Community Corner

The Nation's Biggest Collection Of Spent Nuclear Fuel

Five Things To Know For Tuesday, May 31, 2011

1. The National Weather Services predicts a mostly sunny day today, with a high of 79. Tonight, the skies are expected to get cloudier. There is a chance of rain and thunderstorms Wednesday morning, according to the service.

2. According to a recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies, the largest amount of spent nuclear fuel at any one location in the country is at Millstone Power Station. The report, written by Robert Alvarez , a former senior adviser at the Department of Energy, argued that spent nuclear fuel is not safe being kept at nuclear reactors, like Millstone does. Instead, the fuel should be kept in some safe house, such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada. President Barack Obama has stopped funding Yucca Mountain, and the proposed nuclear safe house remains empty.

At a recent meeting at town hall, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission argued that the spent fuel is safe at Millstone. For example, spent fuel remains in the retired Unit 1 reactor, something several anti-nuclear activist have complained about. However, the fuel has decayed significantly, and would take weeks and weeks without any water cooling the fuel before the reaction would cause damage, the NRC said.

Find out what's happening in Waterfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

3. Just a quick note left out of Friday’s article about the . The board Thursday night voted to cut all subsidies to advanced placement testing to students in the upcoming school year.

Currently, the board of education pays for students to take AP tests. Next year, that will change, with the student paying the entire cost of the test, or $80. This saved the school board $22,000.

Find out what's happening in Waterfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Earlier in the budget season the board voted to cut half of the funding, so students would pay $40 and the board would pay $40. Thursday night, they voted for students to pay the entire price.

By law, the school board cannot force students to pay for a test that is required So, AP tests will not be required for AP courses, but “strongly encouraged,” Superintendent Jerome Belair said.

4. Also, while we are on the subject, another note from Thursday night’s board of education meeting (it was a busy meeting): High school seniors Briana VanVerdeghem and Davonta Valentine and Clark Lane Middle School students Arianna Turello and James Keth were all awarded the CABE Student Leadership Award. Waterford High School Principal Don Macrino gave a particularly uplifting speech about VanVerdeghem and Valentine.

“These guys are being honored not because they seek out the most popular kids in school and hang out with them,” Macrino said. “But also by seeking out the underdogs and making their lives a little easier.”

5. On this date in 2005, Vanity Fair revealed that W. Mark Felt (FBI Associate Director until 1973) was Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's notorious source, Deep Throat. Felt leaked information confidentially to Woodward in 1972 that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Many have speculated about why Felt leaked the information. Some thought he was angry with Nixon after the president appointed L. Patrick Gray III as the director of the bureau after J. Edgar Hoover’s death instead of Felt. Others suggested that the FBI wanted the information leaked because it disliked Nixon. Felt himself never explained why.

Quote of the Day

“We tend to get what we expect.”

-Norman Vincent Peale

Trivia of the Day

How did Nixon avoid legal prosecution after he resigned as president in 1974?

Yesterday’s answer: Herman Melville wrote “Moby-Dick.”


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