Original art, mounted and framed, 13 ¼" x 12 ¼", $75.00 USD plus $15.00 shipping within the USA. (Massachusetts residents will be charged 6 ¼% sales tax.)
Image © 2008 E. J. Barnes. Published in The Recorder 31 July 2008, and in The Commons September 2008.
Vermont's only nuclear power plant, Vermont Yankee near Brattleboro, has for the last several years been run by out-of-state company Entergy. It has run into numerous operational snags over the past several years, while its owners are petitioning to be allowed to extend its operating license for an additional 20 years beyond 2012. Its pattern of poor management and decrepitude is so apparent that even advocates of nuclear power are starting to wonder whether Vermont Yankee deserves another 20 years.
Meanwhile, Entergy has put no new money in the fund that was set up years ago to pay the costs of decommissioning — which, if Entergy fails in its bid to extend Vermont Yankee's license, will come sooner rather than later. To add to the fun, Entergy actually holds Vermont Yankee within a shell company called Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (E.N.V.Y. — I am not making this up). And to top it all off, Entergy is hoping to spin off Vermont Yankee and several other nuclear plants it owns into yet another company, Enexus.