Some 2,000 people attended a rally at the Brattleboro Town Common on April 14 to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Vermont governor Peter Shumlin, U.S. senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Vermont attorney general Bill Sorrell were among the speakers at the rally. "We will not rest until Vermont Yankee is gone," Shumlin said, to a standing ovation from the crowd. The second photo shows Shumlin giving his speech. To enlarge a photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full-size image." photos by Eesha Williams

A major accident or act of sabotage at Vermont Yankee would kill thousands of people and leave an area the size of the Valley uninhabitable. Such a disaster is so likely that no insurance company will insure the facility; taxpayers would pay the costs of a meltdown. The hundreds of tons of nuclear waste at Vermont Yankee is the most toxic material on earth. The waste is so dangerous that it must be guarded 24 hours a day for the next 1 million years, according to the federal government. The electricity from Vermont Yankee is not needed, according to the state of Vermont, which in 2010 ordered Entergy to close the plant on March 21, 2012. Entergy sued Vermont in federal court and won the right to run the reactor until at least 2032. The state is appealing.

More information about Vermont Yankee, and the mass movement that led the state to order Entergy to close the reactor, is at:

www.ValleyPost.org/2011/03/14/japan-quake-puts-valley-nuke-local-spotlight

The rally was organized by the Citizens Awareness Network www.nukebusters.org with help from the Safe and Green Campaign, Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance, SAGE Alliance, New England Coalition, Toxics Action Center, and the Sierra Club.