As of July 8, this sign was visible to motorists heading south on the freeway in Bernardston, Mass., near Greenfield and the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The sign was put up at least a week earlier. Vermont Yankee is owned by Entergy Corp. of Louisiana. Residents of towns near the reactor have voted overwhelmingly to close Vermont Yankee. For background on this issue, please see:

http://valleypost.org/2007/11/09/what-can-history-nuclear-power-teach-us...

and click the "nuclear power" tag at the top of this article.

Members of the Vermont Workers Center www.workerscenter.org called for universal health care and members of the Citizens Awareness Network www.nukebusters.org called for closing the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant as they marched in the Brattleboro Fourth of July parade. video by Eesha Williams

On June 20, volunteers with the Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) www.vtcitizen.org got ready to go door-to-door in Rockingham and Westminster, Vermont. They asked residents to sign a petition to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. For more on this issue, please click the "nuclear power" tag, above. To enlarge the photo, click on it. photo by Eesha Williams

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas on May 22 vetoed a bill that would have required Entergy Corporation of Louisiana to pay for cleaning up the mess it made at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. On June 3, Vermont Senate president Peter Shumlin of Putney said the legislature will wait until January 2010 to try to override Douglas's veto.

Anti-nuclear march, Brattleboro, 2008. photo by Eesha Williams (click to enlarge)

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s proposed budget, and the state senate’s budget, both include deep cuts to the state’s so-called “environmental health account,” according to Claire Chang of the Shelburne Falls, Mass.-based Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) www.nukebusters.org

These cuts total more than $1 million to a $4.2 million environmental health budget for the state. Patrick’s budget and the senate budget both cut the appropriation for environmental health to $3.1 million. The House proposed $3.8 million.

Claire Chang lives in Gill, Mass., less than 10 miles from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. On April 29 at the Vermont state capitol, Chang and her partner held a sign reading "No Radiation Without Representation." They were joined by hundreds of activists, and their dog. photo by Eesha Williams

(Click on the "nuclear power" tag, above, for details on the upcoming vote by the Vermont legislature. The vote will decide whether Yankee will close in 2012, or run until 2032, as owner Entergy Corp. of Louisiana wants.)

A volunteer-run citizen's group is organizing an April 29 march on the Vermont statehouse to call for the closing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. “We need to show Vermont legislators that the citizens of Vermont want Entergy Corporation held accountable for decommissioning, and we want the dirty, dangerous, unreliable, and costly Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant shut down,” said event organizer Debra Stoleroff, of the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (http://www.vyda.org/).

Ian Zabarte, a leader of the Western Shoshone Native American tribe, stands in front of Vermont Yankee. The Shoshone's land includes Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Vermont Yankee's owner says it will dump its nuclear waste at Yucca. photo by Eesha Williams

The Nuclear Free Jubilee, a parade and rally to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, is set for Saturday, Oct. 25, in Brattleboro. Nerissa and Katryna Nields, about whom the Washington Post has written, "Their harmonies are tight, their spirits unflagging," will perform at the rally, as will folk singer Charlie King.

Under pressure from the public, the Vermont Legislature can close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

The Vermont Legislature will make history in a vote expected as early as January on whether to allow the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to continue operating after 2012. Never before has a state taken such a vote. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us," said Deb Katz of the Citizens Awareness Network, an antinuclear group based in Shelburne Falls, Mass. "But it's not going to be easy."