I take my bread and wine at ease

while Haiti stands and starves.

I take my warmth and comfort at home

snug and safe under clean sheets

and layers of perfect quilts.

Haiti’s shelter is but stars

it’s  bed but broken streets.

I drink crystalline pure water, cold and delicious

Haiti’s water pools in downhill gutters

befouled beyond the palates’ of vermin.

I sit whole and without worry

and dream a life of lilacs,

beautiful and sweetly scented.

This by some grace of providence.

Haiti lies bleeding and lost

in a poverty to take your breath away.

I’ve heard it asked, “what must be God’s intention?”

Maybe it is for us…

not to look away.

Love, George

American Flatbread restaurants will host a series of benefit bakes for Haiti. Thanks to them, and to you we will not look away.

By George Schenk

August 10^th, 2009

It is easy to get stuck in our own reinforcing circles of conservation. I wanted to hear what Vermont Yankee had to say about nuclear waste, so I gave them a call and spoke with the manager of communications, Larry Smith.

Larry Smith (L.S.) George Schenk (G.S.)

G.S. Good morning. Thank you for speaking with me.

L.S. You are welcome.

G.S. I’m doing research for an article on Vermont Yankee re-licensing; may I ask you a few questions?

L.S. Sure.

G.S. Nuclear energy is a vast subject and so for the purposes of this article I would like to confine my questions to spent fuel disposal. Is that all right?

L.S. (Pause) Yeah (unenthusiastically).

G.S. First, a few background questions. What is the official name of the plant?

L.S. Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee.

G.S. And when did the plant come on line?

L.S. 1972.

G.S. And what is its generating capacity?

L.S. 650 mega watts/hr, which represents about 1/3 of Vermont’s total usage.

G.S. How is the spent fuel stored and how much is currently stored on site?

L.S. When the fuel assemblies (rods) come out of the reactor they are very radioactive and very hot. They go directly into a stainless steel lined concrete water pool that is 30×40x40 feet deep. The spent fuel assemblies take about five years to cool. The pool can hold up to 3400 assemblies.

After the nuclear material has cooled the assemblies are transferred to high carbon stainless steel lined concrete dry casks which are stored on a special pad above ground.

There are currently about 2300 assemblies being stored in the water pool and another 340 assemblies in five dry casks.

G.S. Does the spent fuel currently being stored on site represent all of the nuclear waste produced since the plant went on line in 1972?

L.S. Yes. Every ounce.

G.S What is the useful life expectancy of the dry casks?

L.S. 100 years, minimum.

G.S. At current rates, how many years of onsite storage capacity remain at Vermont Yankee?

L.S. There is enough storage capacity to hold all material through the end of our renewal request period (2032).

G.S. How long does the spent fuel stay radio active?

L.S. Hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

G.S. I’ve read that it could be as long as 100,000 years.

L.S. Yes, it could be that long.

G.S. Who owns or is responsible for the spent fuel?

L.S. The U.S. department of Energy. Years ago the D.O.E. promised the nuclear energy industry that it would have a final disposal site in place by 1998. The U.S. government has failed its promise to us. The industry has contributed over 24 billion dollars to the federal government to support a final disposal solution. We do not want this spent nuclear material on the banks of the Connecticut river any more than anyone else does. In the mean time, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars to us, we are being responsible stewards of the waste until the government meets its obligation and fulfills its promise. We are suing the government to recover expenses associated with dry cask storage and to force a solution.

G.S. Why has the government not met its obligation to your industry?

L.S. The problem is political.

G.S. Is this a N.I.M.B.Y (not in my back yard) problem?

L.S. Yes.

G.S. What is the solution?

L.S. Deep geologic sequestration. The government needs to force a solution that may not be in everyone’s interest but is in the interest of the society at large. If the National Nuclear Waste Repository was located in a remote dessert, in say Nevada or Utah or New Mexico then it wouldn’t be in anyone’s back yard.

In addition, in almost all other countries that have nuclear power plants spent fuel reprocessing technology is employed. This technology can reduce nuclear waste by up to 90% and recapture reusable fissionable material. We wouldn’t be in this mess with so much nuclear waste if this country had developed reprocessing technology.

G.S. Why didn’t we?

L.S. A byproduct of the technology is plutonium and the Carter administration (1977-1981) felt it was in conflict with the 1980 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and a security risk. It is widely done; it is a risk we can manage and is really a non-issue.

G.S. What do other countries do with the 10% of the remaining material?

L.S. They put it in specially designed casks and either store it above ground at secure facilities or dump it into deep sea trenches.

G.S. Is there anything else you would like people to know about Vermont Yankee?

L.S. Our re-licensing request has become a polarized political issue. Our application is now in its fourth year. The Nuclear Regularity Commission (NRC) has reviewed the plant and operations and believes we should be allowed to continue to operate. NRC safety reviews are rigorous and almost continuous. We have undertaken a vertical audit as prescribed by the state on the plant’s vital components and physical condition and there are no issues. We have passed a reliability audit. The state of Vermont can count on our power.

The current power purchase agreement which extends to 2012 is for 4.2 cents/kwh. The last thing the state legislature has requested from us is pricing for the next 20 years. This is not easy. There are many variables. State senator Shumlin has asked us for an answer by November 1^st. We will all be much better off with a well thought through deal than one hastily derived at to meet an arbitrary deadline. We are working on it but this kind of analysis takes time.

There are 103 nuclear power plants in the United States that have reliably provided safe, affordable, and carbon-free electricity for a long time. We all need a real answer to nuclear waste.

G.S. Thanks for your time and thoughtful answers to my many questions.

L.S. You are welcome.

G.S. Goodbye.

L.S. Goodbye.

August 7^th, 2009

Forever Yours: Toward Responsible Nuclear Energy

As I begin this essay I am aware of an underlying fear that I am reaching beyond my known grasp.  Maybe it is that some subjects compel us to speak even as caution counsels silence…

Art Installation on the Lareau Farm, viewed while driving South on Rte 100.

This coming year the Vermont legislature will decide whether to extend the operating license of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.  The topic has already received a great deal of comment and debate and rightly so, as it is an extremely complex subject with significant economic and environmental implications.  For this writing, I want to confine my comments to one question:

What is the disposal plan for the spent nuclear fuel rods - more generally referred to as nuclear waste?

The current best thinking for what to do with the nation’s substantial inventory of nuclear waste is deep geologic sequestration.  It was originally imaged that each region of the country would have its own repository.  Here in New England a site in Northern Essex County was studied at some length by the federal government largely because it was remote and because what locals in Vermont’s North East Kingdom came to feel was their lack of political influence.  The site was eventually dropped because of hydro-geologic considerations and because of opposition from the Canadian government which did not favor a major nuclear repository ten miles from its border.  This story pattern in various iterations repeated all over the country.  The only site that seemed viable was Yucca Mountain located in the middle of a large secure military test site about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

The government spent a great deal of money exploring and developing the Yucca Mountain site but Congress pulled funding before the site was completed partly because of conflicting test results but mostly because of political opposition by concerned citizens in Nevada.  Harry Reid, (D-Nevada), and Senate Majority Leader has vowed that Yucca Mountain will not open.  In addition, towns and cities along the transportation routes have worried about the implications of a derailment or truck accident resulting in a nuclear spill.

Nobody, it seems, wants to keep the stuff or have it pass through their town.  Nuclear waste is a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) problem writ large.

In the absence of Federal action it would seem we as the beneficiaries of the electricity are the ethical holders of our fair share of the waste.  Our valley population is about 1% of the state’s and assuming we have used an average amount of electricity, our fair share of the  nuclear waste stored on site in Vernon (home of Vermont Yankee) is about 30 containers.  Are we willing to store our fair share here?  If not, where?

Since its inception more than 50 years ago the nuclear industry and government have promised a solution to nuclear waste. They are now asking for an additional 60 years.  At what point do we simply stop believing in their promises?  This is not the behavior of responsible adults.  We would not allow our kids to act like this, and be rewarded.

Just because we want or need technology to solve a problem for us does not mean it will or can.  Technology is limited by the physical laws of the universe.  It may be that advances in technology will yield an elegant solution, but it is not something that can be promised.

Billboard or Art?

Way back in the misty 60’s the state of Vermont passed legislation prohibiting commercial billboards.  Municipalities soon followed with local ordinances.  It was all well intended: “Vermont is too beautiful for billboards.”  And now when my work takes me to other states and I return home I am glad for it. Vermont is too beautiful for commercial billboards.

But when is a billboard art?  Where does sign end and sculpture begin?  When do our words transcend the commercial and enter the poetic?  What place, if any, do we have for public art?  Who stands at its judge?

The installation at Lareau Farm is my August art.  And like sometimes happens, this art has become controversial as much for its form as its content. My hope is that we can go from controversy to conversation because what we need now is a long, deep and broad conversation about the future of nuclear energy.  It needs to be a conversation that is more than just policy wonks talking with technocrats; it needs to include people who make beds and fix cars, people who farm and cook, people who teach and nurse and doctor, people who so often sign up and those who more often sit out.  It needs to include all of us, for this decision is a very big deal.  If it all works out and nothing goes wrong, this period will pass and mostly be forgotten.  If, however, we are wrong, our nuclear legacy will burden the generations to follow with economic and environmental chains in a bitter new slavery, and our judgment will be in their anguished cries.

Friday and Saturday November 22 and 23, 2002

Tonight’s Menu and Baking are dedicated to

Thanksgiving

Feeling very holiday-ish, as well as very thankful today, I did a little research and was pleased to find Thanksgiving such a long standing tradition in our country- stemming back to its earliest settlers.

The origin of Thanksgiving Day has been attributed to a Thanksgiving festival held by Plymouth Colony in December 1621, although such celebrations date from ancient times. This is the way it has been described, presumably by Edward Winslow, a leader of the colony, as it appears in Mourt’s Relation:

            “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amoungst other recreations, we exercised our arms, Many of the Indians coming amoungst us, and amoung the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish your partakers of our plenty.”

President George Washington in 1789 issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in honor of the new constitution. Then President Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863, by presidential proclamation, appointed the last Thursday of every November as Thanksgiving Day with these words:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Now, I am not a religious person, but I am inspired by these words- and thankful for the bounties of Heaven and Earth.

Love, George

Friday and Saturday December 13 and 14, 2002

Tonight’s Menu and Baking are dedicated to

Dead Sea Salt Bread

First Draft

Special thanks to Jen Moffroid for getting the salt to Waitsfield, to Don Sydney for his internet research, and to Beea Benedict, who made the first batch of dough.

            New ideas or initiatives often come about from the convergence of dispersive influences. So it was with Dead Sea salt bread.

            In February of this year I traveled to Washington DC as Vermont’s delegate for the “National call to action” press conference organized by America’s Second Harvest. I met other delegates from all over the country who, in a myriad of ways, were working to end hunger.

            In early April I addressed the Eastern regional conference of foodbanks and reported on the great energy and diversity in the fight against hunger. The following morning, Ben Cohen addressed the convention and retold a wonderful parable he had learned from Pete Seeger, the moral of which was that many hands make large tasks possible.

            During this period I had been reading a book on salt- its history and influence in the course of world history. Salt is an important component of bread. Of the literally thousands of salt deposits and salt works around the world, I was taken by two historic salt sites, physically side by side, but culturally so ‘antagonistic’; salt from the Dead Sea is processed both in Israel and in Jordan, from the same waters, only yards apart.

            Some day after the foodbank conference I tool a walk in the woods. I stopped at a large flat rock that was dry and faced the sun. I sat there in despair over the new wave of violence in the Middle East. Another intifada. More death. More revenge. Another layer of fear. What could I, a bread baker in Vermont, possibly do?

            Substantive social problems like hunger and war and peace are too complex to be solved by our “leaders”. It will take all of us, doing whatever we can- be it small or grand. Tonight’s bread is made with salt from the Dead Sea, half from Israel, half from Jordan, as a symbol of our common humanity and our interdependent destiny.

                                                            Love,  George

Dedication

Friday and Saturday, October 25 and 26, 2002

Tonight’s menu and baking are dedicated to

New Oven Arch

            Yesterday morning I received a call from Camilla, “You might want to come in on your way to Burlington (I was off to the 14th Vermont Traumatic Brain Injury Conference) and have a look at the oven arch. Some material has fallen away and there’s a gaping hole in the top.”

            “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I replied. When I arrived, the bakery was operating, but only because of the tenaciousness of the bakers and Jan Brodeur’s good counsel. We had had difficulty with the oven arch in the past, but this was by far the worst I had ever seen it. The stability of the entire oven dome was in question. After a thorough inspection, we decided to continue baking- with an extra degree of caution, and put together a plan to fix the arch Friday morning. I went to Burlington and returned mid-afternoon, and found things stable, due in great measure to the extra effort of the bakers and assemblers. While putting together tools and supplies for the repair, Mary Campbell came up to me and said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

            “Sure,” I replied, “We need four buckets of clay.” Mary and Freddie dug six buckets, got their truck both stuck and unstuck, and came back smiling. Matt Holland asked if I had any help for Friday morning. “Nope, but I could use some.”

            “I’ll be in at 9AM,” Matt said. Lisa Townsend called this morning at 8, “I’m here mixing clay.”

“Great! Thanks!”

            Megan Duni came in with Matt this morning. Matt, Megan, and Lisa worked all morning and half the afternoon. We had one big setback, but no one lost their spirit. If you are reading this dedication, the repair worked. I could not have done it alone. You guys are great.

                                                                        Love,

                                                                                    George

Dedication

Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5, 2002

Tonight’s menu and baking are dedicated to

Share the Harvest Benefit Bake

            This Friday, American Flatbread is happy to join other restaurants throughout Vermont in supporting “Share the Harvest”, a NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) initiative to help low-income Vermonters access fresh, local, seasonal vegetables, while at the same time providing much-needed income to farmers.

            The program is a wonderful example of connecting the nutritious bounty of the land with people who, because of economic constraints, too often are unable to have and enjoy the most flavorful and nutritious food our society produces. Although primarily conceived of as a hunger relief strategy, share the harvest has evolved into an important educational tool, reconnecting the disadvantaged with their community’s soil, the relationship between good food and good health, and the issues of sustainability.

            It has been said that education is the most effective path out of poverty. What is heartening to see in this work is that important educational experiences and initiatives exist outside of traditional educational institutions. In a diverse population approaching 300 million people, diversity in our approach to solving the great societal problems, like poverty and hunger, are a cause for good hope. Thank you for coming tonight. Your food choice just made a difference.

                                                                        Love,

                                                                                    George

Dedication

Friday and Saturday, November 8 and 9, 2002

Tonight’s menu and baking are dedicated to

Bake Against Violence

I usually don’t bake against something.

But tonight I am.

I am against the convulsive response

That has caused an uncounted anguish.

Uncounted, and only uncountable

Because it’s true measure would overwhelm

Our souls.

The sounds of war drown out the songs of birds;

At any given moment on any given day

(Every day is given-every day is a gift)

There are bullets in midair, pointed at someone,

Bearing down on their living, breathing targets

At 2200 feet per second

All these targets are someone else’s love-

Their mother or father or spouse or child, or friend.

And all because we would not or could not listen;

Because of our fears and prejudices and misunderstandings.

Too often we stand, as confused wolves at each other’s throats.

It is natural that we do not always agree. How can we live with our disagreements?

Someday, we will come to a place that understands that war is a terrible way to resolve our differences. Someday, we will hear the rattling of sabers as a call for help. All who sit at the table of creation are loved.

Thank you for coming tonight.

                                                                        Love,

                                                                                    George

Dedication

Friday and Saturday September 27 and 28, 2002

Tonight’s menu and baking are dedicated to

Sharing Experiences

What a cozy it was today.

A good day for appreciating the shelter and heat sources we have.

I spend the afternoon painting banners with Jan and Rosemary Morris at Jan’s house. The Banners are for the upcoming City Sprouts Harvest Festival that American Flatbread will be building an oven for next weekend in Cambridge, MA. It is going to take place at the Haggerty School, one of three Cambridge public school garden programs, as well as education for healthy eating. It is great timing because George just did a NOFA sponsored stone soup dinner, which also promoted healthy eating and organic food, at the Waitsfield School last night.

So, the three of us spent the afternoon creating and painting and telling our stories and listening to one another. I, at 33 years old, Jan at 48 years old, and Rosemary, Robin Morris’ mother who is visiting from England, at over 60 years old.

It was wonderful to hear Rosemary’s and Jan’s experiences of raising children and of educating themselves- formally and informally; learning continuously about the world and themselves. We spoke of the Saxons and the holocaust and the Middle East and Poland. And we spoke about drawing and painting and art.

It was a wonderful afternoon.

Three women in different stages of their lives; creating art and working and sharing. I experienced harmony on this cozy rainy day.

Thanks for coming tonight.

Love,

            Jen

Dedication

Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2, 2002

Tonight’s menu and baking are dedicated to

Thank You

            Here are some of my thank you’s for today.

Thank you Paul Krcmar for curing tonight’s salmon special with a blend of dead sea salts; half from Israel, half from Jordan. This is some of the earliest work with these salts (for us). Someday (I hope soon) we will make bread with these salts- bread as a bridge of our common humanity.

            Thank you, Jen Moffroid for working so hard to bring these salts to Waitsfield, and for so cheerfully filling in on today’s prep shift.

            Thanks to Jonathan Hoffman who cast aside, without hesitation, his ego, (Jonathan is a chef instructor) and is filling in tonight washing dishes.

            Thanks to Camilla Behn. She is old and wise…oops… just kidding about the old part, but she is very wise and, she is assembling the flatbreads this Friday evening.

            Thanks to Jim Layton who, along with his rotary gang, was out there in the wet cold earlier this evening, selling raffle tickets to raise money for their good works.

            Thanks to Tom (I’m sorry I’ve forgotten your last name and I have forgotten your bride’s name) Tom will be married tomorrow. Many years ago, Tom worked as the branch manager of the local Chittenden bank. He authorized our first loan, when it would have been easy to say no.

            Thanks to all the wonderful people who work here and make all of this possible.

            And Thanks to all of you for coming.

                                                                                    Love,

                                                                                                George