Four fast to protest nuclear plant
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By DANIEL BARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau - Published: April 26, 2006
BRATTLEBORO — Harriet Nestel began her three-day fast Tuesday by looking out at Brattleboro's downtown and praying that an accident similar to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster — which happened 20 years ago today — does not happen here.
Nestel, a resident of Athol, Mass., and a member of an anti-nuclear group that has targeted Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in recent protests, is one of four people who plan to drink only water until Friday in an effort to tip public support away from the 34-year-old Vernon reactor.
Accompanied by two Buddhist monks and Paki Weiland, another member of the Shelburne Falls, Mass.-based Citizens Awareness Network, Nestel banged on drums, meditated and waved to curious drivers Tuesday at a small park at the top of Brattleboro's Main Street.
Nestel, who was arrested this month during a protest at the corporate offices of Entergy Nuclear, the owner of Vermont Yankee, said she and the three others will remain at the fountain from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for each day of the fast.
"I remember walking to the (Yankee) plant in 1978 with our babies in strollers," she said. "Now our babies have babies and we are still in danger."
The meltdown of one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what is now Pripyat, Ukraine, on April 26, 1986, has long cast a dark shadow over the once promising power source. The disaster sent radioactive fallout across Europe and the then-Soviet Union, resulting in the relocation of 330,000 people and undetermined number of deaths so far. Long-term estimates range into the tens of thousands.
Rob Williams, a spokesman for the 34-year-old Vernon-based Vermont Yankee, stressed in a prepared statement Tuesday that nuclear design standards in the former Soviet Union are "fundamentally" different than in the United States.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the plant, which resumed its 20 percent power boost this past weekend after a second delay, operated safely in in 2005, according to a report issued last week.
"Western reactors are fundamentally different in that they are designed for stable power output and with safety features such as containment buildings," Williams said. "US nuclear plants are operated conservatively with constant improvements in designs, training and safety culture."
Since late last year, CAN and several other grassroots anti-nuclear groups have staged protests and acts of civil disobedience at Entergy's offices in Brattleboro. Their tactics include wrapping the office building in yellow police tape and refusing to leave a glass foyer near the office's lobby.
Dozens have been arrested at the series of protests, although Windham County State's Attorney Dan Davis has not ultimately pressed charges.
The notion to hold a fast as a nuclear protest came to Nestel during a trip to India recently. She was reviewing some of writings of the Indian spiritual leader, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and the word "jumped out from the page," she said.
A large picture of Gandhi leaned against a rock nearby, just behind a poster showing a young girl's deformed legs, reportedly the result of the Chernobyl nuclear fallout.
"I saw it as a message from Gandhi about what to do," Nestel said.
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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