TO THE EDITOR: THE NORTHFIELD NEWS AS RESIDENTS of Vermont, and of Brattleboro, we’d like to thank you for voting against allowing the state Public Service Board to consider granting Vermont Yankee another 20 years of life after 2012.

We have all witnessed the corporate disregard at Entergy and Vermont Yankee for our lives, property, environment, laws, and trust. But all of us weren’t given a vote in the matter. You were. And we are grateful for your decision.

The danger of radiation exposure in cumulative. There is no safe level of exposure: each added exposure increases the health risks.

The radiation from the ground water still being contaminated with Tritium from Vermont Yankee will be concentrating up the food chain as it is incorporated into plants, then the bugs who eat those plants, then the birds who eat those bugs, then the cats who eat those birds. It will be dangerous for more than a century. It is past time to arrest the damage being done by this plant and this corporation to our state.

We know the cost of this decision may be higher than acquiescing to the corporate attempts at influencing your decisions with their rate manipulation bribery. Some workers will admittedly also have to find other work as the plant closes and is decommissioned. But, the real costs of allowing this plant to continue operating in Vermont would outstrip any increases in electricity rates or the dislocation of workers.

In contrast to the rather craven kowtowing that the Douglas Administration has been doing with Entergy over the years, you have stood up for Vermont’s values and environment, its people, and its future.

We thank you.

SCOTT AINSLIE

Brattleboro