Kind of Fun News Quiz

Mea culpa, Lord.

I haven't written in a while. I've been Christmas shopping.

Also, frankly, there wasn't a lot to write about.

But now there is! The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has recommended that the NRC extend the operating license for the Oyster Creek nuclear power station in New Jersey for another 20 years—and this despite the fact that the NRC's own inspector general's office complained that more than 70 percent of the narrative passages on the Oyster Creek license renewal application lacked substance.

This bodes well for Vermont Yankee, because our application is probably every bit as generic as that of Oyster Creek. I was thinking all along that the ASLB would see that as a negative, but it looks like I was wrong.

Still, things may not go as easily for us at Entergy as they are going for the Oyster Creek folks at Exelon. That's because, in New Jersey, if the NRC accepts the recommendation of the ASLB it has final say. In Vermont, however, the state legislature takes up the task of approving any license extension granted by the NRC, which they've got to do so in public session after full and informed public discussion. I know there will be press coverage and contention, and I want all of us at Vermont Yankee to be prepared. I've devised a Fun News Quiz so that we PR guys can test ourselves on whether we have the facts at our fingertips.

Would you like to play, God?

Fun News Quiz

1. Choose One:

When VPIRG said that Vermont Yankee isn't paying its fare share of property taxes,

• A. Dick Cheney shot an old guy in the face and neck.
  
• B. Barbara Bush implied that Hurricane Katrina victims are better off now that they've been relieved of their filthy homes, depressing possessions, and a few iffy relatives.
  
• C. I said that Vermont Yankee has been spending a lot of money around town and people should leave us alone.
  

2. Choose One:

When the Reformer reported that Vermont Yankee is buying homes on Governor Hunt Road and demolishing them,

• A. United States forces evacuated Saigon.
  
• Tony Soprano rolled around on the floor, drunk, and moaned to Carmella, "But I didn't hurt nobody."
  
• I said that Entergy knows it's good business to destroy things.
  

3. True or False:

After the cooling tower at Vermont Yankee spontaneously collapsed and activists raised aggressive questions about what the collapse implied about safety, I assured Vermonters that another tower wouldn't fall, as well, because the towers were built to withstand earthquakes.

4. Choose One:

When Vermont Yankee won conditional approval in March of 2006 to boost its power output by 20% despite the fact that experts seemed to agree that the uprate increased both the likelihood and potential consequences of an accident,

• I said, "This is great news for us and it is also great news for the region's electrical energy supply."
  
• President Bush said, "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here."

5. True or False:

When in 2005 engineers found 40 fissures in a steam dryer that had been reinforced just the year before, I said, "None of them need to be repaired."

6. Choose One:

When the state environmental court ordered Vermont Yankee to stop releasing warmer water into the Connecticut River for fear that it was hurting the fish,

• President Bush said, "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
  
• I said, "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
  

7. True or False

When the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy approved a bill to charge Entergy $4 million annually in exchange for permission to store high-level waste on the banks of the Connecticut River, I threatened to take my football and go home.

Want to know how you did with your answers, Lord? Sorry. No one gets the straight scoop from me. Follow the links and check out your responses. It wouldn't hurt you to do a little work every now and then.

Are you even there, God? ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?

Erratically,

Fake-Rob