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Yankee evacuation plans questioned
By SUSAN SMALLHEER In the first public
discussion of the plan since the board received the 2003 draft 10 days ago,
several board members said they had technical questions about the plan, as well
as questions about the adequacy of the town’s emergency staffing. Town Manager Jerry Remillard
said the state was looking to establish another emergency reception center for
evacuees in the western part of the state. The current plan asks all the people
living around the plant to head for the “The plan anticipates that
everybody won’t go to The Marlboro Select Board
has rejected its evacuation plan because of that very point, Remillard noted. Remillard said that that
there would probably be a limited “real-life” evacuation at And board member Joerg Mayer
questioned the official notification process, saying that valuable time would be
lost contacting state officials, rather than local officials, in the opening
minutes of an emergency. “I hate the thought that
we have to wait,” Mayer said. “We five are responsible for this plan.” Mayer also called for more
public information about nuclear emergencies so that people could understand
about the potential for problems at Yankee, “so that people feel informed, and
not just scared; not just warn, but inform,” Mayer said. He was critical that
the burden for the plan fell on the town, rather than the state or the nuclear
plant itself. Board member Patricia
DeAngelo, who has been the most critical of Vermont Yankee — her former
employer —questioned whether the town’s emergency workers had been
adequately trained about the plan and whether the town had adequate hand-held
radiation screeners, dedicated telephone lines and cell phones. DeAngelo said that the plan
was lacking in specifics about evacuation. Cell phones are often
worthless in an emergency, Remillard said, because everyone gets on the phone
and jams the lines. Chairman Greg Worden said he
wanted the town “three deep” on the plan, that three different shifts knew
the specifics of the plan. He called for a “table-top test” of all three
shifts. Remillard outlined the plan,
which detailed hundreds of school buses and public transportation buses which
would come to the towns surrounding The board agreed to seek
more technical expertise as a way of educating themselves about the potential
for problems at the Remillard said he had seen
“much more interest and much more intensity” on the part of the state in
helping the communities plan for a disaster. “There’s a whole lot more going
on,” he said. All of According to the 41-page
plan, the town of Emery said that many of the
large institutions in town, such as And Emery said their plans
dealt not just with evacuating people, but the medical equipment those people
will need. Remillard said that there
were “minor changes” to the plan, which has to be reviewed annually,
according to federal and state requirements. The Select Board will try to
meet with a state official in early July in another public work session and then
hold public meetings about the plan, Worden said. Contact Susan Smallheer at
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. |