoke and represents about 3,000 workers. The local has eight full-time employees. It is a subsidiary of the UAW union based in Detroit, Michigan, which represents about 390,000 workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

Eight women were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Vermont Yankee is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone’s throw from New Hampshire. The women who were arrested are all from Massachusetts. Their names, and the dates they were arrested, are: April 15, Priscilla Lynch of Conway and Hattie Nestel of Athol; April 16, Judy Wolters of Northfield and Connie Harvard of Northampton; April 17, Marcia Gagliardi of Athol and Anneke Corbett of Northampton; April 18, Frances Crowe of Northampton and Ellen Graves of West Springfield.