Nuclear power in the US

Hattie Nestel does not stop for a second until she has distributed all of her "Nuclear energy – No thanks!" buttons among demonstrators. The lively 72-year-old is clad in a colorful batik t-shirt covered with the campaign buttons she designs herself. Nestel has been fighting for the shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for five years. Vermont Yankee is located near the city of Brattleboro, home to 12,000 inhabitants. "I'm very afraid for my grandchildren," she says. "It breaks my heart to think that they could face something like what the people in Fukushima have."

We don't leave until we're arrested

Nestel has already been arrested 11 times in protests against the reactor. She is a member of the "Shut it down!" group, which consists of 12 women from the ages of 40 to 92. They all have the same mission: to shut down Vermont Yankee, and in doing so make Vermont a nuclear power-free state.

"We have a lot to do," says Nestel. "We are always going to have protests at the reactor and we will always let ourselves be arrested. We don't leave until we're arrested. But they always drop the charges because we're so well-liked in the community."

Since the reactor, identical in construction to the one in Fukushima, went on line in 1972, it has made headlines time and again. In 2007 a cooling tower collapsed due to shabby wooden girders. When in 2010 it was discovered that radioactive tritium had seeped into the groundwater from a pipe leak, the Vermont Senate voted by a large majority to close Vermont Yankee by 2012.

Differing opinions among politicians and population

A completely different message, however, came just a few weeks later from the American nuclear energy authorities in Washington, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Just days after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the NRC extended Vermont Yankee's operating license for another 20 years. Whether it was Vermont or Washington that overstepped its boundaries is currently being disputed in the courts.

But the NRC's generous decision has not led to a lack of acceptance in just Vermont. Since Fukushima, nuclear energy has reached a similar degree of unpopularity in the US as it did shortly after the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. A partial nuclear meltdown occurred back then due to a break down of the cooling system. Roughly 60 percent of the US population was against the construction of further nuclear power plants following the incident, a statistic that also holds true today.

One serious accident per generation?

Nuclear scientist Howard Shaffer cannot comprehend the American people's turnaround against nuclear power. He was involved as an engineer in the Vermont Yankee's construction at the beginning of the 1970s. Shaffer is always present at protests in the region against nuclear industry, representing the other side in a suit and tie. "Nothing is perfect!" he emphasizes. "An important factor that needs to be considered is time. Coal is an ongoing accident. With nuclear power, you only have perhaps one serious accident per generation."

Currently, 42 power plants with 104 nuclear reactors produce 20 percent of American electricity. The country is the largest generator of nuclear energy in the world. For Shaffer, discontinuing nuclear power in the US is unthinkable. He smiles at Germany's plans to scrap nuclear power by 2022. "The German government has caved in to the Green Party and our friends in France are already beside themselves with joy at the possibility of selling their nuclear energy to Germany."

Experts anticipate that the Vermont Yankee case will end up at the highest court, the Supreme Court, and that obtaining a final decision will take several years.

Hattie Nestel has already arrived at the realization that her protest group still has a few demonstrations in front of it, even though her members are not getting any younger. "Our oldest member is 92 and she doesn't have much strength in her hands to use a spray can," says Nestel. "She's already told me that she'll bring a can of paint and a brush along for our next graffiti campaign."

Author: Sonja Beeker
Editor: Irene Quaile / Wim Abbink