Japan’s nuclear reactors were badly damaged in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the island on March 11. According to the New York Times this week, all but 50 employees have left the facility.
The 50 that remain are undergoing exposure to radiation levels that far exceed those considered safe. The Japanese Health Ministry has raised the legal limit on radiation exposure for workers to five times the exposure permitted for nuclear plant workers in this country.
Those 50 Japanese workers are effectively sacrificing their lives and assuredly their health in an effort to protect their fellow citizens. That’s awful, and it is heroic.
Here in Vermont, we need to ask ourselves who will be the martyrs at Vermont Yankee in Vernon in a similar circumstance. Earthquakes are few in Vermont, but the reliability and safety of Vermont Yankee are less than reassuring.
Given a similar accident or disaster at Vermont Yankee, the 50 employees who stay are going to come from the rosters of the towns that ring Vernon. They’ll be Little League coaches, parents, siblings, volunteer firefighters and members of the local select boards.
Like their counterparts at Fukushima Daiichi, these workers will face, in the short term, radiation sickness (and/or death). In the long term, they face enormous ongoing health risks in the form of cancer and leukemia.
Vermont Yankee is well past its “sell-by” date and despite the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent announcement that its license could be renewed, the plant needs to be closed and decommissioned before Vermonters are mourning the martyrs who sacrificed themselves, their lives and their health for a corporation that lies with regularity about the health of the plant.
Fifty martyrs are 50 too many.
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