In a democracy we are encouraged to believe that the will of the people should carry the day. That’s the idea anyway. But as we know, it often doesn’t seem to work out that way.
For instance, the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. It would seem that a substantial majority of Cape Codders would like to see it shut down, and yet 41 years and counting, there it is, directly upwind of us, showing no signs of going anywhere.
It’s a clutch problem. There’s a lot of slippage between the will of the majority and those with their fingers on the o n/off switch.
The common sense of fearing Pilgrim is well-known. The plant was irresponsibly sited to begin with, upwind of a populated peninsula from which, if the thing blew, there would be no escape except that of the black humor bumper sticker “evacuation plan: swim east”?
The plant is of the now- infamous Fukushima type. It’s 41 years old. Nuclear power plants have more problems as they age. It suffers the disposal problem of nuke plants everywhere. It already houses four times the 800 spent fuel rods it was designed for.
We don’t actually need Pilgrim’s 13% contribution to the grid. We notice that the lights don’t go out when it occasionally shuts down with one problem or another. The state is rapidly making good on the plan to come up with more than that in solar and other alternative sources. (Recent news story: Japan putting online this year enough solar panels to replace seven nuclear reactors.)
Recently we’ve learned news that would be comical if it weren’t so disturbing. Entergy, the company that runs Pilgrim for profit, plans to streamline by laying off 30 workers. Hmmm. If it took that many workers to run it safely, how does it not further compromise safety to lay them off?
During a recent heat wave the plant had to shut down for a while when the waters of Cape Cod Bay went above the 75 degree temperature required for crucial cooling. Entergy’s response is not reassuring: Hey, we’ll just ask the NRC to bump up the ceiling to 80 degrees. What? So the original figure was just pulled out of hat, had no basis in the science of how to run a safe plant? Really?
Recently a California nuke plant decided to go out of business because of regulatory hassles. Is Entergy’s bottomline desperation putting us even more at risk?
But how does the commonsense fear of most Cape Codders get translated into action? How to solve the clutch problem? What will it take?
The requests of the highest elected officials in the state have been ignored. The 14 town meeting resolutions ask the governor to ask again. Committed anti-Pilgrim groups have been out there for years demonstrating and being civilly disobedient.
An outer Cape version of Cape Downwinders has recently sprung up and enthusiastic members are asking each other What will it take? For starters, 30 or more marched in Wellfleet’s 4th of July parade with artful banners designed by one of the group.
But what next?
A lot of the group will work for Sen. Dan Wolf, the gubernatorial candidate who has been most courageously out there in opposition to Pilgrim.
Meanwhile, how about a gigantic petition with, say, 100,000 signatures? Surely such an outpouring would move Pharoah’s heart?
Nah, say others. They already know how we feel about this.
How about a march on Pilgrim starting in Provincetown, gathering strength as we move along route 6?
Great idea, but a lot of us don’t have the legs for such a march. How about doing it in cars, 1000s of cars shutting down the bridges, demonstrating the futility of attempting to flee in a nuclear catastrophe.
Yeah but that might anger the tourists and hurt businesses.
We know what they do in Tibet. Anyone up for self-immolation?
Get more creative about an evacuation plan? Fill in the canal, start constructing multilane escape routes outta here. Demand a helicopter and helipad for every family?
Any other ideas out there?
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