Is Exelon "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"

Right, would the plant fade away one by one...or would it be a race to the door?

Everyone it the energy sector is advocating for massive increases in prices...while the middle class and poor have a very poor increase in income. Usually the highest price sets the price for everyone else?

April 23, 2014, 3:01 p.m. EDT

Exelon Urges Lawmakers to Take Hard Look at Energy Policies to Preserve Benefits of Nation’s Nuclear Plants

William A. Von Hoene, Jr. explains to USEA public policy forum what’s at stake for the nation’s nuclear fleet

WASHINGTON, Apr 23, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Unless policymakers take action soon, a series of additional early nuclear power plant retirements could threaten the reliability of the nation’s electric grid and hinder the country’s ability to meet its carbon reduction goals, Exelon Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer William A. Von Hoene, Jr. told members of the United States Energy Association (USEA) today.
In a keynote address at the 2014 USEA Annual Membership Meeting & Public Policy Forum at the National Press Club, Von Hoene said that current government policies and market structures fail to account for the full value that nuclear power provides as an always-on source of carbon-free energy.
“The unfortunate reality for nuclear right now is that despite being the largest, most reliable and lowest-emitting power plants – and among the lowest cost – they are not getting recognized or compensated for those attributes,” he said.
In addition to low natural gas prices and slow demand growth, which have driven down wholesale electricity prices, Von Hoene pointed to market-distorting policies that subsidize renewable generation as part of a perfect storm of challenges threatening the continued operation of many nuclear plants.
“Renewable energy is an important and growing part of our own generation portfolio and a critical component of our efforts to advance clean energy,” he said, “but government policies designed to incent investment in low-carbon resources end up threatening that very goal by putting increased economic pressure on certain nuclear plants.”
Von Hoene said the performance of the nation’s generating fleet during the severe cold of the past winter underscored the critical role of nuclear plants in ensuring the reliability of the electric grid. At the height of the polar vortex, he explained, when some fuel sources faltered, the U.S. nuclear fleet continued to generate electricity at its usual, industry-leading productivity rates.
“Our nuclear fleet proved critical to keeping the lights and heat on for millions of homes and businesses,” he said. While the PJM electricity market serving large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast experienced record winter demand, most other resources experienced higher-than-expected outages rates. In fact, Von Hoene said, “many natural gas-fired plants didn’t run, either because they couldn’t get fuel, couldn’t start, or because other units were more cost-effective. Similarly, wind was generating at only about one-quarter of its nameplate.”
On the day after Earth Day, Von Hoene emphasized that, in the absence of a federal, market-based carbon policy, closing nuclear plants prematurely would deal a major setback to the nation’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
“We simply cannot achieve our emissions reduction goals without the U.S. nuclear fleet,” he said. “The loss of 25 percent of existing nuclear facilities would cut U.S. progress toward achieving its 2020 climate change goals in half. In fact, closing even a few nuclear plants could make achieving state and national carbon reduction goals difficult or impossible.”
Von Hoene emphasized the urgent need to repair policy shortcomings if the nation wishes to safeguard the value of existing U.S. nuclear plants and their role in ensuring a future energy supply that is reliable, clean and affordable. He also commended policymakers, including those at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy and state commissions, who have acknowledged the need for action.
“Our state and federal lawmakers need to seriously examine, now, how their policies must change if they want to preserve the benefits of the nation’s nuclear fleet,” he said. “This is a national challenge, and so we need attention of all of the nation’s policymakers to solve it.”

April 15, 2013 Comments of Exelon Corporation

Committee on Ways and Means

Energy Tax Reform Working Group
United States House of Representatives

Exelon's been blackmailing or threatening to shut down Quad Cities and Dresden for decades.

Coal and Nuclear Nearly Invisible at Platts Global Power Markets

The headline of this event report should come as no surprise. Although the event was kicked off by Exelon Generation President & CEO Kenneth Cornew, who sang the praises of his company’s “largest and best-run nuclear fleet,” otherwise only passing mention was made of the new nuclear units under construction in the U.S.

Cornew made the case for keeping nuclear in the fleet. This past winter demonstrated the need for reliable“always-on generation,” he began. With nuclear plants swerving into uneconomic positions as a result of low natural gas prices, even the Department of Energy is concerned about the viability of some of Exelon’s fleet, he said. However, retiring nuclear plants will make it “difficult to impossible” to reach the administration’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals—not to mention the goal of maintaining grid reliability. In the question and answer period, Cornew added that Exelon has three nuclear plants with economic problems—unless federal policy incentivizes nuclear clean energy as well as solar, he said. In another intriguing hint of what may lie ahead, Cornew noted they’d “have to see” if Exelon is “the right owner” of those nuclear plants, implying that that they might be better off under a regulated generator.

Despite the merits of nuclear capacity, nuclear was clearly not where other participants saw any business or market action. In the Wednesday project finance session, Donald Kyle, senior managing director of GE Capital Markets Inc., said his company sees a lot of greenfield gas projects ahead. And he was not alone in that view. Another field with enormous growth potential: energy storage. RES Americas Chief Development Officer Rob Morgan claimed, “We’re scratching the surface on storage.” (For a look at the state of energy storage technology and implementation, see “The Year Energy Storage Hit Its Stride” in the forthcoming May issue of POWERat powermag.com.)

What Exelon wants is for the high cost producers setting the price for all of the sources and then they could all gang up on the government. We should subsidize the rate payers and never Exelon's profits.

Chair Jerry Bloom of law firm Winston & Strawn LLP followed up by saying, “Everything is subsidized. . . . Shouldn’t we acceptsubsidies and just ensure they are available to all?” A little later, Todd Carter, president and senior partner of Panda Power Funds, said he didn’t think there should be any subsidies. Next into the fray was Exelon’s Cornew, who said we need to get the market rules right “for all technologies.”But how, asked Morgan of RES Americas, do we deal with externalities? Taxing carbon to level the playing field was his solution, even though there was limited optimism among his fellow panelists that the U.S. would see a carbon tax in the foreseeable future.

Exelon must shoulder financial burden of its nuclearplants

State bailout would insulate utility from cost of its decisions

March 30, 2014

A Tribune analysis has found that Exelon's six nuclear power plants in Illinois have failed to turn a profitduring the past five years. Exelon, the Chicago-based parent of Commonwealth Edison, said it may announce plant closings. We asked Exelon and the Citizens Utility Board to address the future of nuclear power in Illinois:

Over the last decade, Exelon has reaped more than $21 billion in profits, running a fleet of nuclear plants that benefited from high electricity prices.

But thanks to a surge in natural gas supply and increased energy efficiency, wholesalepower prices have fallen, and Exelon's business model isn't necessarily the winner it used to be.

As a result, the company is reportedly threatening to close as many as three of its six Illinois nuclear plants, unless state legislators force consumers to pay more to boost Exelon profits and minimize its market risk.

A bill that would insulate Exelon from the costs of its business decisions, while obligating consumers to pay the consequences, would be the financial equivalent of nuclear waste. Lawmakers should reject any one-sided proposal that causes this kind of fallout for consumers.

Not only does it pose risks for our pocketbooks, but it's also hypocritical. After all, Exelon advocated for the same energy markets it now bemoans.

And Exelon has opposed state support for its competitors' plants, suggesting that such aid illegally interferes with federal jurisdiction over power markets.

Though Exelon asserts the virtues of competitive markets in its rhetoric, its actions suggest that what it really wants is privatized profit and socialized risk — the worst of all worlds for consumers.

Yet it would be a mistake to assume that a deal would collapse simply because it's hypocritical.

Exelon has political power. And closing nuclear plants would threaten good-paying jobs, large amounts of carbon-free electricity and the local tax revenues generated by the sites.

So it is possible that Springfield will entertain proposals that leave ratepayers accountable for Exelon's plants.

If they do, lawmakers should follow three principles to protect consumers:

•First, risks and rewards should be shared equitably. If Exelon gets protection from market forces when prices are low, consumers must get protection when prices rise.

•Second, the state's power portfolioshould prioritize cost-effective clean energy resources. The clean energy economy — based on energy efficiency, the smart grid and alternative sources like solar — is key if we are to maximize consumer and environmental value.

•Third, any support must be based on a thorough and transparent analysis of Exelon's financial situation. We can't simply take its word that plants are losing money, especially when its overall fleet remains profitable.

Without these safeguards, consumers might be forced to consider taking shelter. Anything resembling a full-fledged bailout of Exelon's plants would be radioactive for our pocketbooks.

Kolata is executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit group that represents the interests of residential utility customers of Illinois.

 

Exelon CEO calls for US electricity market reform

10 April 2014 by Will Dalrymple

In a keynote address to the 29th Annual Platts Global Power Markets Conference, Exelon Generation president and CEO Kenneth W. Cornew said that competitive market rules and state and federal energy policies need immediate reforms to ensure a diverse, clean, reliable and affordable energy supply.

Cornew said the energy industry has experienced seismic shifts in how energy is produced and consumed, with an influx of low-cost natural gas, rapid expansion of subsidized renewable generation, smart grid deployment, behind the meter technologies and low demand growth combining to reshape the energy landscape. Market rules have failed to keep pace, he said.

"Rules that are in place today were designed for a fundamentally different energy market," Cornew said. "They need to be reformed to reflect our current environment and recent changes in how we produce and use energy."

He said that electricity demand during a cold snap this past winter demonstrated the problems with the current regime. Grid operators struggled to keep up with demand as many resources had high forced outage rates or were otherwise unable to perform. A large number of natural gas plants across the country were unable to get access to fuel, highlighting the consequences of an overreliance on gas generation. But nuclear plants, which have 18 months to 24 months of fuel on site, performed at a 95% capacity factor, a key measure of reliability.

"The current patchwork of state and federal energy policies subsidizing renewable energy do not properly compensate nuclear for its unrivaled reliability and 24/7 emissions-free energy"

However, flawed market rules and the current patchwork of state and federal energy policies subsidizing renewable energy do not properly compensate nuclear for its unrivaled reliability and 24/7 emissions-free energy, Cornew said. The problem is exacerbated in regions where low load growth and an oversupply of subsidized wind generation are driving wholesale energy prices even lower.

The combination of competitive market forces and artificial price suppression resulting from well-intended but poorly-designed energy policies could force some highly-efficient nuclear plants to shut down, threatening grid reliability and setting back efforts to meet the nation's carbon reduction goals, Cornew said.

"The economic viability of these highly reliable, low-carbon generation sources is at risk, not because they can't compete in the marketplace, but because they can't compete when the playing field is uneven," he said.

Exelon has long advocated for market-based policies that treat all carbon-free resources equally, regardless of technology, Cornew said.

"We need to better align our energy policies with our competitive market rules to ensure we have a clean, reliable and economic energy supply going forward," he said.

Power price recovery may be too late to aid its nuclear plants: Exelon exec

Las Vegas (Platts)--9Apr2014/1033 am EDT/1433 GMt

While Exelon expects a recovery in power prices, it may not come in time to save some of the company's nuclear plants, a senior company executive said in Las Vegas Tuesday.

"Nuclear power has taken the biggest punch" of all generation sources in the current low power price environment, Kenneth Cornew, president and CEO of Exelon Generation, said in an interview.

Exelon owns the largest fleet of nuclear power stations in the US. Of the company's total 35-GW power generation capacity, nuclear accounts for 55%. But several of those plants are "financially challenged," Cornew said.

The smaller, single unit plants, such as its 610-MW Ginna plant, are particularly challenged as are three of its five nuclear plants in Illinois. The Illinois plants are primarily challenged because of location. They are in places where large amounts of low-priced wind power comes into the system, depressing wholesale power prices, Cornew said. The busbar price at the Quad City plant on the western side of Illinois, for instance, has been $5-6/MWh below prices at the NiHub prices, he said.

In addition, the capacity revenues available from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, are "negligible," Cornew said. That environment is even a challenge for Exelon's single reactor plant in Clinton, which is one of the newest nuclear plants in MISO, he said.

The owners of some power plants in MISO are able to earn higher capacity prices by exporting their capacity to the PJM Interconnection market. MISO's most recent capacity auction cleared at about $1/MW-day. PJM's last capacity auction cleared at $59.37/MW-day.

The problem is that a transmission link to PJM could be very expensive, but "we are exhausting every option, including linking the [Clinton] plant to the north or the east," Cornew said.

POWER PRICES 'TOO LOW'

Meanwhile, Exelon still believes power prices are too low. Forward prices are not reflecting market fundamentals in part because of a lack of liquidity in the market, which Cornew said is "as bad as it has been."

He attributed that to the fact that many banks are getting out of power trading and many participants are only buying for the short term because of the uncertainty created by the prospect of large numbers of coal plants retiring in the next couple of years due to pending environmental regulations.

As the level of coal retirements unfolds in 2015 and 2016, power prices should recover with the prospect of a "$2 to $4 expansion of heat rates," Cornew said. But, he added, "We can't afford to lose money until the recovery comes."

In the meantime, Exelon is advocating for changes in the way reliability is priced in the market, particularly in capacity markets. "Price formation this winter was a very positive sign," he said, with prices shooting up above the $1,000/MWh cap, he said.

That is an indication that more attention needs to be paid to winter peaks and suggests that there should be some sort of seasonal capacity market, Cornew said. The polar vortex events of this winter showed that the grid is vulnerable in the winter, not just during the summer peak season, he said.

One of the key issues that needs to be addressed is that all capacity should be treated equally, Cornew said. For instance, demand response should be required to bid into the day-ahead market just as other resources are and there should be limits on the ability of bidders to buy out their positions in the incremental auctions RTOs conduct in the periods between capacity auctions.

"As a trader it hurts me to say this, but capacity markets should focus on physical not financial assets. It is too easy to bid into PJM and buy back at a low price through the incremental auction or to only face a small penalty. Until that is fixed, we should focus on physical assets, not financial," he said.

Cornew had no specific, detailed recommendations for how such reforms should be implemented, but said that Exelon would continue to work through the stakeholder process to achieve those goals.

Ultimately, however, "if we cannot find a solution, we would move toward the option of closing plants," Cornew said. "We would focus on other technologies and businesses we can be good at and grow in." He mentioned that Exelon already has investments in both in the upstream and retail side of the gas business.

The Ongoing 2011 Accident at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant

 How stable is Fort Calhoun with this?

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION REQUIRED SHUTDOWN DUE TO FAILURE OF CONTROL ROOM AIR CONDITIONING

"At 1505 CDT the 'A' control room air conditioner (VA-46A) trouble alarm annunciated in the control room. The unit was confirmed to be not functioning properly and was declared inoperable at time 1515 [CDT]. The 'B' control room air conditioner (VA-46B) was previously declared inoperable due to maintenance. With both control room air conditioners inoperable the plant entered technical specification 2.0.1, a 6 hour shutdown action statement. Repairs to the 'B' had been previously planned and are in progress to allow the unit to be returned to service as soon as possible. Troubleshooting and subsequent repairs to the 'A' unit are in progress. At 1812 [CDT], the station commenced a shutdown to comply with the required action statement."

The NRC Resident Inspector has been informed.

* * * UPDATE FROM ORTIZ TO KLCO ON 4/15/14 AT 2237 EDT * * *

"At time 2050 [CDT], VA-46A was declared operable based on installation of an emergency temporary modification. TS 2.0.1 has been exited. Shutdown has been secured and FCS is stable at a nominal 33% power."

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Reposted from 3/18/2014
 

March 20: Fort Calhoun was up to 38% this mourning...looks like the generator survived.

Being safe means you never ever ever ever depend on a safety device.

They were probably seconds away from destroying their stator and generator. Imagine if the automatic turbine trip didn’t work. You get it, the amps are so high and the time to damage is so short...they got to depend on an automatic trip.

  See, crap quality assurance and crap maintenance. This came out on the same date of the new scram.
 

These scrams and shutdowns are damaging the plant...

Sluice Gate Shutdown LER on Jan 9, 2014

"Engineering Analysis (EA) 12-018 upgraded the sluice gates to limited-critical quality element (LCQE). The CW-14 sluice gates had not been previously credited as safe shutdown equipment. Even though the CW-14 sluice gates became credited as safe shutdown equipment, FCS did not treat the sluice gates any different than before the reclassification. Consequently, the valves' motor operators (MOVs) were never entered into the MOV program, additional analyses and preventative maintenance (PM) items were not implemented.

CW-14C torque switch as found setting was different than the last time the switch was adjusted. In April, 2013, the torque switch for CW-14C was set to increment 2.5. The as found value after the event initiating this report was 3.75. Additionally, the torque switch was found preloaded in the open direction - meaning that it would take more torque applied to the valve before the valve would trip on torque in the shut direction. The torque switch was preloaded 2 increments bringing the total value of the torque setting to 5.75, placing the MOV in a condition where it would cause significant damage to the MOV had the stem not bent.

Additionally, the spring pack - the part of the MOV which translates motor torque to the torque limiter switch was unable to complete its function due to the amount of grease that had seeped into the spring plate section. The grease would not allow the spring pack to compress thereby not translating motor torque to the torque limiter switch. The combined effect as described above in addition to the extreme cold temperatures on the intake structure veranda was that the MOV would not have tripped on over-torque before failure of the MOV."

March 18

Junk! Another plant scram! They fixed the stuff relevant to NRC rules...but neglected components support reliable plant operation.

Facility: FORT CALHOUN Region: 4 State: NE Unit: [1] [ ] [ ] RX Type: (1) CE NRC Notified By: SCOTT MOECK HQ OPS Officer: DONG HWA PARK	Notification Date: 03/17/2014 Notification Time: 15:55 [ET] Event Date: 03/17/2014 Event Time: 12:02 [CDT] Last Update Date: 03/17/2014
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY 10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) - RPS ACTUATION - CRITICAL 50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A) - VALID SPECIF SYS ACTUATION	Person (Organization): GREG PICK (R4DO)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
1	A/R	Y	100	Power Operation	0	Hot Standby

Event Text

AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP DUE TO TURBINE TRIP INITIATED BY LOSS OF STATOR COOLING WATER "Ft. Calhoun station automatically tripped due to a loss of turbine load. The turbine tripped due to loss of stator cooling water. Maintenance was in progress on the stator cooling system when inventory was lost and low pump discharge pressure caused an automatic turbine trip and reactor trip. All systems operated as expected. Ft. Calhoun station is shutdown and stable in mode 3 at this time." All control rods fully inserted into the core and decay heat is being removed using the normal condenser steam dump system. The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Originally published on Jan 13

Jan 15: They are up to 60% power today. Any bets on how many days before the next scram! Hope they make a week?

I first put this on my other blog by mistake. 

Three years and 200 million dollars...16 days of operation...and they already had two shutdowns.

Were the new sluice gates cheaply purchase at Walmart...

Would that be great, putting on this kind of debt for 10 years...then have to shutdown within a year.

Goes to show you, if the majority of the plant is obsolete and degraded gear...throwing 200 million is a waste of money! They just didn't go in big enough!

Good job bankrupt Exelon!

Notification Date: 01/09/2014
Notification Time: 06:42 [ET]
Event Date: 01/09/2014
Event Time: 05:18 [CST]
Last Update Date: 01/09/2014

TECH SPEC REQUIRED SHUTDOWN DUE TO INOPERABLE RAW WATER PUMPS.

"At 0315 CST T.S. 2.0.1 was entered for all four Raw Water pumps being declared inoperable. The pumps were declared inoperable due to inability to close one of the sluice gates. There are six sluice gates and one is not functional.

"At 0518 the technical specification required shutdown commenced."

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

* * * UPDATE FROM AMY BURKHART TO NESTOR MAKRIS ON 01/09/14 AT 1915 EST * * *

"At 0900 CST 1/9/14 Fort Calhoun Station Unit 1 was manually tripped and entered Mode 3. Reactor Coolant System (RCS) cooldown to less than 300 deg F was commenced at time 1030 CST 1/9/14. The RCS temperature was less than 300 deg F at time 1433 CST. A press release has been issued."

The licensee informed the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified R4DO [Hagar]

Notification Date: 01/12/2014
Notification Time: 06:44 [ET]
Event Date: 01/12/2014
Event Time: 03:23 [CST]
Last Update Date: 01/12/2014

MANUAL REACTOR TRIP FOLLOWING CONTROL ROD POSITION DEVIATION  

"After achieving criticality a deviation between control rods was observed by plant personnel. When attempting to level the control rods, one rod could not insert to the level of the rest of the group. A manual reactor trip was initiated by the operating crew. All tripable control rods fully inserted into the core."

The trip was uncomplicated and the licensee is investigating the cause of the control rod position deviation.

The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Pilgrim Plant's Service Water Pipe Hole Belzona!

Seabrook

Just like Seabrook's service water problem. This getting relief from the NRC  from the ASME code requirement is going on all over the  place.  

"On February 24, 2014, seawater was observed leaking from Salt Service Water (SSW) pipe spool JF29-8-4, an elbow, located in the Class 3 SSW system downstream of Reactor Building Closed Cooling Water (RBCCW) heat exchanger E-209B. Leakage of approximately 60 drops per-minute (dpm) was found to originate from an approximately 3/8"diameter hole in the extrados of the downstream elbow of the 18" rubber-lined carbon steel (schedule 20, 0.312" nominal wall thickness) pipe spool. Leakage is minimized due to the rubber lining immediately behind the hole remaining intact and blocking flow and the fact that the normal operating pressure for the heat exchanger discharge flow at this location is 2 psig."

The original rubber lining failed, they replace it with the magic Balzona epoxy...then it quickly developed into a hole. They were watching this pipe degradation developing into a hole. They had a opportunity to fix it right in the outage.   

"The lining of this spool was known to be degraded following an internal inspection of the rubber lining in RFO19 in April 2013. Localized Belzona repairs of the lining were implemented on April 25, 2013. The current condition may indicate a failed Belzona repair as some of the RFO19 repairs were made to the elbow ID within a few inches of the current pressure boundary flaw."

Is this the first time a corrosion hole showed up and it was completely unforeseen? Of does this come up all the time and it indicates a global or systemic issue with the carbon steel pipe material where they are indifferent to fix it once right. Pilgrim seems to be saying it happens all the time.

How come they don’t throw us the historic context with blowing out the rubber coating and the Belozona...give us a ten year list of all the localized corrosion or pitting corrosion at the plant with the service water. Have they been responsible or irresponsible with this kind of corrosion in the service water system?

Will they be responsibly with their service water system in the future?

"PNPS has extensive experience with this failure mechanism in the SSW system and it is well understood by PNPS staff."

I feel these rubber coatings could peel off in sheets from the pipes and clog up the emergency cooling water heat exchangers and other components. It already happened at Seabrook.   

Alert And Heavy Smoke Coming Out Of Quad Cities.

Was the water pipe corroded...

April 4:

Water pipe to blame for Exelon plant emergency

Operators of Exelon Nuclear's Quad-Cities Generating Station in Cordova know the cause of an electrical short that resulted in the facility going on emergency status Wednesday afternoon.

Now the investigation will center on why it happened and what measures can be taken to ensure it doesn't happen again, plant spokesman Bill Stoermer said Thursday.

"There was a malfunction of a water pipe," he said. "It caused water to spray on a cable tray where there were electrical wires. And where these lines are hooked together, there are connections. It caused a spark, which caused the insulation of the wiring to melt. When that happens, that caused the smoke. There is a safety feature in the pipe that was supposed to prevent it from leaking."

Stoermer said workers noticed smoke in a turbine building in Unit 2 at 1:40 p.m. Wednesday. He said on-site firefighters handled the possible electrical short "within seconds." Some employees were evacuated from the unit, and no one was injured. The plant immediately declared an alert, which was removed at 9:32 p.m.

He said the reactor was taken offline Monday night to replace a valve on the control-rod drive system. It was about two hours from being brought back into service when the incident occurred. The reactor cannot be brought back online until the investigation into the leak and electrical short is concluded, Stoermer said...
Smoke from electrical problem shuts down Unit 2 reactor at nuclear plant in Cordova

Heavy smoke was visible from a reported electrical fire at the Exelon Nuclear Plant in Cordova, Illinois.

Fire was reported at the facility just after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, 2014 at the Quad Cities Generating Station at 22710 206th Avenue.

Initial, unconfirmed reports indicated an electrical fire happened inside the plant, and that heavy smoke was visible outside the facility.

Firefighters and equipment from at least four departments were sent to the plant. Cordova Fire Protection District Chief Chuck Smalley later said a total of 68 personnel responded from various departments.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries or area impact associated with the possible fire. Exelon spokesman Bill Stoermer later said employees were evacuated as a precaution, but that no one was in any danger from the incident.

Exelon classified the incident as an “alert,” saying that is the second-lowest of four emergency classifications established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Stoermer confirmed smoke was visible, but said it may have come from an electrical “short” and that actual fire was not yet confirmed.

“It appears that there could have been an electrical short,” Stoermer said. “There is a lot of electrical cabling, as you can imagine, inside the power plant. So, they’ll take a hard look at all of their electrical cabling and determine, ‘Did something short out or what happened there?’ that would have caused maybe some smoke or some sparks.”

The activity happened in Unit 2, the same reactor that was taken out of service the evening of March 31 to “replace a valve on the control rod drive system,” according to a statement from Exelon. The valve replacement could not be performed while the unit was operating. That shutdown did not affect electrical service.

The April 2 incident happened as Unit 2 was being re-started after the shutdown.

Stoermer said they would assess Unit 2 before it was restarted. He said representatives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would investigate the April 2 incident.

“The NRC’s primary concern right now is to make sure the public is protected and that the plant operator is taking swift and appropriate action to continue to maintain plant safety,” said NRC spokesperson Viktoria Mitlyng. “Once the situation is resolved, the NRC will fully inspect the cause of and contributing factors to the event.”

“We train with these guys, we know this plant, so it all went very well today,” Chief Smalley said.

“There is no impact to public health or safety or to plant personnel,” Stoermer said. Unit 1 remained at full power.

Startling Honest Statement from Entergy

Most honest statement I ever heard from Entergy!

Our Opinion: Time to move forward

The Public Service Board's announcement on Friday that it was approving a certificate of public good for the operation until the end of the year of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon was not wholly unexpected.

The board had until March 31 to approve the CPG and a memorandum of understanding that was agreed to by the state and Entergy in December 2013. The MOU had a number of concessions from Entergy, which has owned and operated the plant since 2002, including money specifically for economic development in Windham County ($10 million over five years) and the release of $5.2 million to the state's Clean Energy Development Fund, at least half of which is targeted to the county. Entergy also agreed to commence with cleaning up the site as soon as is fiscally reasonable and not wait the 60 years authorized by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Public Service Board noted that while the state's past interactions with Entergy were often contentious, resulting in litigation, acceptance of the MOU and approval of the certificate was in the best interests of the state and its residents, especially those in Windham County.

"The Company's sustained record of misconduct has been troubling to observe over the years ..." wrote the three members of the board. That record made the board question whether Entergy could be going forward "a company that lives by its commitments, adheres to legal requirements, including statutes and rules, provides accurate and timely information, and generally is a fair partner for Vermont."

However, noted the PSB, the memorandum of understanding indicates both the state and Entergy have been able to restore their working relationship.

"High-level Entergy VY representatives have shown a positive evolution in their commitment to the state of Vermont," wrote the board.

The board revealed the text of an e-mail sent to then-CEO Wayne Leonard from Entergy Corporation Vice President Curt Hebert, in which Hebert elaborated on Entergy's problems with Vermont.

"We did not get to this point because of poor communications strategy and lack of an advertising corporate giant," wrote Hebert. "We are where we are because people were sloppy, arrogant and unwilling to recognize that what people outside of the nuclear facility think, matters more than they can ever imagine ..."

In that e-mail, Hebert indicated Entergy had a "broken culture" when it came to its relationship with Vermont and its residents.

In an interview with the Reformer a day after the MOU was announced, Bill Mohl, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities, attributed the change in the tenor of the conversation between the state and Entergy to a change in leadership at the energy giant.

"While we certainly have had our differences in the past and went through an extensive amount of litigation, it became very clear, when we made the decision to shut down, that we really needed to take a step back and understand and be thoughtful about how we approached this," he said.

Chris Recchia, the commissioner of the Department of Public Service, was one of the people who negotiated the MOU with Entergy and related to the Public Service Board his impression of the willingness of the new corporate leaders to work with the state.

"This really provides a way forward and we are glad the board realized this," said Recchia. "It provides certainty for the workers at the plant as well as for a careful and predictable shutdown and next steps moving forward with decommissioning."

Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, wasn't so enraptured by the MOU or the board's decision. VPIRG had repeatedly asked the board to deny the CPG.

"The order sends a troubling message," stated Burns in a press release, "suggesting that a company with the worst kind of record of misconduct could still merit a CPG. It does nothing to discourage that kind of behavior from Entergy or any other company in the future."

And Ray Shadis, speaking for the New England Coalition, which has fought Yankee's operation since it went online in 1972, claimed the board's order was filled with "numerous legal and factual errors ..."

"NEC did not enter into this amended CPG for VY application process two dockets, six-plus years, and more than $200,000 ago with the understanding that a pretty-much unadorned offer of money (and little else) from the applicant to the regulators could moot the whole thing," stated Shadis in a press release. "This is not so much a settlement as a payoff and a capitulation."

We at the Reformer have been watching this whole story unfold over the years and doing our best to report back everything that has transpired. We followed the sale, the uprate and the approval of on-site storage of spent nuclear fuel. We followed the application for license renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the CPG process with the Public Service Board. We followed the Legislature's decision to give itself the authority to prohibit Yankee's continued operation and the federal lawsuit that resulted. We followed the news about the leak of tritiated water at the plant that happened just months after Entergy representatives testified there were no underground pipes carrying radionuclides.

Some of us at the Reformer have toured the power plant stood on the reactor vessel and next to the spent fuel pool. We were the first to publish the pictures of the collapsed cooling tower. We've been neck deep in Vernon for as long as the Reformer has been in print and our coverage has only intensified since Entergy announced the closure of the plant.

Friday's announcement is not the end of the story, but it is the end of part of the story. What's ahead now is nine more months of operation and then a long decommissioning process.

We are satisfied most of the issues have been settled and we are pleased by the financial settlement. Windham County is going to need help when the power plant closes, and the memorandum of understanding brings some sense that our future is not as bleak as when we learned that 600 good-paying jobs would be gone at the end of the year.

Yes, there is still good reason to not trust Entergy, but as the board noted, if it hadn't approved the certificate and the MOU, Yankee would have likely continued to operate until the end of the year anyway. We will continue to keep a watchful eye on Entergy, but we are glad the county is getting something out of the deal, and that wouldn't have happened if the PSB had denied the certificate.

.

Brattleboro Reformer Clears The Air Over Court Plea by "Angel Guy"

Feb 26, 2015 Update:

Remember, 261 days after I plead guilty, the NHDOT replaced on both bridges the wooden walkways costing some $31,000... 

I wonder what the prosecutor or judge would have did to me if they knew this job was being contemplated or complete...that is why this was so unfair. 

All the cards weren't one the table...just a selective disclosure of the facts favoring I am a bad guy.

***Hmm, March 26, 2015: I am free to begin protesting again. I put away my halo under my bed. Don't tell Joanne! 

Maybe the Reformer is smarter than I thought...the below entry is dated March 25, 2013. I wrote this entry is March 25, 2014. This shows you why thought it worth getting arrested for: 

NH DOT Inspection of Hinsdale's Rt 119 bridge

March 25, 2015: 

They have exhausted me today...I will fill in the rest of the story tomorrow.

The players.

Tom D’Errico Executive Editor, Web Master.

Dominic Poli- reporter

My court date was March 26...the plea. Within days of that, on a very cold sunny winter day, I rode over to the Brattleboro Reformer office on my bicycle. I requested to speak to Mr. D'Errico. I told him the police complaints and the Reformers reporting about my arrest was basically a travesty of justice. I told him you own me a follow up story seeing how I made a plea deal on just a misdemeanor class B, while the Hinsdale Police made charges of a felony and a host of other serous charges. He asked me a few questions, told me to make a follow up e-mail to remind him. I thought to myself, fuck you, if write can’t write down a note and follow up on it... He is a arrogant SOB.

Everything about getting this bridge replaced in time before a disaster was predicated on his newspapers coverage of the bridge. This situation is as much his newspaper’s fault as the NHDOT.

I remember the first time I was up in his office conference room. I brought my 10 pound bag of bridge rust chips he spoke about in this article. I picked a the biggest chunk of rust, tried handing it to him saying feel how heavy this chip is. He wouldn’t touch it. I asked him to get a reporter to take a tour with me. I’d show him all the dangerous spots. You could take pictures and put it up in the newspaper. He said he is not a bridge engineer…we wouldn’t know what he were looking at. So we are not doing that.

Right,they are not a lawyer, so the Reformer can't write about the area crime and events in the courts?

Mulligan takes plea deal for bridge damage

By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staff

Posted: 03/25/2014 03:00:00 AM EDT0 Comments

KEENE, N.H. -- A Hinsdale man known to many for his public demonstrations around the two bridges linking his town to Vermont accepted a plea deal in 8th Circuit Court District Division in Keene.

Michael J. Mulligan, 60, agreed on Wednesday, Feb. 26, to pay a $1,000 fine, plus a $240 penalty assessment, if he cannot pay $1,253.76 in restitutions within a year for damage he caused to the portion of the Charles Dana Bridge designated for pedestrians. In exchange for pleading guilty to a felony and three misdemeanors, he must also avoid going within 100 feet of that structure or the Anna Hunt Marsh bridge, except for routine travel without stopping, or risk the fine and penalty assessment.

He was charged with reckless conduct, disorderly conduct, and two counts of criminal mischief. Reckless conduct is a felony. He also received a ticket for littering.

According to documents filed by Hinsdale Patrolman Joshua Murray, the arresting officer, Mulligan caused damage to the walkway portion of the bridge by using a crowbar to remove several wooden boards from it, creating a hazard for pedestrians, on July 31, 2013. Murray said Mulligan littered by leaving a white poster board sign reading "NEED NEW BRIDGE" on public property.

"I reached a plea agreement but I don't think justice was done," Mulligan told the Reformer, adding that he did not get enough time in court to discuss the condition of the bridges. He said, however, he made a statement and the judge recognized the problems with maintaining infrastructure in the United States.

Mulligan told the Reformer he removed the boards from the bridge in order to send a message and get the deterioration noticed.

"When I was pulling up them boards, a witness walked by and said, 'What are you doing?' and I said, 'I'm fixing the bridge,'" Mulligan recalled. "And within 12 hours those boards were renailed to the bridge."

He mentioned he considers that witness to be a hero.

After being arrested, Mulligan was released on $5,000 personal recognizance.

Mulligan's arrest occurred one day after he appeared at a public meeting -- hosted by the Federal Highway Administration, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the Vermont Agency of Transportation in the Brattleboro Union High School Multipurpose Room -- held to gauge local support for a project to rehabilitate the Charles Dana and Anna Hunt Marsh bridges and construct a new one, which would stretch over the nearby railroad tracks in Brattleboro and touch down near the stop light at the former Walmart location.

Mulligan, who brought with him pieces of rust he had chipped off the bridges, said he feels the environmental assessment contained gross inaccuracies and said he fears the bridges are in danger of collapsing. He said the assessment overestimates "by many magnitudes" the bridge's integrity, even though those who put together the assessment consider it "functionally obsolete."

Mulligan, wearing a homemade halo, also referenced movies in which an angel lurks near a bridge before it collapses and said he is that angel for the Charles Dana and Anna Hunt Marsh bridges.

He has brought pieces of the rusted bridges into the Reformer to describe what he considers dangerous deterioration.

Domenic Poli can be reached at
dpoli@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 277. You can follow him on Twitter @dpoli_reformer. 

Yea, I was pissed. I left a voice recording on the editor's and reporter's phones. Both these guys should be fired over this. Tom is too busy with outside activities to keep appropriate watch over the quality and reputation of the newspaper. I am informing the Reformer I am leaving a log over events about this article on Topix. Here is my first e-mail to the Reformer. 

...Mar 25 at 9:07 AM

dpoli@reformer.com <dpoli@reformer.com>

Mulligan: It’s A Travesty Of Justice 

You need to repair my reputation over a grossly materially inaccurate statement(s) in your newspaper!

My children and wife are actually wondering if I lied to them about my plea...let alone all their friends.

Here begins the sequential entries into Topix mostly submitted on March 26, 2013. You catch on this message board, I am the only one using my real name. Have always been like that. Beginning about 8 am...I am making my case to the Reformer. 

...I plead guilty to one count of a class B criminal mischief misdemeanor. My fine and punishment is congruent with a plea of three class A misdemeanors and a felony.

I am astonished they put the below old comment in the article without the reporter asking me a context about this. This is a obscene misunderstanding how our police and courts system works. None of this by the Reformer was put under a test of swearing under oath and testing whether this was factual information. Like, did you ever see mike using the crow bar...was it the first or second time Mike took up the board? This just came from witness statement and the police complaint ...I got no right to comment about it. Now if that came from direct testimony or the witness reporting it to the newspaper, well that is another story.  I suspect this came from the police chief on background...him giving the reporter inappropriate background information on a up coming court case. Its aims was a smear job to prejudiced the public image of me based on knowingly incomplete information. Where is my rights within the newspaper...it was basically a smear job based on hearsay evidence. I didn't even get to make a context comment to it in the second swipe. Talking about being convicted in the eyes of the public without due process. After I was given an opportunity to explained it to them the reformer agreed to remove it. Where is my due process within the Reformer reporting...I thought I was innocent until proven guilty. Does the Reformer understand the limitations of a police complaint and due process?

"According to documents filed by Hinsdale Patrolman Joshua Murray, the arresting officer, Mulligan caused damage to the walkway portion of the bridge by using a crowbar to remove several wooden boards from it, creating a hazard for pedestrians, on July 31, 2013. Murray said Mulligan littered by leaving a white poster board sign reading "NEED NEW BRIDGE" on public property."

...Just because a newspaper reports it and a police officer’s says it with our form of government...it doesn't make it true. You got to have the proof to back up that statement and cycle it through the courts.

As part of the plea agreement, the prosecutor agreed to remove off the charge, strike off the complaint the part of me using a crow bar or hammer on the bridge. There is nothing remaining on the court record that I used any instruments on the bridge other than my hands. The boards I removed, twice I might add, weren't physically attached to the bridge.

 ...I repeat, I did not plead guilty to any class A misdemeanor or any felony!!!

This statement is inaccurate. It is both bridges. This is where I first realize Dom got the court documents in his hands and he still made this obscene error. It is baffling beyond all hell. 

..."In exchange for pleading guilty to a felony and three misdemeanors, he must also avoid going within 100 feet of that structure or the Anna Hunt Marsh bridge, except for routine travel without stopping, or risk the fine and penalty assessment."

Jesus, they seen the court paperwork! 

I am amazed at their gross misunderstanding of the NH court system. The felony was almost immediately dropped once I got a lawyer.

...Freaking idiots..the case goes over to superior court with a felony. 

There is a huge difference between a class A and B misdemeanor by the way! 

I am explaining what it took out of me to get this article written.

...I  was pushing Tom D and his newspaper to write a rebuttal: 

 message 22 and 23: Made a personal appearance to Tom last Friday April 28....

This is where I documented I called the Reformer. Large parts of the article I thought was good...but on whole, it was intentionally slanderous.  

...I called up Dominic and Tom to tell them how I felt about them slandering me in their newspaper.

Left a voice recording because they are too chicken to talk to me personally. 

Still can't get over Dom had my court documents in his hands and he still got it so wrong.

...“Michael J. Mulligan, 60, agreed on Wednesday, Feb. 26, to pay a $1,000 fine, plus a $240 penalty assessment, if he cannot pay $1,253.76 in restitution within a year for damage he caused to the portion of the Charles Dana Bridge designated for pedestrians.”

I didn’t give them these specific numbers…although I had the documents in my hand during the telephone conversation with Dominic. Once I heard the $1257.76 on the phone, I knew he had court documents in his greasy hands.

This is prima-facie proof they knew I plead to a class B criminal mischief and they put a lie into their newspaper that I plead guilty to the felony and all the class As.

 This is really what happened. 

 ...I plead guilty to fixing a bridge without getting state permission!

This is Dominic's e-mail to me. Notice the time? He still didn't answer my e-mail about the premeditated crow bar. They have a bad history with me with giving as little information as possible...giving me no feed back. So I am going on the offence.

...Re: Mulligan: "It's A Travesty Of Justice"

Domenic Poli
To Me
Today at 1:34 PM

Hello Mike,

I want to offer my sincerest apologies that I misread the court document. My editor has said it was fixed online and we are rerunning the story in tomorrow's paper.

-Dom 

Here is rev 1

UPDATE: Hinsdale man takes plea deal for bridge damage 

By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staff 

Posted: 03/25/2014 03:00:00 AM EDT0 Comments | Updated: about 7 hours ago

(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer) Editor's note: This story has been updated since it was originally published, to correctly reflect the charge Mr Mulligan pleaded to; one misdemeanor count of criminal mischief. 

KEENE, N.H. -- A Hinsdale man known to many for his public demonstrations around the two bridges linking his town to Vermont accepted a plea deal in 8th Circuit Court District Division in Keene. 

Michael J. Mulligan, 60, agreed on Wednesday, Feb. 26, to pay a $1,000 fine, plus a $240 penalty assessment, if he cannot pay $1,253.76 in restitutions within a year for damage he caused to the portion of the Charles Dana Bridge designated for pedestrians. In exchange for pleading guilty to one misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief, he must also avoid going within 100 feet of that structure or the Anna Hunt Marsh bridge, except for routine travel without stopping, or risk the fine and penalty assessment.

He was originally charged with reckless conduct, disorderly conduct, and two counts of criminal mischief. Reckless conduct is a felony. He also received a ticket for littering.

According to documents filed by Hinsdale Patrolman Joshua Murray, the arresting officer, Mulligan caused damage to the walkway portion of the bridge by using a crowbar to remove several wooden boards from it, creating a hazard for pedestrians, on July 31, 2013. Murray said Mulligan littered by leaving a white poster board sign reading "NEED NEW BRIDGE" on public property.

"I reached a plea agreement but I don't think justice was done," Mulligan told the Reformer, adding that he did not get enough time in court to discuss the condition of the bridges. He said, however, he made a statement and the judge recognized the problems with maintaining infrastructure in the United States.

Mulligan told the Reformer he removed the boards from the bridge in order to send a message and get the deterioration noticed.

"When I was pulling up them boards, a witness walked by and said, 'What are you doing?' and I said, 'I'm fixing the bridge,'" Mulligan recalled. "And within 12 hours those boards were renailed to the bridge."

He mentioned he considers that witness to be a hero.

After being arrested, Mulligan was released on $5,000 personal recognizance.

Mulligan's arrest occurred one day after he appeared at a public meeting -- hosted by the Federal Highway Administration, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the Vermont Agency of Transportation in the Brattleboro Union High School Multipurpose Room -- held to gauge local support for a project to rehabilitate the Charles Dana and Anna Hunt Marsh bridges and construct a new one, which would stretch over the nearby railroad tracks in Brattleboro and touch down near the stop light at the former Walmart location.

Mulligan, who brought with him pieces of rust he had chipped off the bridges, said he feels the environmental assessment contained gross inaccuracies and said he fears the bridges are in danger of collapsing. He said the assessment overestimates "by many magnitudes" the bridge's integrity, even though those who put together the assessment consider it "functionally obsolete."

Mulligan, wearing a homemade halo, also referenced movies in which an angel lurks near a bridge before it collapses and said he is that angel for the Charles Dana and Anna Hunt Marsh bridges.

He has brought pieces of the rusted bridges into the Reformer to describe what he considers dangerous deterioration.

Domenic Poli can be reached at dpoli@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 277. You can follow him on Twitter @dpoli_reformer.

Maybe a little humor. You never know you can get unless you ask?

...Me
To Dominic Poli

Today at 2:49 PM

Dom,

On the front page tomorrow?

Would you run it with one of my pictures?

Does Tom want to interview me on his radio program about the bridge?

Mike

This is how it went wrong from my side.

...Neither Tom or Dominic have the courtesy to give me a call back after listening to my voice recording today. This is what we are changing on the story and do you have any other concerns with the story. 

Remember Dominic cold call me out of nowhere about the plea agreement many weeks after I went to the Reformer asking them to clear up their story. Dom gave me no professional forewarning, a call about the plea is coming and you will be on the record when we talk. 

I picked up the vibs he wasn’t getting the responses out of me he expected...he was a bit frustrated. He seemed rushed... 

He showed absolutely no curiosity at all...like coming back to me three or four times asking me exactly what charges have you pled too. He thinks he knows everything about the story...the reformer only prints the words of god. Actually they are the gods...they already know the story before it happens 

Then he submitted the story and it simmering in their system for four or five days. No worry from him with a fear of inaccuracy...to give me one more call back to verify the facts of the story.

Hey, but if you want to run an outlet like that... 

That is how a story becomes so inaccurate...a reporter feels he already knows the story before he talks to the witness. He just didn’t have the instinct to dig for the wider truth. He seemed like he knew zero about me and didn't even do a internet search about me and the bridge...I have written extensively about the troubles with the NHDOT.

Just like the Reformer doesn’t have the balls to give me a call...even to make sure they got the story right on the second swipe. 

There are two issues I am not comfortable about, the generic misdemeanor and the god dam premeditated crow bar. I am convinced on the day this occurred...when the police officer wrote up that complaint, he had a incomplete understanding on really what happened on that bridge.

And you know, the Reformer still doesn't have a complete understanding with what went on with this bridge. You always have been printing this story on incomplete understanding and the Reformer is standing on really thin ice. I got a case of severe mistrust with this newspaper and here is why.

...Today at 5:23 PM 

Dom, 

You guys keep spinning this thing into making me worse than I am. Or you won't back out of your spinning.. 

Just why can’t the paper be accurate. I plead guilty to a B misdemeanor. A “A” misdemeanor means I faced a risk of going to jail...where a “B” misdemeanor means I faced no threat of being sentenced with going to jail at all. There is a big difference between misdemeanors...being inaccurate defames my character. 

The words of cops aren’t god. The courts though are mostly. 

“According to documents filed by Hinsdale Patrolman Joshua Murray, the arresting officer, Mulligan caused damage to the walkway portion of the bridge by using a crowbar to remove several wooden boards from it, creating a hazard for pedestrians, on July 31, 2013.” 

I adjudicated this statement through the court, judge and prosecutor. It was found to be materially inaccurate and a false statement. 

You know, I’d got in my possession all the pretrial discovery including the witness statement and name. 

The accurate statement is, I pulled up unattached boards up with my hands...where the nails and screws were rusted off. I pulled up only dangerous loose boards...thus I repaired the walkway. 

In pre trial discovery I got the recent bridge inspection reports where the NHDOT has admitted many loose and unattached boards...where they were negligent and too lazy to re attach them until I cued them. I mean, if your are interested in the truth... 

And the NHDOT renailed more than twice as many boards as I pulled up with my hands... 

It is not my fault you are having problems backing out of your terribly skimpy interview of me. 

Mike

          Domenic Poli

I know the Reformer is looking over this and I know they will never admit it. Just to remind everyone what I was really doing.

The reformer from my the very first contact with me today knew I referenced this blog site. They knew I was logging down the events surrounding their inaccurate article about me. 

I had the Reformer taking the crow bar e-mail out of rev 2 and I am reminding everyone how long it took for a response.

I added this about 9 am and you notice how they never got back to me.

"I plead guilty to one count of a class B criminal mischief misdemeanor. My fine and punishment is in-congruent with a plea of three class A misdemeanors and a felony.

Just because a newspaper reports it and a police officer’s says it with our form of government...it doesn’t make it true. You got to have the proof to back up that statement and cycle it through the courts.

As part of the plea agreement, the prosecutor agreed to remove off the charge, strike off the complaint the part of me using a crow bar or hammer on the bridge. There is nothing remaining on the court record that I used any instruments on the bridge other than my hands. The boards I removed, twice I might add, weren’t physically attached to the bridge." 

Here is the e-mail.

Domenic Poli
To Me

Today at 5:44 PM

I have taken out the part about the crowbar. 

I am waiting for basic communication, yea mike we are still working on the misdemeanor issue. It is a pattern of shoddy communication. This is a form of single minded self and organization protection...crooks communicate like this. I imagine they are doing this disrespect to all members of the community for years who communicated by e-mail about stories. Here again is my take on the big view here.

I asked him about clarifying the misdemeanor issue. Gave them a reason why I think it should be remove. Yet, there is no response about this. 

I just saying this isn't at all professional and open...how can you ever trust working with this newspaper when your nuts are on the line.

I am just saying from the beginning the Reformer never showed any interesting in discussing this bridge or interviewing me. Nothing for three years... 

Once I got arrested they only portrayed me in a very antagonistic point of view...what the police reported about me and the papers interpretation of what the police said. It was nothing about every tale has two sides of the story. Never did they come talk to me about what my point of view was. And as Tom spoke about, I came to them in their office with big chips of rust from the bridge and Tom just blew me off.

Personally I think this paper knows me as a whistleblower and they hate me for it...
They hate me for being a snitch...

I have a lot experience concerning huge events and enormous personal consequences...I held the outcome of my family and many other families in my hands. I also put CEO crooks in jail based only on my observation. So how does a newspaper communicate to tipsters....how does a newspaper communicate when their are enormous consequences around the events.  The Reformer is one of the worst outlets I ever talked too, sadly most of there behavior just like this. For whistle-blowers, they guys are extremely untrustworthy.

I remember the good old days in around 1991 and 1992 when I was slipping the Reformer stolen document from high official in Vermont Yankee. We made all them officials at VY and the NRC jump with terror!

The employees of Vermont Yankee to to joke, "the accurate plant plan of the day was already in the Brattleboro Reformer a day before it was posted at the plant". 

I am just a nut case and I know it.

But I am just the nut at the foot of the bridge wearing a halo!

So really, all I've been doing for the last few year is investigating and interviewing the Brattleboro Reformer.

You know, like a reporter's instinct when something doesn't fit. I don't know what isn't Kosher yet…but here is one more swipe at it. So let me get this straight mike, you plead guilty to:“reckless conduct, disorderly conduct, and two counts of criminal mischief. Reckless conduct is a felony. He also received a ticket for littering.”

That would have got me to say, I plead guilty to the one class B criminal mischief. And you idiots, I never was convicted of littering with a “Build New Bridge” sign on public property. It was a utterly a stupid charge by the police. 

Lots of people off the streets told me they communicated to the Reformer they'd like a story about the bridge in the newspaper.

Lots of people over the years both pro and con wrote and called up the Reformer asking them to write a story about the guy protesting on the Brattleboro bridge. I have no idea they refused to interview me. People stopped on the side of the road or pulled off the road saying they informed the Reformer about wishing a story. 

Why I think loose and unattached boards on a bridge walkway is dangerous...what motivated me into action.

...You see, I think it is evil to have any not attached boards on a bridge 30 feet over a river. You need not have a reason why it is terribly neglectful. My best guess at a accident would be my bike would catch a wobbly board and kick it up into my wheels. It makes me fall off the bike and this breaks my neck. You say how probable is that, further many people would be looking forward to this accident.
How about a few winters ago where the Hinsdale town snow plow machine attempted to plow the snow off walkway. He flipped up one loose board, then a whole set of loose boards. The big machine fell in the hole and almost killed the driver as they almost went in the Connecticut river. 

I am just saying, these loose boards and for very long periods of time, it is a very complex situation. It is very unlikely you can think up all the possibilities with somebody getting hurt over loose boards. There is more opertunities than you think.
Another one we thought about is a big person in a battery operated wheel chair. A board come loose, tips him over. Again his weight causes him to break his neck or suffocate when his head hits a stanchion. 

Just because you can’t think of a threat to human life and limb…it is because you can’t see or think up all the possible scenarios.

Loose public walkway boards should always be considered extremely dangerous because your slice of experience or time observing events or possibilities on a particular walkway is very thin.

Who would ever think a snow machine would plow up loose boards on the bridge nearly throwing a driver into the Connecticut River drink

...You see, I think it is evil to have any not attached boards on a bridge 30 feet over a river. You need not have a reason why it is terribly neglectful. My best guess at a accident would be my bike would catch a wobbly board and kick it up into my wheels. It makes me fall off the bike and this breaks my neck. You say how probable is that, further many people would be looking forward to this accident.

How about a few winters ago where the Hinsdale town snow plow machine attempted to plow the snow off walkway. He flipped up one loose board, then a whole set of loose boards. The big machine fell in the hole and almost killed the driver as they almost went in the Connecticut river.

I am just saying, these loose boards and for very long periods of time, it is a very complex situation. It is very unlikely you can think up all the possibilities with somebody getting hurt over loose boards. There is more opertunities than you think.

Another one we thought about is a big person in a battery operated wheel chair. A board come loose, tips him over. Again his weight causes him to break his neck or suffocate when his head hits a stanchion.

Just because you can’t think of a threat to human life and limb…it is because you can’t see or think up all the possible scenarios.

Loose public walkway boards should always be considered extremely dangerous because your slice of experience or time observing events or possibilities on a particular walkway is very thin.

Who would ever think a snow machine would plow up loose boards on the bridge nearly throwing a driver into the Connecticut River drink

...I mean, I have way more observable experience on the bridge than most people. This gives me cues even I have a extremely thin slice of all observable time on the bridge…much events and opportunities get by my prying eyes.  

How many severe car or vehicle dents or severely bent iron members are there on the bridge…how times have vehicles hit the bridge hard. 

I count 17 severe impacts! There are many tens of thousands unaccountable accidents not reported on these bridges. Unaccountable $100,000s of dollars of damage!c

It is a unseen tax on you! 

I getting back feedback all ready in Hinsdale asking why the Refomerer  ran the story twice. You know Mike, we agree with you about the bridge...why is the reformer talking two shots at you with their hatchet.   

Everyone in Hinsdale thinks the story being run two days in a row…Mike, they are running over you two days in a row with a pavement roller. Once is enough.

I didn’t find it on their internet site yet…have to go out and get a paper. 

I love trying to figure out the big picture and philosophizing about why things happen the way they do. That god dam crow bar issue really bothers me. I am amazed how well my competitors used this phony issue against me...how well it worked. You live and learn!

...Right, bringing a crow bar implies violent premeditation. It didn’t go down like that and the police knew that. But it made a pretty story in the newspaper for the police!

Everything about this including the courts and even my lawyer…it didn't matter what my true motivations were. This is the law of the courts of NH and at the whim of the NH politicians… 

It is a grave Constitutional error… 

I am telling you justice isn't the so called rule-of-law…it is way bigger than that and something almost unquantifiable 

It is something deep in ever human often not even expressed. It is a cousins to forgiveness…you can’t rule or law out justice or forgiveness. It is something that only occurs deep in a human heart and no electron microscope can ever detect its making. it. It just occurs out of nowhere. 

... Well, it’s a attribute of god.

... The newspaper is a incarnation of evil itself. 

...Cause of your not constantly fighting for justice, then you are fighting against justice... 

...For the record…justice is for those who has the power to write down the record of history. Most grave injustices begins and remains in our lives without ever getting written down. All injustices are about powerless peoples' inability to get their record written down in the history of life!

I am trying to live my life as a open book.

So, the reformer hasn't put rev 2 up on any internet site today. I put up the first article and the rev I grabbed from their internet site on TOPIX. Strangely Topix removed them yesterday.