How and where is nuclear waste stored in the US?

Over 2,500 tons stored at power plant just outside of New London, CT

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant is just 25 miles upwind
from Charlestown. An accident could irradiate
the town as quickly as the wind blows

Gerald Frankel, The Ohio State University

Around the U.S., about 90,000 tons of nuclear waste is stored at over 100 sites in 39 states, in a range of different structures and containers.

For decades, the nation has been trying to send it all to one secure location.

A 1987 federal law named Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste – but political and legal challenges led to construction delays. Work on the site had barely started before Congress ended the project’s funding altogether in 2011.

The 94 nuclear reactors currently operating at 54 power plants continue to generate more radioactive waste. Public and commercial interest in nuclear power is rising because of concerns regarding emissions from fossil fuel power plants and the possibility of new applications for smaller-scale nuclear plants to power data centers and manufacturing. This renewed interest gives new urgency to the effort to find a place to put the waste.

In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments related to the effort to find a temporary storage location for the nation’s nuclear waste – a ruling is expected by late June. No matter the outcome, the decades-long struggle to find a permanent place to dispose of nuclear waste will probably continue for many years to come.

I am a scholar who specializes in corrosion; one focus of my work has been containing nuclear waste during temporary storage and permanent disposal. There are generally two forms of significantly radioactive waste in the U.S.: waste from making nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and waste from generating electricity at nuclear power plants. There are also small amounts of other radioactive waste, such as that associated with medical treatments.

Today was "Earth Day." Does anyone really care?

Earth Day lost its relevance decades ago

By Will Collette

From this....

The first Earth Day in 1970 was a popular uprising against corporate capitalism primarily over the issue of industrial pollution. It was a day for militant speeches, lively marches and hope that environmental activism would add extra power in numbers to the already huge movement protesting the war in Viet Nam.

I was there. In fact, Cathy and I met that year while working at Ecology Action for Rhode Island in Providence where one of our tasks was prep for Earth Day; we worked together on anti-pesticide polemics.

In short order and over the ensuing 50+ years, Earth Day transformed from being a May Day style day of protest and action against corporate capitalism into a tool of those same financial interests we we were fighting in 1970. Instead of talking about the big issues and pushing for serious solutions, Earth Day devolved into a time to do little, feel-good things.

Tomorrow, the town will hold its third annual pick-up-other-people's-trash day, a classic feel-good event that has come to be treated by the CCA as if it was their idea (it wasn't). The CCA's resident intellectual Mike Chambers ponders the existential threat posed by roadside litter and declares "we cannot afford a stalemate" between the trash picker-uppers and the drive-by litterers who toss their empty nip bottles all over the roads.

Living right on Route One, I entirely understand the problem of litter and would certainly like to see Charlestown Police bust more litterers. I have, in the past, called for chain-gangs of vacationing New Yorkers in orange jump suits to pick up nip liquor bottles along the roadside.

Since the entire idea behind nip bottles is to facilitate drinking and driving, I think any time you see a nip bottle fly out of a car window, it's a reasonable bet the driver would fail a Breath-o-Lyser test. Bust them and prosecute to the hilt.

...To this

Next week, Charlestown will have its official little Earth Day celebration in Ninigret Park with family fun,  music, balloon animals (BAD idea!), and conservation groups handing out literature that will become colorful additions to the town's litter. Faith LaBossiere was all a-twitter talking about this event at the last Town Council meeting.  

Charlestown's way of doing Earth Day ignores so much that needs attention. Let's start with the tons of toxic waste under the ground right at the site of the town's celebration. 

These are leftovers from the days when Ninigret Park was part of a large Navy aviation training field during World War II. The CCA seems more interested in covering that up rather than deal with it.

Large swaths of Charlestown's southern shore faces inundation from storms and sea level rise caused by that industrial pollution we protested at the first Earth Day 52 years ago. Yet Charlestown is actually anti-green energy, virtually banning all forms of wind energy and offering no town assistance to help residents and businesses to break away from fossil fuels. 

Our Town Plan rejects the idea of connecting Charlestown with public transportation. We are one of the only municipalities in Rhode Island with no RIPTA service. 

On any given day, you can look out over Block Island Sound and see ocean going oil tankers, one storm or one accident away from another major oil spill.

We are 25 miles downwind from the poorly managed Millstone nuclear power station just outside of New London in Waterford.

Balloon animals aren't going to fix any of those problems  though they will contribute another dose of plastic pollution to Charlestown's landscape and waterways.

Earth Day 1970 evolved into Earth Day 2022 for reasons that have nothing to do with actually solving problems. The militant environmental movement of the 70s was bought and sold. 

Its leaders graduated from law school and started up huge environmental groups that used funding from corporate polluters to challenge small acts of blatant lawlessness and to seek small incremental changes in the laws.

Some of those leaders went on to become corporate poobahs, hedge fund managers and politicians. Local communities were left pretty much on their own to fight local challenges. 

Some of those local communities ended up like Charlestown where its environmental agenda is set by the likes of Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, Faith LaBossiere and Mikey Chambers. We worry more about what Ruth identifies as threats to our "rural character" than we do about hazardous waste under us, a toxic release or major oil spill or nuclear accident at Millstone.

There is lots we should be doing to protect our town and the health and safety of our families, but none of it has anything to do with the CCA. 

Let's take a historical look at a case in point - the leftover Navy contamination in what was the Ninigret Naval Auxiliary Air Field (NAAF). Understand that nearly all military installations have toxic contamination problems. As one Pentagon official told me in 1988, "our job is to protect this country, not protect the environment."

So lots of chemicals - waste oil, fuel, solvents, unexploded ordnance, ammunition, etc. ended up getting dumped more or less haphazardly at Ninigret as a matter of routine. We have reports showing fuel oil and PFAS contamination at Ninigret. CLICK HERE for a huge 1999 report that inventories the toxics in Ninigret know at that time.

In the early 2000s, the Town Council appointed an Ad hoc Committee that was chaired by Virginia Wooten, who later became CCA chair. The Committee was supposed to come up with ways the Town could get involved in rendering Ninigret safe. The Committee did not leave much work product behind; in fact, only two memos were found. 

One June 2004 memo released to me under the Access to Public Records Act was apparently its final report where Ms. Wooten discussed the broad concerns about contamination but decided that the immediate priority was: 

CLICK HERE to read all 2.5 pages of Wooten's "report." 

Obviously, shrubbery did not make the tons of toxic waste go away. Over the years, new information kept coming out about new types of toxic material in the Park. 

For example, in 2015, we found out - to the surprise of few - about oil that had been spilled, dumped or stored in leaking tanks:

In 2018, Ginger Glander sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers to see if any steps had been taken to set up a restoration advisory board (RAB) for the Park. CLICK HERE to read the entire response. But the most striking part of the reply letter was this: 

There was only one response to the Army's notice in the Westerly Sun and apparently that was Ginger's letter. From the CCA, nada.

Since then, in June 2021, PFAs pollution was confirmed at Ninigret. 

As of today, according to ProPublica's database of polluted military sites, Ninigret Park has five toxic sites, two of which are considered completed, though in my experience that does not mean they have actually been cleaned up. As you can tell from this history, toxic waste is not a CCA priority. Not as long as they can hand out balloon animals.

Here's ProPublica's data on Charlestown's Ninigret air field, Note that the estimated time for the Army to "complete" what it will call a "clean up" is 2055.

Day shocked by Flip’s answer

Filippi refuses to step up to support COVID vaccination campaign

By Will Collette

In the past few days, Charlestown’s state Representative Blake “Flip” Filippi (R-who knows?) has gone on record with just about every media outlet in the region to discuss his position on the importance of getting vaccinated so we can finally end the pandemic.

To paraphrase an old joke, the most dangerous place to be is in between Flip Filippi and a TV camera.

Anyway, in interview after interview, Flip has stated his position is that he has no position. He also refuses to say whether he has been vaccinated or plans to. As the TV news shows would tag the story, “BREAKING NEWS!”

At a time when we need to convince the vaccine-hesitant (especially Republican men of whom he is one) to get their shots for the common good, as well as their own protection, our guy Flip says get the shot if you want but he doesn’t really give a shit. 

Except I believe he does. He has been a leading campaigner AGAINST public schools administering HPV shots that actually prevent cancer. I repeat, shots to PREVENT cancer. 

Yet this hypocrite puts on a pink t-shirt to show his support for breast cancer "awareness." I guess Flip will flip his position when science comes up with a vaccine to actually prevent breast cancer - "awareness" he can support but an actual cure? No way.

I’m not surprised that Flip takes this position, given his HPV opposition not to mention his support of private armed militias, his extreme far-right views against any form of gun control and, most recently, against taking effective action to slow down climate change.

Maybe he's just scared of needles

When he first surfaced on the political scene, he appeared to have no fixed convictions on anything, other than his own self-promotion. 

As he has become the de facto head of the RI Trumplican Party, he is now all over every issue, taking the most extreme hard-right position he can.

It was interesting to read a column a few days ago in the New London Day. Though the Day is not a paper of record here, it is for our eastern Connecticut neighbors. They cover lots of story of interest to us, such as the troubled Millstone Nuclear Power plant just 20 miles away.

One of their senior writers, David Collins undertook a survey of local legislators. He reported that regardless of party, eastern Connecticut political leaders strongly supported the vaccination program for everyone.

Nearly all answered affirmatively when Collins asked if they either had been or will be vaccinated. But then he got Flip’s response and Collins wrote this: 

Most shocking to me was the response in Rhode Island by Rep. Blake Filippi of Block Island, whose district also covers Charlestown and parts of South Kingstown and Westerly, telling the newspaper it was none of anyone's business.

"Respectfully, I won't respond to any query that seeks details on such personal and private medical decisions," he told the newspaper.

If Filippi is so adamant about the secrecy of his health, especially as it pertains to public health, he ought to give up elected office and live as privately as he likes.

If the lawmaker got a shot and won't admit it because of some perceived political bias against vaccination among his constituents, then shame on him.

If he didn't get a shot because of some medical complication, he could say that and surely no one would press him for details.

Filippi is the House minority leader, and failing to address the issue of vaccinations and how they can help us all is a decided failure of leadership.

I know people on Block Island who have had to devote a day to getting a shot, going off island by ferry and then traveling on the mainland to a place where they could get an appointment.

It's too bad that Block Islanders didn't enjoy the kind of accommodation residents of Fishers Island got. New York state leaders, recognizing the challenge of getting off Fishers Island and the risks of a pandemic where there isn't full emergency care, vaccinated every resident of the island on the island.

But then it seems clear Block Island's representative wasn't going to help them get better access to vaccines.

I especially agree with this Collins’ observation: “If Filippi is so adamant about the secrecy of his health, especially as it pertains to public health, he ought to give up elected office and live as privately as he likes.”

Let’s remember that in 2022.

You can sprinkle it on your granola

Trump’s next environmental disaster: Reclassifying nuclear waste as ‘safe’

By  Jillian S. Ambroz, DCReport @ RawStory

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Energy Department's efforts to simply redefine nuclear waste represent a serious danger to Charlestown. Charlestown is only 25 miles downwind from the troubled Millstone Nuclear Power plant outside of New London, CT. 

3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear rods - currently classified as high-level nuclear waste - are currently stored there, more or less permanently since there is no place to send this deadly waste. 

Most of the radiation released from the Fukushima reactor disaster caused by Japan's 2011 earthquake came from radioactive waste fires.The last thing we need is for the Trump administration to lighten up on regulating this material.   - Will Collette

The U.S. Department of Energy wants to redefine what constitutes high-level radioactive waste, cutting corners on the disposal of some of the most dangerous and long-lasting waste byproduct on earth—reprocessed spent fuel from the nuclear defense program.

The agency announced in October 2018 plans for its reinterpretation of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), as defined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982, with plans to classify waste by its hazard level and not its origin.  

By using the idea of a reinterpretation of a definition, the DOE may be able to circumvent Congressional oversight. And in its regulatory filing, the DOE, citing the NWPA and Atomic Energy Act of 1954, said it has the authority to “interpret” what materials are classified as high-level waste based on their radiological characteristics. 

That is not quite true, as Congress specifically defined high-level radioactive waste in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and any reinterpretation of that definition should trigger a Congressional response.

Trump Energy Department redefines high-level radioactive waste to make disposal easier

Good news for our nearby Millstone Nuclear Power Plant

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams

In a move that will roll back safety standards that have been observed for decades, the Trump administration reportedly has plans to reclassify nuclear waste previously listed as "high-level" radioactive to a lower level, in the interest of saving money and time when disposing of the material.

The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to observe a new interpretation of which nuclear waste qualifies as "high-level waste," which must be disposed of deep underground to avoid contaminating the surrounding environment. 

Under the new standards, radioactive materials at three nuclear sites will be classified as low-risk, enabling officials to dispose of the waste in shallow pits.

The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Idaho National Laboratory all contain millions of gallons of sludge and other waste following decades of use by the DOE, which reprocessed nuclear rods at the sites when the department was extracting plutonium for hydrogen bombs.

The DOE for decades classified any material that was created during reprocessing as high-level waste, but it will now label the sludge at the three sites as safe due to its level of radioactivity.

Under the new rules, the waste—which includes toxic and radioactive elements such as uranium and plutonium—can now be stored in shallow pits that may leak into the surrounding soil.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlestown is only 25 miles downwind from the Millstone Nuclear Power plant outside of New London, CT. 3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear rods - currently classified as high-level nuclear waste - are currently stored there, more or less permanently since there is no place to send this deadly waste. The last thing we need is for the Trump administration to lighten up on regulating this material.   - Will Collette

The link between warming and lobster disease

Suggests earlier springs and hotter summers foster increase in shell infections

By David Malmquist 

This shows the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant's continuous discharge
of heated reactor coolant water directly into Long Island Sound at the
rate of a billion gallons a day.

An earlier spring may sound nice, unless you’re a New England lobster.

New findings reveal that as coastal waters in the northeastern U.S. continue to warm—bottom temperatures in Long Island Sound have increased 0.7°F per decade over the last 40 years—resident lobsters are becoming increasingly susceptible to epizootic shell disease, a condition that has depleted the southern New England population and severely impacted the local lobster fishery. 

The findings stem from a collaboration between the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Dominion Energy’s Millstone Environmental Laboratory. The lab maintains a unique, long-term record of lobster abundance and health in waters near Dominion Energy’s Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Connecticut.

The research, funded by NOAA’s Saltonstall-Kennedy Program and led by then postdoctoral associate Maya Groner of VIMS, suggests that the increased prevalence of shell disease in area lobsters stems from two factors—an earlier onset of warmth-induced spring molting, and hotter summers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: this article makes no mention of the contribution made by one of the sponsor's of this research: the Millstone nuclear power plant just outside of New London. This plant discharges 1 BILLION gallons of heated reactor coolant water directly into Long Island Sound EVERY DAY. It's surprising the researchers didn't find cooked lobsters floating on top of the water. 

While I don't doubt the impact of climate change and the warmer waters it brings to the lobster population, I think the research would be more credible if the impact of Millstone was included in the impact calculations.

Millstone, like many environmentally-destructive businesses, engages in "green-washing," funding nice programs and projects to distract from their polluting practices. For example, Millstone funds programs at the Mystic Aquarium. - Will Collette

Nuclear power on corporate life support

Past deadline and over budget, nuclear energy is struggling.

By Peter Dykstra for Environmental Health News

EDITOR’S NOTE: Charlestown is 20 miles downwind from the troubled Millstone Nuclear Power plant just outside New London, CT. For over a year, there has been intensive maneuvering to determine whether the state will increase corporate welfare to keep the plant running, whether that will be enough to satisfy Millstone’s Virginia-based owners and what will happen to the millions of pounds of radioactive waste stored on site. As this article explains, this is part of a nationwide pattern. – Will Collette

Georgia Power is in the midst of a financial and political maelstrom over its expansion of Plant Vogtle, a 70s-era two reactor complex near Augusta.

Two new reactors are years behind schedule and billions over budget. Just this week, Moody's lowered its credit rating for Georgia Power on the news that an extra billion in costs would be added to Vogtle's completion tab. Fear not, Georgia Power, its ratepayers—myself included—will cover the costs.

Vogtle is the only active nuclear power plant project in the U. S.

Georgia Power has run numerous yellow lights trying to complete the project. Its original operator, Westinghouse, fell into bankruptcy building the plant.

Georgia Power isn't alone in its struggles. And, despite a nuke-friendly Administration, the troubles portend an industry that may soon find itself facing extinction.

Even some industry heavyweights agree. Shortly after his 2012 retirement as CEO of nuke-heavy Exelon, John Rowe said "new (nukes) don't make sense right now." 

US nuclear regulators greatly underestimate potential for nuclear disaster

Nuclear spent fuel fire could force millions of people to relocate

Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

This image captures the spread of radioactivity from a hypothetical fire in a high-density spent-fuel pool at the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. Based on the guidance from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the experience from the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, populations in the red and orange areas would have to be relocated for many years, and many in the yellow area would relocate voluntarily. In this scenario, which is based on real weather patterns that occurred in July 2015, four major cities would be contaminated (New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.), resulting in the displacement of millions of people.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Michael Schoeppner, Princeton University, Program on Science and Global Security

EDITOR'S NOTE: This issue is of particular concern to Charlestown because we are only 20 miles downwind of the Millstone nuclear power plant near New London, CT. There are hundreds of tons of high-level nuclear waste stored on site at Millstone, prone to the accidents described in this article.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relied on faulty analysis to justify its refusal to adopt a critical measure for protecting Americans from the occurrence of a catastrophic nuclear-waste fire at any one of dozens of reactor sites around the country, according to an article in the May 26 issue of Science magazine. 

Fallout from such a fire could be considerably larger than the radioactive emissions from the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.

Published by researchers from Princeton University and the Union of Concerned Scientists, the article argues that NRC inaction leaves the public at high risk from fires in spent-nuclear-fuel cooling pools at reactor sites. 

The pools -- water-filled basins that store and cool used radioactive fuel rods -- are so densely packed with nuclear waste that a fire could release enough radioactive material to contaminate an area twice the size of New Jersey. 

On average, radioactivity from such an accident could force approximately 8 million people to relocate and result in $2 trillion in damages.

These catastrophic consequences, which could be triggered by a large earthquake or a terrorist attack, could be largely avoided by regulatory measures that the NRC refuses to implement. 

Using a biased regulatory analysis, the agency excluded the possibility of an act of terrorism as well as the potential for damage from a fire beyond 50 miles of a plant. 

Failing to account for these and other factors led the NRC to significantly underestimate the destruction such a disaster could cause.

Despite a history of problems, regulators grant Millstone nuclear plant license revisions

Issues remain about nuclear waste storage, plant reliability, safety, environmental impact and security

By Will Collette

I have been cutting back on articles about the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford, CT. 

Even though Charlestown is only 20 miles downwind from the troubled facility, well within the danger zone, and the plant has been rife with problems, it seems as though Charlestown town government could care less.

Even though the Town Council, comprised entirely of members of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party), frequently adopts resolutions and sends letters about matters having little or no bearing on Charlestown, Millstone seems to be totally off their radar. 

Out of sight, out of mind, even though, as the wind blows, it’s practically in our backyard.

Let’s review the issues. Millstone is our local nuke. If there’s an accident at the plant, the prevailing winds will carry any released radiation right to us.

Any of a number of problems could cause an accident – failure of the reactor cooling system (and they’ve had recurring problems with their cooling system), a fire at the radioactive waste storage site where millions of pounds of high-level wastes are stored on-site for lack of any other place to put them, or a terrorist attack.

It took Millstone years after the 9/11 attacks to hold its first emergency drill, though apparently they are starting to catch up, having just recently won praise from FEMA for its August 16 six-hour emergency drill.

That contrasts with last May when a majority of Millstone’s security guards voted “no confidence” in Millstone management or contractors when it comes to the safety and security of the plant.

Connecticut distributes Potassium Iodide to neighbors of Millstone nuclear plant

Residents within 10 miles at risk but Charlestown is 20 miles away

By Will Collette

The Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection is offering residents who live or work within the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the Millstone nuclear power plant free Potassium iodide pills.

If Millstone’s notoriously hinky reactor cooling system should fail in a way that can’t be fixed before a major “event” released radiation into the air, taking potassium iodide, also known as KI, can help prevent absorption of radiation by your thyroid gland.

This could prevent one of the many kinds of cancers and other serious maladies caused by high exposure to radiation.

As I’ve reported, Millstone frequently has to shut down due to malfunctioning equipment in their cooling system which is supposed to keep the reactors from melting down and exploding. 

Another way things could go sideways at Millstone is a fire in their piles of high-level radioactive waste, mostly used up fuel rods. They are authorized to store up to 3.6 million pounds of the stuff that will stay deadly for millenia.

Charlestown is not in the 10-mile zone. We are 20 miles away almost directly downwind. If you want potassium iodide, you’ll have to get it yourself. I did. I live exactly 24 miles from Millstone.

VIDEO: Our local nuke suffers a “minor” leak on Sunday

It’s only “minor,” but keep your potassium iodide handy

By Will Collette

To view this video on YouTube, click here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60

To read past coverage of Millstone, CLICK HERE.

The Millstone Nuclear Power Plant, just around 20 miles to the west of Charlestown, had to SCRAM (shut-down unexpectedly) its Unit 2 reactor on Sunday at 9:30 AM due to a power failure and leakage that was “slightly radioactive.” Using the jargon of the nuclear industry, the accident was classified as an “unusual event.”

NASA Manned Space Flight Director Jerome Lederer famously said, “Every accident, no matter how minor, is a failure of the organization.” The same can be said about nuclear power plants.

With the Millstone power plant, accidents involving their cooling system are a regular occurrence, and if you follow Lederer’s thinking, a failure of organization, especially when you factor in how critical the coolant systems are to preventing a catastrophic melt-down.

Killer released, quarry bills pass, Weidman’s future, ticks, nukes (again) and lots more

Another steaming plate of Charlestown Tapas
By Will Collette

More more Mutts cartoons by Patrick McConnell, CLICK HERE

 Colin Foote’s killer released from prison

LauraReale, habitual traffic offender and drunk driving killer, has been released from prison after serving four years of an eight year sentence for killing Charlestown’s Colin Foote in 2010 when she ran the red light at West Beach and Route One and struck down Colin on his motorcycle.

Colin Foote was 27. His mother was in a car following right behind and saw her son get killed. She and Colin’s father formed ColinsLaw.org which worked closely with former state Rep. Donna Walsh (D) for stricter traffic safety laws.

The site of Colin’s death is now covered by a set of red light enforcement cameras. Those cameras, due to a variety of problems the town’s contractor can’t seem to handle are STILL not able to issue tickets to violators.

Pleasant Surprise, with an unsurprising twist

Millstone nuke's Virginia owner under national attack for anti-environmental practices

Dominion is skimping on solar and wind as it aims to build a fracked-gas pipeline and another nuclear reactor.

By Emily Schwartz Greco

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article gives you more background on the company that owns the troubled Millstone Nuclear Power plant, only 20 miles west of Charlestown. 

If you live in Virginia and would like to shrink your carbon footprint, here’s what passes for good news: We’re now officially free to ban fracking. For two years, Old Dominion communities weren’t at liberty to prevent that kind of oil and gas drilling.

After the cities of Staunton, Lynchburg, and several other local governments expressed reservations over fracking or tried to prevent it, former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said they lacked the authority to block Big Fossil. In early May, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring overrode his predecessor’s position and asserted that these local policies adhere to state law.

Either way, Richmond-based Dominion Resources, which wields near-monopoly power over Virginia’s electric grid, wants to boost demand for this environmentally hazardous drilling. It’s partnering with other companies on a $5 billion pipeline that will funnel gas fracked in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania over a 550-mile route to Virginia and North Carolina.

Dominion’s dirty-energy ambitions for its home state don’t stop there. The company also intends to drop $10 billion on a third nuclear reactor at a site within 50 miles of Richmond, Charlottesville, and Fredericksburg.

Problems at local nuke plant go from bad to worse

While local windbags go nuts over wind power, new problems occur at nuclear plant only 20 miles upwind from Charlestown

By Will Collette

Make sure you have your atomic soap
in case something goes wrong

My colleague Tom Ferrio covered the extraordinarily crazy May 4 Charlestown Town Council budget meeting. At that meeting, some of our more unhinged local denizens proclaimed their desire to give away town property, the $2 million parcel the town bought to block a wind turbine project, and set aside another $2 million just in case somebody at some time in the future might even think about putting large wind turbines in Charlestown.

These same Charlestown Citizens Alliance loonies were, of course, not present the next day at the May 5 meeting in Waterford, CT just 20 miles west on I-95. There, Millstone Nuclear Power plant officials were confronted by elected officials in towns neighboring the plant about recent revelations of serious – even “willful” – breaches of safety and security protocols.

These recently reviewed violations were so serious that the federal EPA and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a closed-door briefing for Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy and his staff "in order to address our serious concerns related to the continued safe operation of Millstone."

Local nuke has more problems

Security, bad pumps and heat pollution raise concerns

By Will Collette

Just 20 miles to the west of Charlestown, and well within the danger zone in the event of a Fukushima-scale accident, is the Millstone Power Plant. 

Its Virginia-based owners, Dominion Power, dropped “nuclear” from the name some years ago as people might not like the idea of living so close to something so dangerous.

Thanks to some excellent reporting by the New London Day, and in particular reporter Judy Benson, we know a lot more about the problems at Millstone than Dominion Power or lapdog regulator the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) would like you to know.

The latest: a former contractor at Millstone wants Congress to look into ignored problems at Millstone that he reported as a whistleblower. Stephen Lavoie of Niantic worked at Millstone as an insulator for contractor Day & Zimmerman. Lavoie claims he was fired for reporting co-workers who were using drugs on the job and asserted that there is a work culture that makes workers afraid to report safety problems.

There is plenty of cause to take Lavoie’s statements seriously, even though Millstone’s management pooh-poohs them. In early April, the NRC issued a notice of violation to Millstone for the second time in less than a year for security problems uncovered during an inspection. The NRC does not detail what the security problem is – for obvious reasons – but says it is subjecting Millstone to heightened scrutiny. Again.

Four years ago: nuclear disaster

…And the continuing problems of our own local nuke
By Will Collette

Four years ago, as a result of an enormous earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant melted down and exploded, sending radioactive fall-out high into the atmosphere as well as plume of radioactive water.

Both forms of radiation having been reaching the US and will continue to come for many years in the future.

When things go wrong at a nuclear power plant, things go VERY wrong. That’s why I keep a close eye on Charlestown’s own local nuke, the Millstone Power Station located just 20 miles away to our west right outside New London. That 20 mile distance is significant – the significant health danger zone at Fukushima extended out 50 miles.

The Fukushima nuke blew up when, ironically, the tsunami wiped out the cooling water system that kept the reactors from melting down and the radioactive waste pits from exploding. Without a regular and controlled water flow, the reactors and waste pits went critical…and then KA-BOOM.

Millstone concerns me because they have had a regular drumbeat of problems with their cooling system that no matter how much the Nuclear Regulatory Commission nags at them, they just can’t or won’t fix properly.

Spring really is coming; tax myths, energy ennui and Charlestown invasion

Charlestown Tapas: tasteful bites of news for the discerning Progressive Charlestown reader

One of spring’s most wonderful signs

One sure way to know that this dreary winter with its succession of snow and ice storms is almost over is when you start to see announcements for the annual Easter Peeps® diorama contests. I just spotted the New London Day’s notice of their contest. They run a pretty decent one, although my own personal favorite is the Washington Post’s. There are dozens of imitators.

The general idea is to use marshmallow Peeps®, one of American industry’s perfect foods, in little tableaus that will catch the judge’s eye and make people laugh. The themes can be political, historical, literary or theatrical, pop culture, etc. Whatever works.

Talkin’ taxes

Just as Peeps® are a harbinger of spring, so too are the W-2 and 1099 forms we get so we can prepare and pay our state and local income taxes on or before April 15.

During 2014’s campaign, there was a lot of talk from Republican challengers such as new Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi who now represents Charlestown and the rest of District 36 (which he would need a map to find, since he actually lives in Lincoln, not in the District). 

Flip promised that he would introduce a state law to exempt Social Security from state income tax. When the time came, the lead bill to exempt Social Security and other retirement income was actually introduced by Rep. Bob Craven (D-No. Kingstown) who is also an assistant Charlestown town solicitor.

Flip ended up signing on to two bills introduced by Republican colleagues that have no hope of passage.

Driving the issue is the myth that state taxes are causing Rhode Islanders to move to other states, especially Florida, when they retire. In fact, the two leading reasons for Rhode Island’s rather modest out-migration are the lack of affordable housing (which is something we can address) and sunnier, warmer weather (which we have no power to change).

The tax argument took another hit in a recent survey that showed Rhode Island is only ranked #38 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for tax burden. Repeating, #38!

News on jobs leads this week's Charlestown Tapas

News bites for our busy Progressive Charlestown audience

By Will Collette

Bad News: Charlestown unemployment jumps

Good News: there are also more jobs out there

Charlestown’s November unemployment rate was adjusted to 6.1%, a big jump from October’s 4.5% rate, and the rate stayed at 6.1% in December. That means that out of Charlestown’s workforce of just over 4,500, there are 277 who are unemployed. This does not include the much higher number who are underemployed at part-time jobs when they want full-time work.

But the overall improvements in the economy means a lot more jobs are out there, though not all of them are what adult breadwinners need to provide for their families.

Case in point: the long list of part-time jobs being offered by the Town of Charlestown for summer 2015. The town is looking to hire life guards, beach attendants, beach managers, camp counselors, seasonal laborers and more. This is temp work but work is work when you need it.

Click here for the complete listing of jobs and click here for the job application form.

Here are other job listings that might interest you, starting with South County jobs that have been posted on RI Community Jobs, which produces a great daily e-mail listing community jobs from all over RI and nearby. Click here to sign up.

A full plate of Charlestown Tapas sizzle

News briefs from Progressive Charlestown

By Will Collette

• Yet more problems at nearby Millstone nuke
• Conservancy closes land deal, but what about the Comprehensive Plan?
• Earthquakes: is the Big One on the way?
• Jobs: more than 50 new South County listings, prospects at Electric Boat and at Cape Wind
• New ordinance idea for the CCA Party

Feds find more safety problems at Millstone and administer a wicked harsh slap to the wrist

Local and state officials in Connecticut are dismayed that the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, when confronted with the Millstone Nuclear Power plant’s intransigence in fixing faulty cooling pumps, only issued the lowest level notice of violation.

According to state Nuclear Energy Advisory Council (NEAC) chair Bill Sheehan, Millstone’s violations are "at least a yellow flag, if not a red flag. Why suddenly does it look like they're having performance problems?"

The NEAC was set up to monitor the plant when there was, as New London Day editor Paul Choiniere put it, “a culture that discouraged plant workers from speaking up about technical problems, punishing those who did point to performance errors, while rewarding those who kept such issues covered up.”