I just ran across this article
Vernon, VT Dam Burst & Flood, Mar 1936. Big Vermont Dam Goes Out; Deaths In Its Path Feared.
BOSTON, Mass., March 18, 1936 (AP).—A $1,000,000 dam at Vernon, Vt., went roaring out before the force of the flood swollen Connecticut River Wednesday night. State police announced as they ordered everybody out of the valley below.
The power dam yielded at 11:10 p.m. Its powerhouse had been abandoned shortly before. A six-mile ice jam to the north had caused apprehension for several days.
– From an article in the Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 19 Mar 1936
Interesting!
The Vernon Hydro dam is about a quarter mile below the Yankee site. The land upon which the Yankee complex sits, would have been totally flooded.
Flood of 1936
I have spent many hours boating and fishing on the area of the river in question. I have observed that the site of VY is considerably higher than the top of the dam, and am not convinced that the flood of ’36 would have taken out VY. I am also of the opinion that the flood of ’36 was a consideration when the siting of VY was under discussion. Somewhere I have read that despite early reports, the dam was never breached by this flood. There is a fine film on the topic that periodically shows up on VPT.
Flood of Fear
Yes Fisherman, but if you don’t continue with the fear mongering, even in the wake of a soon to be shut down, how can one be a professional protester?
Are we going to continue reading posts like this 60 yrs from now when the plant is officially decomissioned?
They will never give up the site!
I’m sure long before then a new reactor will have been built next to the old. Likely supplying the only reliable source of electricity following the federal ban on coal and natural gas extraction.
Flood Plain?
That plant sits in a flood plain (which should not be hard to remember given the OP of this thread). In other words, where VY sits used to be riverbed and will be again. When is anybody’s guess, but if you’re going to put another plant in Vernon, at least site the plant above the flood plain. You can pump your water up using a tiny fraction of that “bounty of electric power” you’re producing.
Federal ban on coal & natural gas extraction?
In my dreams.
I guess that’ll happen right after lobbying is outlawed?
“Likely supplying the only reliable source of electricity”
Hydro?
Not reliable? Seems to me Vernon Dam was producing power before VY and will continue to do so into the future and without all the drama.
The other so called “alternative” sources (wind power is ancient, so this tag is somewhat amusing) are making up an increasing slice of the energy pie even here in America. Around the globe “alternative” sources are growing far more rapidly.
It’s a big industry which we should be leading, but instead we’re fighting. So we’ll get buried by the Chinese and Europeans who are not joined at the hip to fossil fuel production.