EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO 90% CHANCE OF SLEET & FREEZING RAIN = UNSAFE FOR WALKERS

Download a poster here.

Over 80,000 people still cannot return home to their towns in Fukushima, four years after the beginning of the disasters at the Dai’ichi nuclear reactors there. Vermont Yankee is a twin to three of those reactors – a Mark 1 BWR plant built in 1972.

On this 4th anniversary of the emergency evacuations of Fukushima, we have a new reason to remember Fukushima. On March 5, the NRC ruled that after April 2016, Entergy will no longer be responsible for evacuation planning (EPZ) outside of the site boundary of Vermont Yankee. In the event of a catastrophic fuel pool fire, we too could become nuclear refugees. Our towns could become ghost towns without the protections the EPZ once provided.

Please join us in walking from the gate of Vermont Yankee to Brattleboro. We suggest you make and wear a sign with the name of one of the towns in the evacuation zone (see below). We are also looking for volunteer drivers who can drive people to Vernon but do not intend to walk.  Email: safeandgreencampaign@gmail.com

Logistics:

WALK: 11:30 am Folks from north of Vernon will meet at the parking lot of Marlboro Graduate Center in Brattleboro (just past the Brattleboro Museum on Vernon Street). We will car pool from there. Folks coming from south of Vernon should park in the Vernon Town Hall lot on Governor Hunt Road. Noon: Meet at VT Yankee Gate.

12:15pm – 2:30pm (estimate): We will hold a commemoration circle before walking, then  walk 6 miles from VT Yankee to Pliny Park, Brattleboro for the Vigil. It is a fairly easy walk with a few gentle hills. There are some beautiful river views. Please dress for the weather. Please wear a sign representing an evacuation town. We will have snacks at Pliny Park (no hot beverages, please patronize our wonderful local coffee shops and bakeries].

2:00-4:00 pm The Parlor in the Centre Congregational Church will be open in case walkers need to warm up or dry out, and in case of rain/snow/sleet for the Vigil.

2013 posters about Namie & Brattleboro on display in Japan in 2014, with Chikako.

2:30-3:45 pm: VIGIL at Pliny Park, Main & High Street, Brattleboro. We will honor the evacuees and ghost towns of Fukushima, with a focus on Namie, a town similar in distance and size to Brattleboro. [Read more on our 2013 Namie sister city action here.]

4:00pm: LEARN: Nuclear Power: Cradle to Grave. Parlor, Centre Congregation Church, 123 Main St., Brattleboro. Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear will give us an update on Fukushima and a presentation on nuclear waste and dry cask storage (the grave). Jennifer Thurston of INFORM in Colorado will give a presentation on uranium mining (the cradle). Most of the program will be filled with Q&A and audience discussion. Details & bios are here.

Towns in Evacuation Zone

Futaba – Host town to reactors. Now host to contaminated water and dirt.

Okuma  – Host town to reactors. Now host to contaminated water and dirt.

Naraha – similar to Gill, MA

Tomioka –  similar to Northfield MA

Okuma – similar to Colrain

Namie – similar to Brattleboro

Iitate – north, similar to Putney

Minamisoma – north, similar to Dummerston

Kawauchi – nouth, similar to Greenfield