Three women from Massachusetts said they are looking to Vermont to take on the nuclear industry.

A trio of antinuclear activist from the Bay State recently spoke to a group of eight at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rutland. The women said they came to urge Vermonters to contact their legislators about the relicensing of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, calling it a chance to have a major effect on energy policy.

"There's a great opportunity," said Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizens Awareness Network. "People don't realize it, but the Vermont Legislature has taken back power to decide if Vermont Yankee should operate past 2012. This is a chance people have to make a huge impact."

Katz said that the federal government has never refused to renew a nuclear power plant's license and that the Public Service Board had approved every request of it from Vermont Yankee, so the Legislature's jurisdiction gives people opposed to nuclear power a rare opportunity.

"There are very few states that have the ability to do this," she said. "You have the chance to affect what happens in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. … The nuclear industry has convinced people there's nothing we can do. You, the people, can choose how you generate energy in the future."

Katz said if Vermont Yankee were shut down, Vermont and its neighbors would be forced to convert to renewable energy sources, creating a "domino effect."

The group, whose members all live in towns within 10 to 20 miles of Vermont Yankee, argues there is no real benefit to nuclear energy and too many risks.

"Nuclear power will never be affordable and will never be affordable when you take into account the security risks the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) ignores and the real costs of dealing with waste," said Sally Shaw, one of the speakers.

Shaw, an organic gardener, said she worries about the effect of radioactive particulates from the plant on local produce. Concerns over potential accidents at the plant were expressed by large, dramatic photographs of a transformer fire there two years ago.

Katz said the specter of terrorism also looms large over the plant, and that it would be easy for an attack by a shoulder-mounted rocket to ignite nuclear waste at the facility. She said the resulting fire would spread a plume of radioactive smoke over a 90-mile radius in a day's time.

She held up a map showing the affected area — it included Rutland, Bennington, Albany, Boston and Providence, R.I.

"Progressive people don't like to talk about terrorism because Bush has manipulated it, but when there's a real danger, you can't hide," Katz said.

Shaw said every household in Vermont easily could achieve 20 percent energy efficiency and bring the costs of closing Vermont Yankee in 2008 down to 13 cents per household, per day over four years.

"If I cut out one latte a week, that's 13 cents a day," she said. "We're talking about a latte, folks."

They said 20 percent energy efficiency easily can be achieved by using fluorescent light bulbs — a technology they said has improved in recent years — and plugging every appliance into a power strip that is turned off when an appliance is not in use. "I'm not an environmentalist, but I did it," Katz said. "I thought I was going to save $5 a month. I'm saving $30 a month."

Carol Tashie of Central Vermont Peace and Justice, which sponsored the event, said she was not surprised by the low turnout.

"It's not the issue that's big in Rutland County right now," she said. "It's something that's thought of as far away."

Contact Gordon Dritschilo at gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com.