Post-game analysis: The appeal of Vermont Yankee appeal
Feb 21, 2012 by Terri Hallenbeck Burl Free Press, (here)High stakes
Feb 21, 2012, Editorial Opinion, The Times Argus, (here)Sorrell Says Other States Should Join Vermont Yankee Appeal
Monday, 02/20/12, 5:50pm by John Dillon, VPR, (here)
.. says a federal court ruling in the Vermont Yankee case is so broad that it could affect the ability of state legislatures to engage in wide-ranging debate.
River group: Pull Vt. Yankee hot-water permit
FEB 18, 10 AM - MONTPELIER - Gov. Peter Shumlin issued the following statement regarding Attorney General William Sorrell's announced decision to appeal Judge Murtha's ruling on Vermont Yankee:
"As I said when the court opinion was issued, I do not agree with Judge Murtha's decision. We as a state have had many important and legitimate concerns with Entergy Louisiana and its operation of Vermont Yankee that are not reflected in the opinion. I support the Attorney General's work in getting a positive result on appeal. Meanwhile, my administration will be focusing on the state's continuing authority over Vermont Yankee."
Watershed group: Yankee needs to restart river process
Feb 18, 2012, By Chris Garofolo Reformer Staff, (here)Vermont has only days to decide Vermont Yankee appeal
Feb 17, 2012 9:11pm GMT, By Scott DiSavino, Reuters, (here)Going Nuclear
Feb 17, 2012, By ROBERT KAHN, Courthouse News Service, (here)
I live 5 miles from a nuclear power plant called Vermont Yankee, which Entergy bought in 2002 for $180 million. Entergy promised it would set aside $310 million to decommission the plant when its 40-year license expired in 2011.
... But in my 8 years in Vermont, I have come to see that Entergy, which reported $11 billion in earnings in 2010, is the most dishonest, abusive, arrogant corporate carpetbagger in the United States.
Entergy invaded Vermont 10 years ago to sack the state. Here's why I say this.
Groups push for greater safety zone around nuke plants
February 16, 2012, By Chris Garofolo, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Nearly 40 organizations identifying themselves as clean energy groups submitted a formal petition Wednesday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking the adoption of new regulations that would expand emergency evacuation zones and improve crisis response planning at reactors nationwide.
February 15, 2012: NIRS Petition for Rulemaking to NRC to expand emergency evacuation zones and improve emergency preparedness around U.S. nuclear reactors. With 37 initial co-petitioners from across the United States.
February 13, 2012, by Dan Dewalt, Counterpunch, (here)Vt senator says he'll press power line purchase
Feb 13, 2012, AP/Boston Globe, (here)AG mum on Vt. Yankee appeal; profs say he will
February 11, 2012 2:45 p.m., AP / Boston Globe, (here)Attorney General Consults DC Law Firm On VY Appeal
Friday, 02/10/12, John Dillon, VPR-News, (here)State still deciding whether to appeal Vt Yankee ruling
February 9, 2012 6:00 PM EST
By Gina Bullard, WCAX-TV-3, (here)
.... the state is reviewing the federal judge's decision with law firm Kellogg Huber in Washington, D.C.
Water vs. power,
Vermont Yankee pollution puts fish in hot water
02/06/12, By David Deen Hartford Business, (here)VY decision could have far-reaching ramifications
February 3, 2012, By Bob Audette Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)Watchdog group: Start over on Vt. Yankee permit
February 2, 2012, By Dave Gram, Associated Press, (here)
MONTPELIER, Vt.--A group critical of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant told state utility regulators Thursday they need to start over in their review of a request to extend the reactor's state permit by 20 years.
Feb 2, 2012, By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer, Times Argus, (here)Shumlin Wants PSB To Take Additional Testimony In Yankee Case
02/01/12 5:04pm, Bob Kinzel VPR News, (here)Lawmakers right to regard safety of Vermont Yankee
Feb 01, 2012, Leo Schiff, to Burl Free Press, (here)
... It takes considerable arrogance on the part of the "power elite" (in this case the nuclear industry and federal government) to foist this risk upon communities that are gambling all their assets on successful operation of a power plant.
Vt. Yankee nuke plant seeks OK to operate longer
Jan 31, 2012 5:48 p.m. By Dave Gram Associated Press, (here)(Fox)
MONTPELIER, Vt.--The fight over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant moved Tuesday from a federal courtroom back to the state panel that regulates utilities, as plant owner Entergy Corp. asked the Public Service Board to wrap up its stalled review and issue a state license for another 20 years of operation.
NRC reports on quarterly inspection of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant
Jan 31, 2012, By Bob Audette Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- In its quarterly inspection of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified three "self-revealing findings of very low safety significance."
The three findings were discovered between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2011, and included the flipping of a wrong circuit breaker on the plant's shutdown cooling system, the disconnection of a fuel line to an emergency diesel generator, and a failure to indicate the accurate total of radionuclide activity on the manifest for a radioactive waste shipment.
The Vermont Yankee challenge: A moment of firm decision - or indecision?
Jan. 29, 2012, by Terri Hallenbeck
Sunday's Front Page
Burlington Free Press, (here)
Vt. board has the power
Jan 28, 2012, By Kyle Jarvis Keene Sentinel Staff, (here)
... A deal between Entergy and the Public Service Board on the certificate is a likely outcome whether or not the state appeals the decision, said Patrick A. Parenteau, a professor of law at the Vermont Law School.
"There's going to be a deal and an early shutdown," he predicted. "It won't be tomorrow, and it won't be next week, but it won't be 20 years from now. Entergy doesn't want to be fighting the state all along the way."
After VY ruling, Public Service Board set to restart hearings
Jan 28, 2012, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)Yankee says no to more tests in well
January 27, 2012, By Dave Gram, Associated Press, (here)
The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant once again is refusing the state's request that it conduct more tests for radioactive tritium in a former drinking water well on the plant grounds.
Christopher Wamser, site vice president for plant owner Entergy Corp., says in a Jan. 20 letter to Public Service Commissioner Elizabeth Miller that such testing would be inappropriate because it could contaminate the bedrock aquifer at the bottom of the well and might not produce reliable results.
In Vt., an attorney general's losses raise doubts
The first was Vermont's campaign finance law setting the lowest contribution limits in the country - shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The same fate befell the state's attempt to restrict drug company efforts to collect data on doctors' prescribing habits. On a 6-3 vote, the justices said Vermont's law was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech by drug and data collecting companies.
Now, in yet another case that has garnered national attention, the office of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has suffered a stinging defeat, this time in a federal trial over the state's bid to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
Some observers are starting to see a pattern - one in which Sorrell and his team have gone to the legal big leagues three times and fallen flat on each attempt.
"The state now has sort of a reputation in the 2nd Circuit and the Supreme Court of not having their act together," said Patrick Parenteau, a former state commissioner of environmental conservation who is now a professor at Vermont Law School.
Kunin: Vt Yankee History
Tuesday, 01/24/12, 7:55am, VPR By Madeleine M. Kunin, (here)Vermont Yankee Ruling
Monday, 01/23/12, 5:55pm, by Cheryl Hanna, at VPR, (here)
(Host) Last week, Federal District Court Judge Gavin Murtha ruled that the Vermont Legislature could not shut down the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Commentator and Vermont Law School professor Cheryl Hanna reflects upon the ruling.
Gov. weighing Yankee appeal
Jan 23, 2012, WCAX-TV-3, (here)What's next in Vt Yankee saga?
The state of Vermont now sits where it was back in 2010, with the fate of the Vermont Yankee before the Public Service Board.
"For it to operate in the state of Vermont it needs to demonstrate that it is to the economic benefit to the state of Vermont and it needs to meet the requirements that all other power generators have to meet in the state of Vermont," said Rep. Shap Smith, D-Vt. House Speaker.
The Public Service Board will decide whether to issue a Certificate of Public Good to Entergy. The board heard testimony on this very topic before the Legislature took the issue into its own hands. Judge Garvin Murtha's ruling limits the state's ability to regulate the nuclear power plant, but they say the battle is far from over.
"The state clearly has continuing oversight, legitimate important interest in the facility and those all continue even with this opinion," Public Service Commissioner Liz Miller said.
Entergy Wins in Murtha Decision, Because Apparently Lawmakers Considered Their Constituents' Safety
Jan 20, 2012, by Philip Baruth Vermont Daily Briefing, (here)
In essence, Murtha's decision castigates state lawmakers for intervening on behalf of the safety of their constituents, their Prime Directive - more important than keeping schools robust, streets swept, taxes low, more important than any other issue can ever be, even in theory.
His disapproving reference to lawmakers' use of the word "safety" - driven home by Murtha's 192 uses of the word in his own decision - would, in a properly calibrated world, strike reasonable people as absurd. That's right, you heard me.
Federal judge: Vt. nuclear plant can remain open
Posted: 4:24pm on Jan 19, 2012; Modified: 6:30pm on Jan 19, 2012,
By DAVE GRAM - Associated Press, (here)
Gov. Peter Shumlin's office issued a statement saying he was "very disappointed ... Entergy has not been a trustworthy partner with the state of Vermont."
"I continue to believe that it is in Vermont's best interest to retire the plant. I will await the attorney general's review of the decision to comment further on whether the state will appeal," the statement said.
Sandra Levine, a lawyer with the Conservation Law Foundation, which supported the state's case, called the decision "a setback for Vermont and a setback for clean energy. Vermont is being forced to prop up a dirty and aging nuclear reactor and its untrustworthy owners."
The matter now goes back to the Vermont Public Service Board, which still has to approve the plant's continued operation.
Entergy lawyers sought during the federal court case to sharply narrow the grounds on which the board could shut the plant down.
Attorney General William Sorrell, who called the decision "more of a loss than a win," said Entergy was successful in restricting" the board's authority to some extent. The decision said Vermont can't demand bargain rates for electricity as a condition for Vermont Yankee to stay open.
The board in the past usually has had authority to set such conditions. (more)
Vermont: No VY deal in works
Jan 18, 2012 by Terri Hallenbeck Burl Free Press, (here)
Rumor running around the Statehouse had it that the reason there's been no decision in the Vermont Yankee court case is that there's a settlement in the works between Entergy Corp. and Vermont.
Not true, said state Public Service Commissioner Liz Miller. Emphatically not so.
Vermont vs. Vermont Yankee
Jan 10, 2012, Michael Blanding, The Nation, (here)
The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant sits on a peaceful bend of the Connecticut River, where jays call and herons dive lazily over sun-dappled water. There's something ominously familiar, however, about the tower of Vermont Yankee's reactor, which has the same design as those that melted down last spring at Fukushima in Japan. And just a day before that tragedy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved Vermont Yankee's request to operate for another twenty years past the forty years for which it was designed.
The scene was anything but peaceful last fall up the road in Brattleboro, where ....
GMP, CVPS sue Vermont Yankee over tower collapse
Jan 10, 2012, Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press, (here)
Vermont's two largest utilities - Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service - are suing Entergy Corp. over the 2007 and 2008 cooling tower collapses at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The lawsuit, filed in Vermont Superior Court in Windham County, accuses Entergy of costing the two utilities $6.6 million to buy power elsewhere when the plant shut down after the tower failures, GMP spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure said.
1-10-12, No decision yet !
Vermont Yankee decision soon
January 3, 2012, By Dave Gram, AP / Burlington Free Press, (here)
Both sides in the lawsuit by the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's owners against the state say a federal judge's decision is expected soon -- possibly this week.
Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith was among those predicting it would come this week. "That's just a guess," he said.
Attorney General William Sorrell also said he expected the decision to come soon. "Once it was the Wednesday before Christmas and there was no decision, I didn't expect to receive it before the holidays were over," said Sorrell. "Now that they're over I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to see it very soon."
VY year in review Tritium, strontium, steam leaks and lawsuits
Monday January 2, 2012, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- As 2011 drew to a close, those opposed to and those in support of the relicensing of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon waited impatiently for a decision that would determine its fate.
But as the clock ticked down to 5 p.m. on Friday, it was apparent that Federal District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha needed more time to decide whether the state had overstepped its bounds when it refused to issue a certificate of public good for the plant's continued operation.
When Murtha will issue his ruling is unknown at this time, but most observers believe it will be well before Yankee's 40-year license expires on March 21, 2012.
Irene's wrath
Dec 31, 2011, By Chris Garofolo Brattleboro Reformer, (here)
.... On Sept. 6, Brattleboro held one of its many informational meetings to provide updates to residents still suffering from Irene's aftermath, noting 143 properties were damaged by the flooding. On Sept. 9, Entergy, the owner of Vermont Yankee, announced it was donating $100,000 for repairs.
Entergy change not approved
Dec 23, 2011, By Bob Audette Reformer Staff, (here)
Fair Game, By Shay Totten Seven Days, Dec 21, 2011, (here)
With 2011 coming to a close, several major policy questions remain unanswered: Will Vermont Yankee close? Can Vermont launch a single-payer health care system? Will Gov. Peter Shumlin ever visit Dominica again?
Scratch that last question; the gov's on the Caribbean isle of Anguilla as Fair Game goes to print.
One unresolved story could have a greater impact on Vermont's economy and future - and on Shumlin's legacy - than all of the previous questions combined: the proposed merger of Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service.
Would Northern Pass swamp the regional market for renewable projects?
Dec 21, 2011 by Christophe Courchesne, Conservation Law Foundation, (here)
Nuclear waste site hunt could point to granite
Sun Dec 18, 2011, By Dave Gram, Associated Press, (here)
MONTPELIER, Vt.-The likely death of a planned nuclear waste site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain has left federal agencies looking for a possible replacement. A national lab working for the U.S. Department of Energy is now eying granite deposits stretching from Georgia to Maine as potential sites, along with big sections of Minnesota and Wisconsin where that rock is prevalent.
.... Vermont is no stranger to the nuclear waste storage debate. It was one of the places Department of Energy surveyed for potential waste sites in the mid-1980s -- before Congress targeted Yucca Mountain.
Shumlin releases final, "scrubbed" version of Comprehensive Energy Plan
Dec 16, 2011, by Alan Panebaker, vtdigger.org (here)
Thursday December 15, 2011 By Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, (here)
VERNON -- As the question on whether or not the Vermont Yankee nuclear power will be allowed to continue to operate beyond its original license is still being decided by a federal judge, members of the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel met Wednesday to discuss its near future.
About 50 people attended the meeting at the Vernon Elementary School gymnasium. Many people in the audience asked for the plant's closure as a sign hung in the back that read, "Entergy = Fukushima," referring to the similarities of the Vernon plant and the former Japanese plant that was badly damaged by an earthquake and tsunami.
...... Critics of the plant's continued operation asked the panel to continue to question the NRC and Entergy, the owners and operators of the Vernon plant.
"These people have a history of lying," said George Harvey, a semi-retired engineer living in Brattleboro. "They're clearly operating out of self-interest. They're not interested in our making informed decisions, they're only interested in making money."
Prior to the meeting, members of the New England Coalition distributed copies of a Congressional staff report from U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., which the group states confirms ongoing concerns that the NRC has been set on a path to "weaken regulation and oversight at aging nuclear plants, and urged the state to support Chairman Gregory Jaczko's drive to improve safety enforcement despite his fellow NRC commissioners' industry loyalties," they wrote in a statement.
... (more)
BRATTLEBORO -- The Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel will be in Vernon on Wednesday night to discuss Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Topics for discussion will include a presentation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the status of its post-Fukushima reviews.
Representatives from the NRC, which include the Region I director of the division of reactor safety and the branch chief who oversees resident inspectors, will also discuss how the plant is inspected on a regular basis and what kind of issues are currently under review.
Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, said the representatives will also be available to answer any other questions the members of the panel might have.
The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Vernon Elementary School at 381 Governor Hunt Road.
Groups urge closer look at Vermont Yankee
Sunday December 11, 2011 By Susan Smallheer
Staff Writer Rutland Herald, (here)
BRATTLEBORO - Two safety problems at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant reported last week and laid at the feet of human error have prompted anti-nuclear groups and the state to urge a closer look at plant practices as Entergy Nuclear nears its potential deadline for shutting down.
Last week, Entergy filed reports with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission detailing the two safety problems, which NRC officials said were of low-safety significance, but warranted follow-up reports.
.... "Vermonters are concerned when they hear of events like this at the plant," said Sarah Hofmann, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Service. "Entergy needs to do everything possible to avoid errors and when two incidents occur within a relatively short amount of time, the question occurs: Has everything possible been done? Why were procedures either not followed or inadequate? We expect that investigation to occur."
WASHINGTON - There were new allegations on Friday of misconduct at the highest levels of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as Democrats and Republicans in Congress separately released information about infighting at the agency.
New York May Be Safely Evacuated Ahead of Nuclear Event, NRC's Jaczko Says
Dec 08, 2011 3:23 PM, By Brian Wingfield and Julie Johnsson, Bloomberg Business Week,
(here)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said Entergy Corp.'s Indian Point plant, about 24 miles (39 kilometers) north of the most populated U.S. city,
should be closed because it isn't feasible to evacuate about 20 million residents of the metropolitan area in the event of an accident.
Josh Vlasto, a Cuomo spokesman, declined to respond to Jaczko's comments. "The governor's position is clear," Vlasto said today in an interview in Albany. "He wants to shut it down."
... Jaczko said he hasn't examined evacuation plans for New York specifically. Evacuation plans aren't considered during license renewals and are the responsibility of state and local authorities, who would work with plant owners in the event of an emergency, he said.
VY Siren Test in Vt., N.H., and Mass., Dec 8 @ 1 PMVY silt disposal investigated
BRATTLEBORO -- Silt dredged from near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant intake structure and disposed of around Sept. 15 did not contain radioactive materials "likely to be from Vermont Yankee nuclear operations," according to the Vermont Department of Health's website.
DOH was alerted to the disposal of the silt by an officer of the Agency of Natural Resources Office of Environmental Enforcement who received a report of materials being trucked from Yankee for disposal at a Vernon gravel pit.
At the officer's request, the Health Department took samples of the material that was being removed from the site and determined its source.
ITC Holdings Corp., the largest U.S. independent owner of high-voltage power lines, will acquire Entergy Corp.'s transmission system for $1.78 billion in assumed debt, doubling the size of its network.
N.Y., two river groups, file for 'friend' status in VY case
Dec 1, 2011, By Bob Audette Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont may be gaining 'friends' in its appeal to a federal appeals court to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review its issuance of a license renewal for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
On Monday, New York State, Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson filed documents with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia requesting they be accepted as friends of the court in support of Vermont's petition.
New York asks to file 'friend' brief in VY water quality suit
BRATTLEBORO - On Monday, the state of New York filed in federal court in Washington , D.C., to be recognized as a friend of the court in Vermont's suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Vermont, and the New England Coalition, is asking the court to force the NRC to reconsider the 20-year license renewal it issued for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon last March.
Vermont is contending that the NRC erred by accepting the application because it did not include a water quality certificate.
New York is agreeing with Vermont and NEC that the NRC license renewal is invalid because the application must contain the certificate to be approved.
Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson also filed requests to be considered friends of the court.
Fission Stories #68: Fire and Rain
Nov 29, 2011, by Dave Lochbaum All Things Nuclear, (here)
Over 40 years ago, James Taylor released a hit song about having seen fire and having seen rain.
In recent years, the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant experienced its own form of fire and rain. It experienced fire on June 18, 2004, when one of the connectors on top of the main power transformer linking the unit's electrical output with the power grid failed. The connector's failure resulted in two things: (1) electrical sparks from the failed connection, and (2) oil dripping from a flange near the connection. If oil and water don't mix, oil and electrical sparks mix even less well. Figure 1 shows the fire atop the damaged transformer at Vermont Yankee.
A New Urgency to the Problem of Storing Nuclear Waste
Nov 28, 2011, By Kate Galbraith NY Times Green Column, (here)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants' wastes.
Fukushima accident raises spent fuel concerns in U.S.
Tues Nov 22, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here),
(mht)
BRATTLEBORO -- How well prepared is Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to respond to an accident that cuts off power to the plant's spent fuel pool cooling system?
That's a question the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be asking as part of its "lessons learned" review of the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan.
N.Y. may become 'friend' in Yankee water quality lawsuit
November 22, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- The Attorney General of the State of New York is considering filing a friend of the court brief in support of Vermont's petition to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review its issuance of a license renewal for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
In documents filed Monday with the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the attorney general submitted a notice of intent to participate in the hearing, in which Vermont is contending the NRC issued a new license in violation of its own regulations.
$?&%@!
NRC responds to concerns over Entergy strontium statements
November 18, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- In late October, Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission he was concerned that Entergy wasn't being truthful about the nature of radiological discharges by its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
In a letter to the NRC, Markey said that statements made by Larry Smith, Yankee's director of communications, contradicted the factual history of the plant.
...... The NRC states the findings presented by DOH "are too close to the level of uncertainty to be considered by themselves a conclusive indication of the presence of Sr-90."
Because no strontium has been found in the groundwater monitoring wells, wrote the NRC, there is no need for further study of possible Sr-90 contamination from Vermont Yankee at this time.
Markey also asked the NRC to look into "whether Entergy was lying in its Aug. 2 (2011) statement to the media or perhaps was lying in its May 2010 report to the NRC."
In its response, the NRC stated its legal authority to determine the veracity of statements made by nuclear industry representatives "does not extend to regulating all public statements made by companies that hold NRC licenses."
BRATTLEBORO, Vt.--The state of Vermont says the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant didn't prove to federal regulators who extended the plant's operating license that it is in compliance with the federal Clean Water Act.
Vt. lawmakers briefed on energy plan
Nov 10, 2011, By Susie Steimle WCAX-CH-3 News, (here)
Montpelier, Vermont - Vermont lawmakers were briefed on the Comprehensive Energy Plan by the Shumlin administration in Montpelier Thursday.
...... The Shumlin administration's draft plan assumes Vermont Yankee will not be a part of the state's energy future ...
Power in Play
The risks and rewards of privatizing Burlington Electric's
Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station
Just outside the control room, at the foot of a 10-story-tall boiler, plant manager John Irving shouts to be heard over the deafening roar of the furnace and the 183-ton turbine generator that rumbles the floor beneath us.
"We're the only major generating source in the load pocket of Vermont," he yells, referring to Chittenden County, Vermont's biggest energy user.
"So when there's a big storm, like the hurricane or the ice storm ... we're the ones who are going to keep the lights on at the hospital and the city, not Vermont Yankee."
During the Northeast blackout of 2003, for example, it was McNeil that kept Burlington lit while most of New England was dark.
A former resident of Fukushima brings an antinuclear message to the gates of Vermont Yankee
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 The Commons issue #126, (here)
Documents show heavy Entergy lobbying on Vt. Yankee case
November 6, 2011, By Dave Gram Associated Press, (here)
MONTPELIER, Vt.--Entergy Corp. heavily lobbied multiple federal agencies last spring as it unsuccessfully pleaded with them to join its lawsuit against the state of Vermont's efforts to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, internal Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents show.
The emails, letters and other documents, obtained from the NRC by The Associated Press after a Freedom of Information Act request, also show NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko being coached by the agency's lawyers to scale back remarks he had been making saying the agency was unlikely to intervene in the Entergy lawsuit.
VERNON -- Opponents to the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant filled its entrance Sunday.
With the plant near the end of a refueling outage, more than 150 people from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont held signs that read "we all live downwind from Vermont Yankee" and "NH stands with VT, shut down VY" demanding the plant's owner, Entergy, to decommission the plant by March 2012.
Events put focus on nuclear power -- in Japan and locally
BRATTLEBORO -- Award-winning filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka will visit Windham County next week to provide first-hand insight and experience following the massive earthquake and nuclear incident in Japan.
On Wednesday, starting at 7 p.m., at the Latchis, Kamanaka will make a presentation on the discoveries and the events following the aftermath of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster earlier this year. It will also cover what the past six months have been like since the catastrophic earthquake damaged the nuclear facility.
The exhibit, "The News that is Not in the News" was prepared by Keiko Kokubun, of Salisbury, and highlights the suffering and struggles of the people of Fukushima, she said.
Kamanaka's most recent film, "Ashes to Honey," will be shown, Sunday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m., at the New England Youth Theater.
The film follows the lives of people living in the small island community of Iwaijima where residents have been protesting the Japanese Government's plan to build a nuclear reactor across the bay from their homes.
"Currently we are being challenged what energy sources to choose," Kamanaka said. "We live in the age of the cross-border environmental damage of global warming and face a dilemma that leads to environmental destruction of our own species."
(more)
Considering the cycle of nuclear fuel
Oct 26, 2011, Bill Pearson The Commons Online, (here)
The VY debate is not just about electricity, job, taxes, or the local economy. It's also about how nuclear fuel pollutes communities.
BRATTLEBORO - "A technician, conducting normal maintenance on a siren control unit located at Vermont Yankee's training center in Brattleboro, inadvertently activated all 37 sirens in Vermont Yankee's emergency planning zone," Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee Director of Communication Larry Smith stated in a release.
Vermont Yankee NPS - Request for Withholding Information From Public Disclosure
VERNON -- Members of the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel will this week hold a meeting to discuss emergency preparedness.
On Wednesday, from 6 to 9 p.m., at the Vernon Elementary School, members of the panel and various elected officials from Windham County will share their ideas and ask questions related to the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Vermont Department of Public Service Deputy Commissioner Sarah Hofmann, said members from Vermont Emergency Management as well as Marlboro Selectboard member Lucy Gratwick and Guilford Emergency Manager Herb Meyer are expected to provide insight into what, if anything, needs to be addressed in regards to emergency planning.
Mike O'Neil, of VEM, will present a overview of the area's emergency plan and state nuclear engineer Uldis Vanags will provide an update on the plant.
Comment period for Vermont's Comprehensive Energy Plan extended
October 7, 2011, by Alan Panebaker, vtdigger.org (here)
Entergy (ETR.N) will shut its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant this weekend to begin a $100 million
refueling outage, a spokesman for the U.S. energy company said on Thursday, as it awaits a judge's decision
on whether it can keep running the plant beyond next year.
The N.R.C. Goes Social
October 4, 2011, 3:16 pm By Matthew L. Wald, NY Times Green Blog, (here)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission established a YouTube channel last month. It has a Twitter account, @NRCgov, and since January it has had a blog. On Tuesday it took the next step: the chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, hosted an online session with more than 50 bloggers, most of them pro-nuclear. He is supposed to do it again on Thursday, with anti-nuclear bloggers.
(also) Smith said that some of the Entergy administrative staff had moved back into the corporate offices on Old Ferry Road in Brattleboro, which was hit by an arsonist last week.
Brattleboro Police Chief Eugene Wrinn said the arson case remained under investigation.
Upside-Down Water Quality Federalism
Sep 28th, 2011 by Prof. Coplan, Karl S., GreenLaw Blog, (here)
The NRC issued Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant a 20 year extension to its operating license despite the fact that Entergy, the plant's owner, did not obtain a CWA § 401 water quality certification for the renewal. Both the New England Coalition, and the Vermont Department of Public Service have challenged ....
Yankee pump fails, forced to cut power
Sep 27, 2011, By Susan Smallheer, Staff Writer, Rutland Herald, (here)
Electrical problem causes 'power down' at Vermont Yankee
BRATTLEBORO - A problem with one of the recirculation pumps at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant late Sunday night has forced a power reduction down to about 36 percent.
Yelling Fire!
Sat Sep 24, 2011, by Aurora Borealis, Green Mountain Daily, (here)
15 comments thru Mon Sep 26, 2011
"an inside job?"
Fire damages Vermont Yankee corporate offices -- Arson suspected
Wed 09/21/2011 06:30:38 AM EDT, By Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, (here)
Each side has until Sept. 26 to file post-hearing briefs. It's unclear when (Judge) Murtha will rule on the case.
Lawyers Wrap Up Vermont Yankee Case In Federal Court
Wednesday, 09/14/11 5:50 PM Susan Keese VPR News, (updated)
Oral Arguments To End Today In Vermont Yankee Trial
Wednesday, 09/14/11 7:36 AM Susan Keese VPR News, (here)
On Tuesday Vermont House Speaker Shap Smith and a former Entergy vice president took the stand.
Smith says the state was frustrated that Entergy hadn't committed to a power price for Vermont, which made it hard to weigh the economic pros and cons.
And he says lawmakers had doubts over Entergy's plan to delegate decommissioning to a spin-off company.
Attorney General Bill Sorrell commented during a break that safety had nothing to do with that.
(Sorrell) "Any number of Vermonters including an awful lot of legislators thought that this Enexus deal was just a shell game and rate payers and the state could end up holding the bag for decommissioning costs."
(Keese) Jay Thayer, a former site vice president at the Yankee plant also took the stand on Tuesday. Lawyers for the state asked him to identify document after document in which Thayer or Entergy, acknowledged the state's regulatory authority.
Speaker Smith took the stand to describe the political climate in 2010, when lawmakers refused to grant Yankee permission to continue operating.
Smith says lawmakers had grave misgivings about decommissioning the plant. And he says Entergy damaged its own credibility when it disclosed that underground pipes were leaking radioactive tritium.
Anti-nuclear activists rally before Entergy trial
Sept 12, 2011, By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer, Rutland Herald, (here)
BRATTLEBORO - More than 100 anti-nuclear activists rallied Saturday afternoon in downtown Brattleboro, saying that Vermont had a strong case against Entergy Corp. in its legal fight over the future operation of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
Today marks the start of the pivotal three-day trial of Entergy Corp. v. Shumlin et al in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro.
Vermont and Entergy go head-to-head
Sept 12, 2011, By JOSH STILTS, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- The battle lines are drawn, the stage is set, the stakes are high, and beginning this morning lawyers for Entergy and the state of Vermont will attempt to prove the Legislature either did or did not pass laws that dictated the radiological safety of the nuclear power plant in Vernon.
Friday September 9, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- A case being heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in regards to a license extension issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, is all about the right of a state to exercise the authority granted to it by both the U.S. Constitution and Congress, said Christopher Kilian of the Conservation Law Foundation, which is representing the New England Coalition pro bono.
"It's critically important that the rights of a state under the CWA are fully respected and protected by the courts when a big federal bureaucracy is making a decision that can affect the waters of a state and its citizens," he said. "We are still very strongly of the opinion that the NRC issued this license in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and Vermont has a very clear authority and obligation to issue a water quality certificate or deny one as it deems appropriate before the NRC acts. We look forward to briefing that to the court."
Entergy v. Vermont trial begins Monday in federal court in Brattleboro
September 7, 2011, By Olga Peters The Commons, Windham Co, (here)
Broken 'chiller' valve threatens VY shutdown
September 7, 2011, By BOB AUDETTE, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- A faulty cooling system threatened to shut down Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant over the weekend.
But in a little more than 24 hours, technicians at the plant repaired a valve in a unit meant to keep safety-related equipment cool.
"It was an air-conditioning unit, a chiller, used to keep plant equipment cool," said Larry Smith, manager of communications for Yankee.
Global Renewable Capacity Has Now Exceeded Nuclear
September 5, 2011, CleanTechnica Susan Kraemer, (here)
The world has now breached a tipping point of some significance. According to Phyllis Cuttino, Director of the Clean Energy Program at The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Michael Liebreich, CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the worldwide installed capacity of renewable energy has now surpassed that of nuclear power.
MONTPELIER (AP) - The White House has declared a major disaster in flood-ravaged Vermont, clearing the way for federal aid.
President Obama signed the declaration Thursday, making individual assistance available for homeowners in Chittenden, Rutland, Washington and Windsor counties and public assistance for infrastructure in 13 of the state's 14 counties, excluding Grand Isle.
Vermont moves to dismiss operator lawsuit
09/01/2011 07:42:47 AM EDT, By Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- The Attorney General's Office last week filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by seven senior operators at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. They argue that the operators' case lacks subject matter and fails to state a claim for which relief can be granted.
$5M emergency aid approved for storm-damaged Vermont roads and bridges
BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 31 - The U.S. Department of Transportation released $5 million in emergency funds to rebuild and repair roads and bridges destroyed or damaged in Vermont by Tropical Storm Irene, Vermont's congressional delegation announced today.
Irene Hits Hard
Widespread flooding, damage throughout Windham County
Monday, Aug 29,2011, By Howard Weiss-Tisman, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Tropical Storm Irene lashed Windham County with torrential rains Sunday, causing washouts and bridge closures and forcing the evacuation of dozens of residents from low lying areas.
Downtown Brattleboro was closed for a portion of the day as the Whetstone Brook spilled over and flooded Flat Street.
The brook turned into a raging torrent of muddy water with logs and debris trapped in the raging water as it spilled in to the Connecticut River.
Fan Photos of the storm on the Reformer's Facebook page,
(here)
Vermont Yankee: We are ready
Saturday, August 27, 2011, By Casey Farrar, Keene Sentinel, (here)
Irene on track to slam into Vermont
August 26, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
New England is bracing for what could be one of the fiercest hurricanes to hit the region in the past 25 years.
"The center of the storm is forecast to pass over southern Vermont," said Steve DiRienzo, the warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y.
Nuclear power plants prepare for expected hurricane
Aug 25, 2011, By Brian Wheeler Power Engineering, (here)
As of the morning of August 25, a number of nuclear power plants appeared to be within the storm's projected path: Brunswick, Harris, Indian Point, Pilgrim, Millstone, Surry, Seabrook, Vermont Yankee, Limerick, Calvert Cliff, Peach Bottom, Three Mile Island, Susquehanna and Salem. Of those, the plants further inland and to the north would likely see less impact, according to weather models from the Weather Channel.
Entergy, state seek to keep lawsuit documents confidential
August 24, 2011, By Olga Peters The Commons, (here)
VERNON--Entergy Corp. and the state have filed a joint protective order as part of the discovery portion of the Entergy v. Vermont case.
The order allows both parties to stamp documents and evidence as "confidential."
NRC accepts some, rejects other coalition contentions
August 23, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
NRC pushes ahead with Fukushima-related review
August 23, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
According to a press release, the commission directed the staff to promptly engage with stakeholders to review and assess the recommendations of the task force "in a comprehensive and holistic manner for the purpose of providing the Commission with fully informed options and recommendations.
"Staff is instructed to remain open to strategies and proposals presented by stakeholders, expert staff members, and others as it provides its recommendations to the Commission," stated the press release.
NRC staffers have 27 days to provide the five-member commission with a paper that identifies and makes recommendations regarding the task force recommendations that can, "and in the staff's judgment, should be implemented, in part or in whole, without unnecessary delay."
VY lawyers counter claim about relevance of exhibits
August 20,2010, By Josh Stilts Reformer Staff, (here)
(Host) State regulators are taking a closer look at what kinds of information utilities should be allowed to keep secret.
In recent years, power companies have opted not to reveal the price they've agreed to pay under certain power contracts. And the Public Service Board is asking whether this kind of secrecy is always justified.
GE HITACHI NUCLEAR ENERGY - PART 21 - FAILURE TO INCLUDE SEISMIC INPUT IN REACTOR CONTROL BLADE CUSTOMER GUIDANCE
Submitted by NUCBIZ (Prof Reactor Operator Society) on August 12, 2011, (here)
24 Reactor Sites impacted
"GEH issues this 60-Day Interim Report in accordance with the requirements set forth in 10 CFR 21.21 (a)(2) to allow additional time to for this evaluation to be completed."
Affected US plants previously notified by vendor and recommended for surveillance program include: Nine Mile Point, Units 1 and 2; Fermi 2; Columbia; FitzPatrick; Pilgrim; Vermont Yankee; Grand Gulf; River Bend; Clinton; Oyster Creek; Dresden, Units 2 and 3; LaSalle, Units 1 and 2; Limerick, Units 1 and 2; Peach Bottom, Units 2 and 3; Quad Cities, Units 1 and 2; Perry, Unit 1; Duane Arnold; Cooper; Monticello; Brunswick, Units 1 and 2; Hope Creek; Hatch, Units 1 and 2; and Browns Ferry, Units 1and 2.
Translation:
GE Hitachi report: Some reactor components may not withstand earthquake
Posted on August 12, 2011 by Robert Singleton, (here)
GE Hitachi (GEH) issued a preliminary report to the NRC today, saying that some of the reactor components it has provided to U.S. nuclear power plants have not been designed to withstand damage from an earthquake.
Justice Department Confirms it Won't Intervene in Vermont Yankee Lawsuit
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders welcomed confirmation by the U.S. Department of Justice that it would not intervene in a lawsuit over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Vermont Yankee Reported Strontium 90 Releases To NRC
AP: Vermont Yankee had several past radioactive releases into the environment
Aug. 4, 2011 7:16 PM, Dave Gram, Associated Press, (here)
MONTPELIER -- The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant reported releases of a radioactive substance into the environment several times in the years immediately after the plant's current owner bought it in 2002, an Associated Press review of Nuclear Regulatory Commission records has found.
That raises questions about statements by Entergy Corp. this week that strontium-90 found in a fish sample taken from the adjacent Connecticut River did not come from the Vernon reactor.
Vt. to nuke plant: Expect to pay $750K in lawsuit
08.02.11, 05:30 PM, By Dave Gram, Associated Press/Forbes, (here)
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- State utility regulators have told the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant they can expect to be billed $750,000 or more for the state's legal defense costs in a lawsuit filed by the company, according to documents released Tuesday in response to a public records request.
But new doubts are circulating about whether the state ever will even try to collect any money.
Entergy officials say they plan to challenge a new law (ACT047.pdf) that would force them to pay the state's legal fees, as Vermont battles Entergy over the future of the Vernon nuclear plant
RUTLAND, Vt.--Vermont's largest electric utility says it has signed two new power supply contracts to fill a gap created by the end of the existing contract with the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Exploit New England's Renewable Energy
July 30, 2011, By Madison Grose and Edward Krapels, The Hartford Courant, (here)
As older power plants such as coal-fired Salem Harbor Station in Massachusetts and nuclear Vermont Yankee retire, New England is in an ideal position to replace them with renewables.
Entergy withdraws e-mail request
July 29, 2011, By Josh Stilts Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Earlier this week, the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon withdrew its request for millions of pages of e-mails from state legislators.
As part of its lawsuit against the state of Vermont, Entergy, which owns and operates the plant in Vernon, had asked for more than a decade's worth of e-mails sent to and from state legislators.
This op-ed is by James Marc Leas, a patent lawyer in South Burlington. He served as a staff physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in the aftermath of the accident at Three Mile Island.
Entergy to fight for Vermont Yankee reactor survival
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Two professors at the Vermont Law School say Vermont Yankee's owners are likely to prevail in their suit against the state, even though their request for a preliminary order blocking the state's bid to close the reactor was rejected.
A Gamble for Vermont Yankee
July 19, 2011, By Matthew L. Wald NY Times Blog, (here)
The owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant may be coming up fast on a crucial decision about the reactor's future. The plant's initial 40-year operating license expires in March 2012; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is willing to let it run another 20 years, but the state of Vermont is not.
To run beyond March, the reactor, on the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vt., just north of the Massachusetts border, needs a new "certificate of public good," and the state Legislature has reserved to itself the authority to issue or withhold one. It has pointedly refused to issue the certificate.
Vt. judge denies bid to keep nuke plant open
July 18, 2011, 05:24 PM EDT By DAVE GRAM, Assoc Press, (here)
.... Last month, Entergy went to court asking for a preliminary order allowing it to stay open while the underlying lawsuit works its way through the courts - possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Monday's order, Judge J. Garvan Murtha said there was no need for such an order because the main trial in the case is scheduled in mid-September, only eight weeks away.
"The motion is denied, because Entergy has failed to show that any irreparable harm it may incur between now and a decision on the merits" of its lawsuit, Murtha wrote.
During two days of hearings in late June, Entergy lawyers and witnesses told Murtha that they needed a decision on the preliminary injunction by July 23 so the company could order the specially fabricated nuclear fuel it needs to load into the reactor core during a refueling outage set for October.
July 15, 2011, by John Dillon, Vt Public Radio News, (here)
Montpelier, VT -- (Host) A federal review prompted by the recent Japanese nuclear disaster recommends that plants such as Vermont Yankee adopt new safety upgrades.
Vermont Yankee says it doesn't yet know how much the changes will cost.
Entergy: Court has right to accept new information
July 13, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Attorneys representing Entergy in federal court are contending they have the right to submit information that wasn't entered into the official record during hearings in Brattleboro on June 23 and 24.
Following those hearings, Federal District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha issued an order allowing both Entergy and Vermont "to supplement their pre-hearing proposed findings, which shall not exceed 15 pages."
Voice of the Free Press: Attorney general's report adds to worries about Vermont Yankee
.... In February 2010, just days before the Senate vote, the Free Press editorial board stated, "Close Vermont Yankee." The reason: "Vermont Yankee has lost its trustworthiness."
Nearly a year and a half later, the attorney general's report only serves to reinforce our call to shut Vermont Yankee down.
State wants Entergy evidence thrown out
July 8, 2011, By Susan Smallheer Vermont Today, (here)
... The Vermont Attorney General's office said Entergy's lawyers had disregarded Murtha's order after two days of testimony in June and was trying to shoehorn new evidence into the record.
"The record is limited to the evidence submitted at the hearing. The fact that plaintiffs may be dissatisfied with that record does not give them license to supplement it by citing newspaper articles and filing new material with the court," wrote Assistant Attorney General Scot Kline.
Anti-nuclear group disappointed with Vermont dropping Entergy case
July 8, 2011, By David Rainville, GazetteNET Contributing Writer (here)
A local organization is disheartened by Vermont's decision not to pursue criminal charges against Entergy Corp., owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
"Whether it rises to the level of criminal charges or not, (Entergy) can't be trusted, and the state shouldn't do business with them," said Deb Katz, executive director of Citizens Awareness Network, based in Shelburne Falls.
VT Atty Gen'l Sorrell says, "his office lacks sufficient probative evidence to prove perjury beyond a reasonable doubt."
Sorrell says, "his office has completed its criminal investigation and neither Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) nor any of its current or past employees will be charged with having committed perjury when state officials and others were repeatedly misled about the existence of underground piping carrying radionuclides."
"Clearly, Vermont Yankee personnel repeatedly failed to meet a minimally acceptable standard of credibility and trustworthiness, but proving that perjury took place is another matter entirely. We lack the smoking gun necessary to prove the crime and it would be unethical and irresponsible for us to press criminal charges when we do not have the evidence to meet our heavy burden of proof," said the Attorney General.
Entergy's nuclear plants include Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee, Indian Point, Palisades, FitzPatrick, River Bend, Grand Gulf, Arkansas Nuclear One and Waterford.
Some worry about nuclear plant evacuation plans
July 2, 2011, By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer, (here) or (here)
"It wouldn't work anyway," said Judith Freed, a psychotherapist in Guilford, Vt., who has lived 7 miles from the Vermont Yankee plant for 40 years. She said country roads in that area could not handle an evacuation.
Justice Department unsure on Vermont Yankee stance
MONTPELIER -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Thursday that he had been told the U.S. Justice Department won't intervene in the federal lawsuit being brought against Vermont by the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, but the Justice Department responded by saying it hasn't made a decision.
Sanders Expects U.S. to Stay Out of Vermont Yankee Court Fight
June 30, 2011, Sen. Bernie Sanders release, (here)
Sen. Bernie Sanders learned today that the U.S. Department of Justice has no plans to intervene in a legal fight over the fate of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor at this time.
Vermont Yankee owner's credit rating downgraded
June 28, 2011 6:43 PM By Terri Hallenbeck, vt.Buzz, Burlington Free Press, (here)
Entergy Corp. took a hit Tuesday when the rating firm Standard & Poor's downgraded the company's credit rating, based largely on its inability to win approval to continue operating the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Results of Vermont criminal investigation of Vt. Yankee coming soon
June 28, 2011, By Terri Hallenbeck vt.Buzz, Burl Free Press, (here)
Brattleboro hands out free alert radios
June 27, 2011, By Josh Stilts, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- For several months, members of the Brattleboro Fire Department have gone door-to-door handing out free weather alert radios and access to an emergency notification system.
The Midland National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radios were donated by Vermont Yankee to all the fire departments within the nuclear plant's evacuation zone, said Brattleboro Fire Department Capt. Ron Hubbard.
VY, Vt. attorneys hash it out in court
June 24, 2011, By Josh Stilts, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Thursday in front of a federal judge and a packed courtroom, attorneys and witnesses provided testimony on whether the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant should be allowed to continue to operate until a final ruling is handed out in Entergy's lawsuit against the state.
Outside the courthouse, protesters lined both sides of Main Street in Brattleboro while the attorneys presented their arguments.
NRC defends its record, Vermont Yankee
June 23, 2011, By Susan Smallheer, Staff Writer, Rutland Herald, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defended its assessment of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant Wednesday.
"Vermont Yankee is doing well," said William Dean, NRC Region One administrator, in light of the particular pressures facing the plant over its future.
The assessment comes after an Associated Press series this week that was sharply critical of the NRC's oversight of the nuclear industry, saying the federal regulator has a pattern of softening regulations to accommodate the industry and loosening safety concerns.
And it also comes a day after the U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report that looked at Vermont Yankee and two other nuclear plants and concluded the NRC was doing a poor job of oversight of underground piping systems, and more work was needed to avoid future radioactive leaks, such as the ones that have plagued Vermont Yankee for the past two years.
The Tritium Peril From U.S. Nuke Plants: Should You Worry?
June 21, 2011, by Jeffrey Kluger ecocentric.blog Time.com, (here)
... The Vermont Yankee reactor, which has leaked tritium at a level 125 times what the EPA considers safe for drinking water; the Browns Ferry reactor in Alabama where the limit was exceeded 100-fold during a spill in 2010; the Quad Cities plant in Illinois that topped out at a shocking 375 times the limit during one leak in 2008.
There's no putting a good face on that, but hysteria is not wise either.
Vermont Yankee nuclear plant continues monitoring groundwater for tritium
June 21, 2011, By Dan Crowley, Staff Writer, Daily Hampshire Gazette, (here)
... Massachusetts has a strong interest in Vermont Yankee. Five Massachusetts towns are in the plant's 10-mile evacuation zone: Bernardston, Colrain, Gill, Leyden and Northfield. But, given the NRC's recent suggestion that a 50-mile zone should apply to the Fukushima plant, a Massachusetts safety zone could stretch to Springfield.
No reaction to the lawsuit yet from the New Hampshire government, even though the Vermont Yankee evacuation zone includes all or part of Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey and Winchester. A year ago, when the power plant was leaking radioactive water, Governor John Lynch did ask the NRC to "thoroughly investigate" the place before giving it a license extension. It doesn't look as if the NRC was all that impressed.
On video: Sanders accuses NRC of asking DOJ to side with Entergy in lawsuit
June 17, 2011, by Anne Galloway, Vtdigger.org (here)
NEC: Trust is the issue
June 16, 2011, by Bob Audette Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Entergy wants the court to believe the Vermont Senate's vote against the continued operation of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon was triggered by the discovery of a leak of tritiated water at the site in January 2010, wrote Jared Margolis, legal counsel for the New England Coalition.
In its official "friend of the court" brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont on Tuesday, NEC contended the Legislature didn't vote against the plant out of fear for the public health and safety due to the tritium leak, but because the state "is unable to rely on (Entergy's) management of this nuclear power plant."
Vermont responds to Entergy's recent memorandum
June 15, 2011, by Josh Stilts Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- As the slugfest continues between the state of Vermont and Entergy, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell said his office delivered another right cross to Entergy's chin in its lawsuit against the state.
June 13, 2011, OpEd in Vtdigger.org, by John McClaughry, (here)
....Moreover, the growing perception that the politicians now leading Vermont are practicing extortion - for their political advantage, if not for personal under the table payments - can only become an "irremediable taint"
on the integrity of our state, and an increasingly troublesome obstacle to Vermont's future economic prospects.
Decommissioning a Nuclear Plant Can Cost $1 Billion and Take Decades
Spent fuel also creates new stockpiles of radioactive waste in need of disposal, with few options available
June 13, 2011, By Lisa Song at SolveClimate News, Reuters, (here)
... a new low-level waste facility under construction in Andrews County, Texas will limit its intake to nuclear waste from Texas and Vermont.
June 10, 2011, by Taylor Dobbs, vtdigger.org (here)
A group of activists this week began an effort to raise public awareness about the area within a 10-mile radius of Vermont Yankee -- the plant's official Emergency Planning Zone -- in the lead-up to two politically charged events later this month.
June 6, 2011, NRC Region 1
Notice of Public Meeting, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, Docket 50-271,
for Wed. June 22, 2011, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Brattleboro Union High School, 131 Fairground Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory commission (NRC) will meet with the
public to discuss the NRC's assessment of safety performance at
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station for 2010, as described in the
annual assessment letter, dated March 4, 2011. The NRC will respond to
questions on specific performance issues at the plant and our role in
ensuring safe plant operations.
March 04, 2011 Annual Assessment Letter: ML110620518.pdf, 4 pages.
also rec'd overnight June 7, 2011
Copy of letter to Michael Colomb, Site V.P. of Vermont Yankee NPS
"On May 5, 2011, the U.S, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed an inspection of
the May 3, 2011, evaluated emergency preparedness exercise at your Vermont Yankee Nuclear
Power Station. The enclosed inspection report documents the inspection results, which were
discussed on May 5, 2011, with Mr. C. Wamser, the General Manager of Plant Operations, and
other members of your staff." Letter/Report:
CLF, VPIRG: Uncertainty over plant's future caused by Entergy, not state
June 4, 2011, by Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here),
(mht)
BRATTLEBORO -- Entergy, the owner and operator of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, is attempting to "usurp Vermont law (and) walk away from their legal obligations," ....
Entergy Faces Tough Odds
June 2, 2011, by Pat Parenteau, Vermont Law School Blog, (here)
Entergy files its response to Vermont
June 2, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, (here), (expired)
BRATTLEBORO -- In a filing late Tuesday night, attorneys for Entergy, owner and operator of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, attempted to undermine contentions filed last week by Vermont in response to the initial lawsuit filed in April.
BRATTLEBORO -- Two environmental groups filed court briefs Tuesday in support of the state of Vermont's effort to shut down Vermont Yankee nuclear plant when its state permits expire next year.
Expert: Loss of VY not economic apocalypse
May 30, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, (here), (expired)
BRATTLEBORO -- In its lawsuit against the state of Vermont, Entergy claims that if the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant ...
Massachusetts to join Vermont's effort to shut Vermont Yankee
27May2011/639 pm EDT/2239 GMT Washington (Platts), (here)
A US District Court judge in Vermont Thursday approved Massachusetts' request to file a brief in support of Vermont's effort to force Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to shut by March.
One day after Vermont filed it's response to Entergy's lawsuit against the state, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, filed a request to file a friend of the court brief in support of Vermont.
State Backs Activists In Challenging Vermont Yankee License
May 24, 2011 12:04pm, Tuesday John Dillon, VPR News, (here)
The state has joined anti-nuclear activists in a legal challenge to Vermont Yankee's new 20-year operating license.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. It says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made a mistake when it issued the license extension in March.
NRC report: Inspection rules for nuclear storage sites are lacking
May 21, 2011, by Andrew Restuccia The Hill's E2-Wire, (here)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have an adequate system in place for the inspection of nuclear spent fuel storage sites, the agency's inspector general said this week, warning that reforms are needed to ensure the public is protected from the highly radioactive waste.
Groups respond to VY assessment
May 19, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Brattleboro Reformer, (here) (expired)
.... "At San Onofre, for example, inspectors fretted over faulty electrical cable tunnel seals that would leave safety-related cables susceptible to flood waters," Shadis said.
"At Vermont Yankee, no mention is made of safety-related electrical cables susceptible to flooding, because flooding from drainage and storm water is routine and written into the renewed license, over NEC objections, as an acceptable condition."
The provision states that Entergy is required to check water levels once every six months and to pump manholes dry as needed, he said.
"If these people had inspected the Titanic they would have called the lack of full height water-tight bulkheads and an inadequate number of lifeboats, 'minor defects' so long as Cunard Lines wrote them into a 'corrective action program' and promised to fix them at the next refueling," Shadis said.
(Raymond Shadis, technical advisor for the New England Coalition)
Court: NEC cannot intervene in Entergy suit
May 18, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Brattleboro Reformer, (here) (expired)
"The motion is denied because NEC's interest in this case is adequately represented by the Attorney General, representing the State of Vermont, which shares NEC's ultimate objective in upholding the constitutionality of Vermont's statutory and regulatory scheme governing the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant," the document states.
VY safety review finds 'minor' problems
May 17, 2011, by Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer, (here) (expired)
BRATTLEBORO -- As a response to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a review of the U.S. nuclear industry's preparedness for events that may exceed the conditions a plant is designed for.
May 17, 2011, by Jay Root and Kate Galbraith, in The Texas Tribune, (here)
..."This is too much, too fast, too soon, if at all," said Bob Gregory, chief executive of Texas Disposal Systems in Austin and a member of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, which administers an agreement between Texas and Vermont, which took effect in Texas in 1993, that ultimately set up the West Texas site to store waste from the two states.
Nuclear Catastrophe:
How the lack of fundamental research on alternative energy led to a wrong energy policy
An open letter from an international group of scientists and engineers
May 14, 2011, Foreign Policy Journal
Dr. Stoyan Sarg Acad. Dr. Asparuh Petrakiev, Dr. Andrew Michrowski, Dr. Victor Zhuravlev, Dr. Todor Proychev,
(here)
The Non-Regulating Nuclear Regulatory Commission
May 13, 2011, Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky, allgov.com (here)
If the United States endures a nuclear power plant disaster, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) may have to be renamed the Nuclear Complicity Commission.
Rather than enforce safety regulations governing the operation of nuclear plants, the NRC, which has a staff of 4,000, has often allowed industry to slide on fixing problems that pose potential dangers.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 6:22 PM EST, by Susie Steimle, WCAX-TV-3
Every day, Vermont Yankee dumps a high volume of hot water into the Connecticut River.
"I believe the plant has a discharge of 547 million gallons a day," said Justin Johnson, the deputy commissioner of the Vt. Department of Environmental Conservation.
The Vernon nuclear power plant shells out $105,000 in state fees for the right to rid itself of thermal water discharge. The state is considering requiring them to pay more.
"Entergy would pay on a per gallon basis the same as everyone else in the state pays," Johnson said.
Yankee is the only Vermont company paying $105,000 in fees-- that's because they've exceeded the state's maximum discharge capacity. The fee bill suggests Yankee pay per gallon, which translates into more than $500,000 in fees.
Nuclear opponents eye tax increases in fight to shut down Vermont Yankee
Tuesday, February 21, 2012, By John Tilton, Gazette Contributing Writer
February 17, 2012, updated 8:41 AM EST, By Matt Smith, CNN
Programming note: Join CNN's Amber Lyon for a Special Investigations Unit report on America's aging GE Mark I nuclear reactors, including the 40-year-old Vermont Yankee plant this Saturday and Sunday night at 8 ET/PT on "CNN Presents."
Monopoly Board Meet the Public Service Board,
Vermont's most powerful men you've never heard of
February 10, 2012, by Pat Parenteau, Faculty Commentary from Vermont Law School
I've been on the fence about whether Vermont should appeal Judge Murtha's decision by the Feb. 21 deadline. Even though there are plenty of reasons to question the decision, there is no guarantee Vermont could win an appeal and there is some risk of making a bad situation worse from the state's point of view.
Illuzzi maneuvers power bill through Senate
A Vermont Senate committee is working on a plan to have the state take a majority stake in its high-tension power transmission grid, now that a proposed merger between the state's two largest utilities would put control of Vermont's electric backbone under Canadian control.
Fate of $21 million utility payback to ratepayers is up in the air
February 7, 2012, by Alan Panebaker, vtdigger.org
The state's largest utility, CVPS, is obligated to repay $21 million to ratepayers as a result of a bailout in the 1990s in which utilities were allowed to raise rates in order to avoid bankruptcy. Green Mountain Power and CVPS claim this debt will be satisfied through reductions in operational costs over a decade. The utilities say the savings will be passed on to ratepayers.
Groups like the AARP, which intervened in the docket, and the Department of Public Service, which represents the public, are not convinced that the utilities' original proposal satisfies their obligations to return a windfall to ratepayers who bailed them out more than 10 years ago.
February 4, 2012, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff
Pat Parenteau, Senior Counsel to the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic and Professor of Law at the Vermont Law School, said Entergy's filing made a couple of things quite clear.
"If there was any doubt about Entergy's scorched-earth policy toward the state of Vermont, it's been resolved," he said.
Jan 31, 2012, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff
In the suit, the parties claimed the NRC never asked for what is called a 401 certificate, and it's the agency's responsibility to do so, not the state's or any other party's responsibility to insure the certificate is included in the application.
DPS and NEC are asking the court to force the NRC to reconsider the 20-year license renewal it issued for Yankee in March 2011.
But in its response, which was filed on Jan. 20, the NRC contends both the state and NEC had plenty of time to raise the issue and didn't exhaust their "administrative remedies" prior to issuance of the new license.
Comment: New England Coalition is represented pro bono by VT Conservation Law Foundation in this matter. NRC's arguments regarding timeliness and the exhaustion of of administrative remedies, the NRC having categorically refused to consider Clean water Act issues raised by NEC, are entirely spurious. Further, as Vermont quite correctly points out, it is not the job of the states or the citizenry to make certain that a federal agency is complying with the law in all aspects. Especially, I would add, defending the environment and the public interests from repeat offenders should not in all instances require the firing of warning shots.
---Raymond Shadis, Technical advisor, New England Coalition
January 26, 2012, by Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press
MONTPELIER -- Vermont asked the Public Service Board on Wednesday to resume considering Vermont Yankee's request for a certificate of public good, but asked the board to wait until after decisions are made about appealing last week's federal court ruling.
January 23, 2012, by Karl Grossman, in CounterPunch
The nuclear power program in the United States was set up rigged-to allow the federal government to push atomic energy with state and local governments "pre-empted" on most issues.
That's what the State of Vermont was confronted with last week as a federal judge blocked the state's attempts to shut down the accident-plagued Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
But there's a way around this federal nuclear fix - the use by states of their power of "eminent domain." That's a legal principle going back centuries and is how, commonly, states condemn property for a highway right-of-way if the owners refuse to sell.
The application of the state's power of "eminent domain" to nuclear power was pioneered in New York State in the 1980s - and was how the completed Shoreham nuclear plant was stopped from opening. That ended the scheme of nuclear promoters to turn Long Island into a "nuclear park" with seven to 11 nuclear plants.
The Long Island Power Act was passed by New York State in 1985 creating a Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) with the power to seize the assets and stock of the utility behind this nuclear scheme, the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO).
(more)Ruling passed, but continued operation not done deal
January 21, 2012, By Josh Stilts, Brattleboro Reformer Staff
... Murtha's ruling stated that state legislation was pre-empted because it sought to regulate radiological safety,
the sole purview of the NRC, but he also wrote that for Entergy to continue to operate it would have to receive a new CPG from the Public Service Board.
Patrick Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School, said in an interview that Murtha's decision "puts Entergy sort of right back where they were before" the Legislature passed a law, unique to Vermont, saying lawmakers had to give their approval before Entergy could get state permission to operate past its 40th birthday.
January 20, 2012, by Anthony Iarrapino, CLF Scoop, Conservation Law Foundation
The headlines following yesterday's federal court decision overturning Vermont laws giving the legislature a say in the continued operation of Vermont Yankee make it seem like the case was a total victory for Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation and its multi-million dollar legal dream team. Not so!
The decision makes clear that State officials - specifically the state's Public Service Board - still have broad authority to deny Entergy the "Certificate of Public Good" on grounds that are traditionally within the authority of the state to decide, including economics, land use, and trustworthiness of the plant's owners to be honest, fair-dealing members of the state's business community.
Unless Entergy receives a Certificate of Public Good authorization from the Board, it cannot continue operating the plant for another 20 years past its long-scheduled retirement date of March 2012.
Nothing in the Court's decision upsets that aspect of longstanding Vermont state law - a law that applies to all sorts of power generating projects located in Vermont's borders - the so-called "Section 248 process".
(more)
January 20, 2012, 10:13 am, By MATTHEW L. WALD, New York Times
...Entergy could still lose on appeal. At the Vermont Law School in Royalton, Patrick Parenteau, a professor, suggested that an appeal to the Second Circuit might have a good shot because Judge Murtha went "behind the plain text" of a law that the state legislature passed giving itself the authority to decide the plant's future on the basis of "reliability."
Mr.Parenteau cited a case that reached the Supreme Court in the 1980's. California had barred the construction of new reactors until the federal government solved the problem of finding a place to store the nuclear waste that they produce. Pacific Gas & Electric, the owner of a plant there, Diablo Canyon, sued, arguing that the legislature's concern wasn't really about waste but about operational safety, a federal prerogative.
The Supreme Court refused to attribute a motivation to the legislature.
Thursday January 19, 2012, NEAL P. GOSWAMI / Bennington Banner
BENNINGTON -- Vermont's AARP chapter launched a campaign Wednesday seeking $21 million in reimbursements to Central Vermont Public Service ratepayers based on a "windfall provision" the senior citizen advocacy group secured 11 years ago.
State Director Greg Marchildon said ratepayers bailed out CVPS in 2001 after "imprudent" contracts with Hydro-Quebec. Those contracts resulted in a special rate increase imposed by the Public Service Board to cover above-market rates, he said.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012, By THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, Staff Writer
Entergy Nuclear wants to stop its regular inspection of the steam dryer at its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, according to a license amendment request it filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Instead of inspecting the steam dryer every time it shuts down for refueling, on average every 18 months, as currently required, Entergy wants to inspect it every seven refueling outages, or once every 10 years or so.
January 17, 2012, 3:54 pm, By Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times --
Tonight, the PBS program Frontline is running "Nuclear Aftershocks," a 50-minute documentary examining the implications of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear calamity for the future of nuclear power in the United States and elsewhere.
FRONTLINE Presents Nuclear Aftershocks Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at 10 P.M. ET on PBS
January 13, 2012, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO - According to the Vermont Department of Health, there were no instances where radiation emissions from Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon exceeded state limits in 2010.
The DOH's radiation surveillance report for Yankee was published on its website on Wednesday. (here)
January 12, 2012, By Peter Van der Does, Brattleboro Reformer
.....Vermont Yankee can legitimately claim that nothing comes out of the cooling towers but steam from fresh water. --
They cannot say the same thing about what comes out of the stacks.
Periodically they release three different radioactive gases into the air we breathe. We won't mention the radioactive Cobalt 60 the Zinc 55 or the Tritium which was found seeping out of the plant. We won't say a word about the Strontium 90 discovered in the fish 4 miles from Vermont Yankee. And no, it's not from nuclear testing in the 1960s or Chernobyl. Strontium 90 was produced at Vermont Yankee from 2002 to 2005. Check out the Annual Radioactive Effluent Reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some clean energy huh?
On another issue, Gov. Shumlin said he backed a bill proposed by Rep. Tony Klein in the House that would impose a tax on Vermont Yankee if it continues to store radioactive waste fuel from its power reactor in Vernon.
"I feel very strongly Vermonters should be reimbursed as long as the waste is there," he said, noting that was never part of the original plan when Yankee was built.
December 31, 2011, By Kyle Jarvis, Keene Sentinel Staff
.... The Boys and Girls Club was able to reopen just nine days after the floods, which Baldwin credits to hard work and community support.
"The SIT school (formerly the School for International Training) sent a check for $20,000," she said.
"Vermont Yankee (nuclear power plant in Vernon) stepped up huge. They paid for some new kitchen appliances, a new hot water heater, a new basketball court, and sent a crew down who took our floating dance floor outside, washed it off, then took it to their heated warehouse in Vernon to dry off. All the Sheetrock was cut and pulled out, and Vermont Yankee paid for that, too."
Report: U.S. nuclear renaissance unlikely after Fukushima
December 28, 2011, 2:37 pm, Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
A new study released Wednesday said that the regulatory fallout from the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan in March will short-circuit the U.S. nuclear renaissance of new power plant construction.
The report, "Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Economics," was written and presented by Mark Cooper, a frequent critic of the nuclear power industry. The report can be found here or here. Cooper is a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the Vermont Law School.
December 27, 2011, By Olga Peters, in vtdigger.org that first appeared on commonsnews.org
The legal world holds its breath awaiting Federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha's ruling on the Entergy v. Vermont case. Meanwhile, questions about problems at the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee power station continue.
Editor's note: Because of an error, the end of this story was not originally posted. The full text was restored on Dec. 30. -- says vtdigger.org)
Friday December 23, 2011, By: Gregg Levine, FireDogLake.com
In a news dump that came a day early (because who really wants to dump on Christmas-Eve Eve?), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made a pair of moves Thursday that could have significant consequences for America's nuclear industry--and all the people who have to live with it.
December 21, 2011, The Commons Online, by Eesha Williams
The head of the Public Service Board, James Volz, was appointed to a six-year term by former Gov. Jim Douglas, who accepted campaign contributions from Entergy and who was widely seen as the company's tool. Douglas vetoed several legislative attempts to regulate Entergy.
... Gov. Peter Shumlin wants to reappoint Volz to another six-year term. Anti-nuclear activists aren't happy about that.
"The Public Service Board with chairman Volz at its helm has systematically granted this rogue corporation [Entergy] just about everything it requested: the uprate, dry-cask storage, and movement of Vermont Yankee's fence line closer to the Vernon Elementary School," said Deb Katz, director of the Citizens Awareness Network. "We question whether Volz and the board can uphold the will of the people."
See appropriate Tim Newcomb 1984 cartoon, still timely.
12/12/11 03:50 PM ET, By Ryan Grim, HuffingtonPost.com
.... Magwood's previously unreported relationship to Japan's nuclear industry, via the firm he founded and ran, Advanced Energy Strategies, sheds new light on that debate.
Scuffle at NRC has stench of industry influence behind it
Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, By J. Patrick Coolican, LasVegasSun.com
"Regulatory Meltdown" Reveals Efforts to Improve Nuclear Safety Undermined by Four NRC Commissioners
December 09, 2011, Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)
Congress's leading voice for nuclear safety, released a blockbuster new report that details how four Commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) colluded to prevent and then delay the work of the NRC Near-Term Task Force on Fukushima, the entity tasked with making recommendations for improvement to NRC regulations and processes after the Fukushima meltdowns, the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Friday December 9, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- Two recent incidents at Vermont Yankee have nuclear safety advocates concerned about personnel issues at the nuclear power plant in Vernon.
On Oct. 12, a technician accidentally flipped the circuit breakers on the shut down cooling system, which is used to keep the reactor vessel cool during refueling and maintenance outages.
And on Dec. 12, a technician disconnected a fuel line on one of the plant's emergency diesel generators, disabling it at the same time the other generator was down for maintenance. The generator was out of commission for two minutes, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which stated both incidents were of low-safety significance.
Post Yucca Mtn. What-to-do about nuclear waste disposal / storage
Full Commission Meeting Washington, DC held on December 2, 2011
December 4, 2011 BRC site says Archive Now Available (here)
Best local summation:
"...... And yes, lets move forward expeditiously while major questions like whether or not to commingle defense and commercial nuke wastes goes unresolved. leave questions unanswered. rely on magic thinking like the waste policy act: we don't know what to do with it, so lets let someone else figure it out later and party hearty. It will all be sublimated in the Rapture anyway. Grrr. S "
Sunday December 18, 2011, By Dave Gram, Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt.-The likely death of a planned nuclear waste site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain has left federal agencies looking for a possible replacement. A national lab working for the U.S. Department of Energy is now eying granite deposits stretching from Georgia to Maine as potential sites, along with big sections of Minnesota and Wisconsin where that rock is prevalent.
.... But Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry engineer who is now a Vermont-based consultant on nuclear-related issues, called the report on granite sites "ominous." He pointed to factors that he said raise the likelihood of the massive granite outcroppings in rural parts of the Northeast attracting attention as potential waste sites.
Granite would appear to have an advantage over other environments, if the recent development of high-level waste sites in other countries is any guide. Both Finland and Sweden are on track to open waste sites buried deep in granite within the next 14 years.
The Sandia study says that granite's properties as a chemically and physically stable rock, with low permeability, would "strongly inhibit" radiation from reaching the outside environment if waste canisters leaked.
(more here)
Green Mountain Power has become Vermont's favorite whipping boy. Whether it's for blasting on Lowell Mountain to make way for industrial wind development, or its proposed merger with Central Vermont Public Service, the state's largest utility has garnered plenty of critics in the past few months. Sen. Vince Illuzzi (R-Essex/ Orleans), who chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, is calling for an independent counsel to investigate the merger.
Nuclear Power Goes Rogue
Post-Fukushima, the market for nuclear power is changing latitudes. Here's what's at stake.
November 28, 2011 12:00 AM EST, Henry Sokolski in Newsweek
As the full cost of the Fukushima nuclear accident continues to climb - Japanese officials now peg it at $64 billion or more - nuclear power's future is literally headed south. Developed countries are slowing or shuttering their nuclear-power programs, while states to their south, in the world's hotspots (think the Middle East and Far East), are pushing to build reactors of their own. Normally, this would lead to even more of a focus on nuclear safety and nonproliferation. Yet, given how nuclear-reactor sales have imploded in the world's advanced economies, both these points have been trumped by nuclear supplier states' desires to corner what reactor markets remain.
Certainly, nuclear sales opportunities are far less flush than they once were.
November 24, 2011, By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News
Just 22% agreed that "nuclear power is relatively safe and an important source of electricity, and we should build more nuclear power plants". In contrast, 71% thought their country "could almost entirely replace coal and nuclear energy within 20 years ...
November 23, 2011, Federal Register Volume 76, Number 226, Notices, Pages 72431-72433, From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2011-29733]
DHS, Federal Emergency Management Agency, [Docket ID FEMA-2008-0022]
Criteria for Preparation and Evaluation of Radiological Emergency Response Plans and Preparedness in Support of Nuclear Power Plants,
NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1, Supplement 4 and FEMA Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program Manual
Wednesday November 16, 2011, By BOB AUDETTE / Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont's petition requesting the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reconsider its decision to issue an extended license for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon is slowly wending its way through the halls of justice.
On Monday, attorneys for the Vermont Department of Public Service submitted to the court its formal argument contending the NRC violated the Clean Water Act when it issued the license even though the application did not include a water quality certificate.
Vernon, Vermont -- Entergy has promoted Vermont Yankee Plant Manager Chris Wamser to its VY site vice president position replacing Michael Colomb who has served in that position since October 2008. Colomb has been named site vice president for the James A. Fitzpatrick plant near Oswego, N.Y.
Excerpt: "Page 3, Para 3, A. Maximum Power Level : Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. is authorized to operate the facility at reactor core power levels not to exceed 1912 megawatts thermal in accordance with the Technical Specifications (Appendix A) appended hereto."
Thu Nov 3, 2011 1:36pm EDT, Reuters News Service -- Judge could rule on Vermont Yankee shutdown any day; Entergy wants to run Vermont Yankee for another 20 years;
and Vermont wants plant shut in March 2012. The parties said they expect a decision before the Thanksgiving Day holiday on Nov. 24.
Adverse Weather Protection: The inspectors performed a review of Entergy's procedures to evaluate their process for
preparing for imminent thunder storms accompanied by lightning and high winds. This review was conducted on July 6 due to forecasted adverse weather in the area.
Other items: Equipment Alignment, Fire Protection, Heat Sink Performance, Licensed Operator Requalification Program,
Maintenance Risk Assessments and Emergent Work Control, Operability Evaluations, Post-Maintenance Testing, Surveillance Testing, Drill Evaluation and Other Activities. 29 page PDF file.
Thursday October 20, 2011, By CHRIS GAROFOLO / Reformer Staff
VERNON -- Emergency management planning relating to Vermont Yankee took center stage during a Wednesday evening forum held by the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel.
Emergency management directors from multiple towns surrounding Yankee, Vermont's sole nuclear power plant located in Vernon, both applauded emergency planning but also expressed concern about the Yankee evacuation routes following Tropical Storm Irene. The Aug. 28 storm hammered southern Vermont, causing massive wash outs in Windham County and loss of power for hundreds of households.
The advisory panel's meeting provided Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) and local management coordinators the opportunity to review the overall disaster plan.
VSNAP Chairwoman Elizabeth Miller said representatives from Entergy, the owner and operator of Yankee, were invited to the forum but were unable to attend because of their limited availability with the plant's ongoing refueling process. Miller decided to move ahead with the public forum rather than reschedule it and risk losing a future meeting. (more)
October 12, 2011, By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer, Rutland Herald -- BRATTLEBORO - If Germany can do it, Vermont can do it - and sooner.
That was the message Monday night from Jochen Flasbarth, the head of the German environmental agency, who told 50 activists that Vermont and Germany had a lot in common when it came to nuclear power and the push toward a different energy mix.
October 11, 2011, by Alan Panebaker, vtdigger.org -- BRATTLEBORO - German environmental leaders are urging Vermont officials to follow their country's lead and drop nuclear power.
Oct. 7, 2011, by Al Boright, a legislative counsel 1977 through 2008, Burlington Free Press
As a retired lawyer who worked 31 years for Vermont's Legislative Council, it is mind-boggling to contemplate Vermont Yankee's allegations that the Vermont regulatory process, as amended in 2005 and 2006, "reveals its focus" on nuclear safety concerns that are entrusted solely to the federal government.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011, By Olga Peters, The Commons issue #121
BRATTLEBORO - Who will win, Entergy or the state of Vermont?
That's a common question being asked at water coolers across southern Vermont since Entergy filed suit in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro against Vermont in April.
WILMINGTON, North Carolina - GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has warned operators of boiling water reactors (BWR) worldwide - including 35 in the US - that the plants could fail to shut automatically during an earthquake, potentially risking the safety of the power plant.
...... US reactors included are Nine Mile Point Units 1 and 2; Fermi 2; Columbia; FitzPatrick; Pilgrim; Vermont Yankee; Grand Gulf; River Bend; Clinton; Oyster Creek; Dresden 2 and 3; LaSalle 1 and 2; Limerick 1 and 2; Peach Bottom 2 and 3; Quad Cities 1 and 2; Perry; Duane Arnold; Cooper; Monticello; Brunswick 1 and 2; Hope Creek; Hatch 1 and 2; and Browns Ferry 1, 2 and 3.
VY running at reduced power after electrical issues with recirculation pump
Plant in 'coast down' phase in anticipation of refueling
Wednesday September 28, 2011, By BOB AUDETTE , Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO -- As of Tuesday evening, technicians at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant were still fixing an electrical problem that caused one of the reactor's two recirculation pumps to shut down on Sunday night.
Currently, the reactor is operating with one pump at 44 percent, said Larry Smith, Yankee's manager of communication.
"I don't believe they're going to have the repairs completed by this evening," he said.
09.27.11, 05:40 PM EDT, By DAVE GRAM , Associated Press / Forbes
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Entergy Corp. has asked a federal judge to put the question of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's future back before state regulators, but only after stripping them of many of their usual powers.
... Entergy is seeking to overturn a series of state laws, including one that made the Legislature the only one in the country with veto power over the continued operation of a nuclear power plant.
September 22, 2011, By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer, Rutland Herald -
BRATTLEBORO - The fire at the corporate offices of Entergy Nuclear started in office space reserved for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for use during emergency drills, the NRC said Wednesday.
The NRC also said Entergy had assured federal regulators there were no radioactive materials in the building's quality assurance laboratory, which tested nuclear equipment for the Entergy Northeast fleet, at the time of the Tuesday morning fire.
The lab was located in the basement or ground floor of the building.
"We do know the fire was on the floor above the lab in an office area. Specifically, the office is the area designated for NRC use at the joint information center," Sheehan said.
September 20, 2011, This op-ed is by Patrick Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School.
At the close of the trial on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha paid obligatory compliments to the lawyers for both sides in the Entergy v. State of Vermont case and then posed a series of provocative questions that must be addressed in post-trial briefs (as if he wasn't already buried in paper).
First, he requested additional analysis of what lawyers call the equity issues - waiver, estoppel, laches and unclean hands. Second, he asked the parties to brief the issue of whether section 248 of Vermont's energy facilities law was "severable" form the other statutes that Entergy has challenged (Acts 74, 160 and 189). Finally, he asked Entergy to spell out exactly what kind of relief it was seeking.
What clues, if any, do these questions provide into the judge's thinking? First, a brief explanation of these arcane equity issues.
September 16, 2011, By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer, Rutland Herald --
BRATTLEBORO -- U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha had several questions for lawyers in the Vermont Yankee lawsuit late Wednesday afternoon, after the attorneys completed their lengthy arguments in the lawsuit dubbed "VY vs. VT"
Murtha asked the lawyers about the legal issues of "waiver," "estoppel" and "laches."
And the judge also asked the attorneys about Act 248, the state's long-standing law that regulates utilities.
He gave the attorneys until Sept. 26 to file post-trial briefs on those issues.
September 14, 2011, By SUSAN SMALLHEER, Staff Writer, Rutland Herald --
BRATTLEBORO -- House Speaker Shapleigh Smith testified Tuesday that without a new power contract between Entergy and the state's two main utilities last year, it was hard to see the public benefit or "good" to the state in keeping Vermont Yankee open.
"The public good was economical power," he said. "It was hard to understand what the economic benefit was."
Those economics and the finances of the reactor's decommissioning trust fund -- and not safety -- were the Legislature's main concerns, Smith said.
September 13, 2011, 3:28 PM, by Dave Gram, AP / Boston Globe -- BRATTLEBORO, Vt. --
... A vice president of the company that owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant says he wrote a letter almost three years ago acknowledging the company needed state permission to keep the plant operating beyond March 2012 when its current license expires.
September 12, 2011 NOON, AP / Boston Globe -- BRATTLEBORO, Vt. --
... During opening statements Monday in a three-day trial, Vermont Assistant Attorney General Scot Kline said the case is really about whether Entergy is willing to keep the commitment it made in 2002 when it bought Vermont Yankee: not to challenge the state's authority over the plant.
September 12, 2011, op-ed is by James Marc Leas, vtdigger.org -- Entergy Corp.'s lawsuit is not just an attempt to keep an ancient, leaking nuclear plant running for 20 more years. Entergy's lawsuit is an attempt to strip all authority from our state government. It is an attack on the democratic right of the people of Vermont and our elected representatives to decide our future. It would give enormous power to Entergy, a corporation that cares only about profits and the gigantic pay it gives its top executives.
09/11/11 12:30 PM ET, By DAVE GRAM AP, HUFFINGTON POST -- BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- A federal judge is about to be asked to take a first crack at this question: In early 21st-century America, can a small state tell an $11.2 billion corporation to pack up its nuclear plant and go home?
Sept 9, 2011, Power Engineering Magazine -- Four employees at Entergy's (NYSE: ETR) 852 MWe Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant in New York were fired and 34 others disciplined after investigations found some of the workers falsified safety equipment tests at the plant.
Sep 9, 2011 by Sandy Levine Esq. CLF Scoop, Conservation Law Foundation
... Conservation Law Foundation provided a "friend of the court" brief explaining the history, legal background and context of the State's actions focusing on the owner's untrustworthiness, poor economics of continued operation, and Vermont's interests in advancing renewable power.
September 8, 2011, By SUSAN SMALLHEER, Staff Writer, Rutland Herald -
... Meanwhile, Vermont Yankee remains on a closed cycle for cooling water and is not withdrawing large amounts from the Connecticut River, Smith said. He said the plant would remain on a closed cycle for the foreseeable future until the Connecticut River clears of debris from the effects of Tropical Storm Irene, which hit the state on Aug. 28 and caused heavy flooding in the southern and central parts of the state.
September 7, 2011, By SUSAN SMALLHEER, Staff Writer, Rutland Herald -
BRATTLEBORO - Legislators had legitimate concerns over the continued operation of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant that had nothing to do with radiological safety, attorneys for the state of Vermont said in recent filings in U.S. District Court.
Other concerns were economics, land use and energy planning, the state said.
... Both sides in the nuclear debate have scheduled rallies in the coming days. .. A pro-nuclear group announced Tuesday it would hold a rally next Monday morning near the federal courthouse, including members of the Ethan Allen Institute Energy Education Project, and the American Nuclear Society Vermont Pilot Project, said organizer Meredith Angwin in an email. The group invited any Entergy employees to join them that morning.
..The earthquake that shook the U.S. East Coast last week rattled huge, heavy casks holding radioactive nuclear waste at a Virginia plant, moving them as much as 4.5 inches (11 cm) from their original position, the plant's operator has said.
The 5.8-magnitude quake shifted 25 casks, each 16 feet (4.9 meters) tall and weighing 115 tons, on a concrete pad at Dominion Resources Inc's (D.N) North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on Wednesday, citing company officials.
1:45 AM, August 28, 2011, Associated Press, Boston Globe --
The latest on what's happening with Hurricane Irene -- in its wake and in its path as it moves north along the Eastern Seaboard:
-- THE STORM -- A weakening but still dangerous Hurricane Irene shut down New York and menaced other cities as it steamed up the East Coast on Saturday, dumping up to a foot of rain on North Carolina and Virginia and knocking out power to two million homes and businesses. At least eight people were killed.
Saturday August 27, 2011, by Anne Galloway, vtdigger.org -- Gov. Peter Shumlin declared a state of emergency for Vermont on Saturday afternoon and urged the state's residents to stay at home on Sunday when Hurricane Irene is expected to hit Vermont with high winds and heavy rainfall. The declaration allows the Vermont National Guard to mobilize in advance of the storm.
3:15 PM, Aug. 26, 2011, Sam Hemingway, Burlington Free Press
... Vermont Yankee will decide Saturday whether the storm's size and track warrants shutdown of the nuclear power plant, -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is monitoring that situation.
Friday August 26, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer
VERNON -- Larry Smith, the manager of communications at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, said station personnel are reviewing their storm procedures and preparing for whatever might happen.
Thursday August 25, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff
... Bill Irwin, the chief of radiological health and safety for the Vermont DOH, said test results can differ from day to day. Tritium levels can be affected by the amount of water in the river and how quickly water is flowing, he said.
Michael Dumond, the bureau chief of the Bureau of Public Health Protection for the N.H. Division of Public Health Services, also said the differences in the test results may be due to variations on a day-to-day basis, especially when a contaminant is in a barely detectable range.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011, David Brooks, Nashua Telegraph
-- The New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services says water samples found no tritium in the Connecticut River near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
August 24, 2011, By Peter Schworm, Boston Globe Staff -- Officials at Pilgrim Nuclear Station in Plymouth, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Station in Vernon, Vt., and the NextEra Energy nuclear power plant in Seabrook, N.H., said their plants continued to operate normally.
Updated: 08/23/2011 02:28:03 PM EDT, Reformer Staff / Associated Press, BRATTLEBORO -- From Westminster Town Hall to the Reformer offices, Windham County felt the jolt of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., which shook much of the east coast Tuesday afternoon.
As was to be expected, tritium that leaked from an underground pipe at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon has finally been found in the Connecticut River.
.... It was a death of 1,000 self-inflicted cuts. Let us list just a few of them: Enexus; malfunctioning stop valves; inoperable steam relief valves; the collapse of a cooling tower; a crane malfunctioning while lifting a 100-ton cask full of spent fuel; and a transformer fire.
.... we still believe (as we have noted in these pages before) that Entergy is not a trustworthy partner in a venture as potentially dangerous as the continued operation of a 40-year-old nuclear power plant. We don't believe Entergy can ever reassure most of Vermont that it holds the public good first and foremost and that it will take the measures necessary to set our minds to rest that the plant is safe to operate for another 20 years.
As has been said before: Entergy just doesn't do business the way Vermont expects a good corporate citizen to do.
Saturday August 20, 2011, By Josh Stilts / Brattleboro Reformer Staff,
Lawyers for Entergy say the opinion of three expert witnesses for the state will be a waste of the court's time and want to prevent them from providing testimony in its lawsuit against Vermont.
On Thursday, Entergy's legal staff filed a motion in limine, which would preclude Peter Bradford, Bruce Hinkley and William Steinhurst from offering testimony about the preemptive scope of the Atomic Energy Act.
Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell said he understood why Entergy's lawyers would file such a motion but stated both sides get to make their case.
Thursday, 08/18/11 7:34am , John Dillon, Vermont Public Radio,
(Host) A three day trial is scheduled next month in Entergy Vermont Yankee's lawsuit challenging the state's authority over nuclear power.
Both sides have begun to assemble evidence. And as VPR's John Dillon reports, among the witnesses who may be called to testify is Speaker of the House Shap Smith.
August 17, 2011, By Dave Gram, Associated Press / MONTPELIER, Vt.-- Radioactive tritium that leaked from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant into surrounding soil and groundwater has now reached the nearby Connecticut River, the state Health Department said Wednesday as it released new river water test results.
August 17, 2011, By Olga Peters/The Commons - BRATTLEBORO - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has requested the D.C. Court of Appeals dismiss two petitions that claim the federal agency did not adhere to requirements in the Clean Water Act (CWA) pertaining to Vermont Yankee's operating license.
26 organizations, including New England Coalition, want safety examined after Fukushima
August 17, 2011, By Olga Peters/The Commons - BRATTLEBORO - The New England Coalition (NEC) has no plans to stand still while the calendar ticks down to September when the Entergy v. Vermont case - litigation that could decide the fate of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station's renewal license and three Vermont statutes - resumes in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro.
August 17, 2011, PR WEB, San Jose, CA -- In an exclusive interview with Rebecca Costa, host of The Costa Report, Chairman of the NRC, Gregory Jaczko, revealed that the NRC "sees no real or immediate effect on safety or public health issues" from storing nuclear waste at America's 104 nuclear reactor locations.
Jaczko said, " Given that Yucca Mountain is no longer being considered by the administration, we're looking at how long material could stay there (at reactor sites) if it needed to. Is it 200 years? Or 300 years? Or 400 years? That's something we'll take the next few years to investigate."
Tuesday 16 August 2011, Editorial, The Guardian -- After nearly half a century of producing nuclear power, Japan has finally separated regulation from promotion
Monday, 08/15/11 5:04pm, John Dillon, Vermont Public Radio -- (Host) The state's largest electric utility wants to use an insurance rebate from Vermont Yankee to fund a number of clean-energy projects around the state.
August 11, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff --
BRATTLEBORO -- Don't go canceling your decommissioning fund guarantee just yet, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the owner of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon on Wednesday.
....... One of those "external factors" is the lawsuit Entergy has filed against Vermont contending its decision to forbid the Vermont Public Service Board to rule on whether a certificate of public good for continued operation of Yankee
crossed the line between state and federal oversight.
In addition, wrote the NRC, Vermont is currently reviewing land use, power needs, alternatives, costs, economic impacts and reliability "for any generation source and has not determined that Vermont Yankee meets the State criteria for continued operation."
Wednesday August 10, 2011, By Bob Audette / Reformer Staff, BRATTLEBORO -- The director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' nuclear safety project is asking the Nuclear Safety Commission to investigate whether a recent statement issued by the director of communications for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was "misleading bordering on deceitful."
Comments
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) once again misleads the public, this time in an article about Entergy/Vermont Yankee officials misleading the public ("UCS accuses VY of providing 'misleading' info, 8/10/11 Reformer").
The NRC knows full well that comparing external with internal radiation doses is just bad science, an "applies to oranges" comparison. External doses, such as an X-ray or a transcontinental flight, are time-limited, one-time exposures of the whole body to gamma radiation. Internal doses of over 100 highly radioactive chemicals not found in nature, only in atomic bomb explosions and nuclear reactor operations, behave differently. For example, particles of Strontium 90, which mimics calcium, are deposited in teeth and bones. Sr-90 decays slowly, and remains in the body for years, destroying and injuring healthy cells. It can penetrate into the bone marrow, where the red and white blood cells critical to the immune system are formed. Thus, exposure to Sr-90 can raise risk of not just leukemia and bone cancer, but of all cancers and immune diseases. The damage is greatest if a fetus, infant, or small child is exposed.
These 100-plus chemicals have been proven harmful, even at relatively low doses. Iodine-131, another of the 100-plus chemicals in nuclear reactor and atomic bomb fallout, were linked by the National Cancer Institute with up to 212,000 cases of thyroid cancer from atom bomb fallout. The NRC and the VT Dept. of Health know this, yet they continue to mislead the public by comparing dangerous ingestion or inhalation of radioactive sources with whole body external gamma radiation exposure.
The NRC has no explanation for why Strontium 90 levels found in baby teeth in Windham and Cheshire County should be 62% higher than those from counties further from VT Yankee, as discovered in a Radiation and Public Health Project study. It has no explanation for the pattern of higher levels of Sr-90 in baby teeth found consistently around other nuclear reactors in this country. Is radioactive fallout (from bomb tests or Chernobyl) magically attracted to the land and waters surrounding currently operating nuclear reactors? The NRC is silent about findings of the 2008 official German government study that revealed that young children living within 3 km of nuclear reactors had double the risk of contracting Leukemia compared to children living farther away. NRC has no credibility because it continues to mask the truth, substitute conjecture for certainty, and allow the nuclear industry to avoid responsibility for the illness and death they have already been responsible for. We need only follow what is happening in Japan to prepare ourselves for how our regulators and public health officials would respond in a similar disaster: with incompetence and contempt for truth and human life.
August 9, 2011, By Susan Smallheer in the Rutland Herald, and Vermont Today --
BRATTLEBORO - The Union of Concerned Scientists has asked federal regulators to investigate Entergy Nuclear officials for "lying" to the public about the release of a highly radioactive substance from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
UCS letter to Larry Smith re: strontium
From: Dave Lochbaum
Date: August 8, 2011 8:38:01 AM EDT
To: "lsmith14@entergy.com"
Cc: "Daniel.Holody@nrc.gov"
Subject: Strontium in fish taken from the Connecticut River
Mr. Smith:
I was forwarded a copy of the statement you released on August 2, 2011, which contained the following statement:
"There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Vermont Yankee is the source for the strontium-90. We have 31 monitoring wells on site that are tested regularly. No groundwater sample from any well at Vermont Yankee has ever indicated the presence of strontium-90, or any other isotope other than tritium."
'Absolutely no evidence'?
Really? Come on.
How about the report that Entergy submitted to the NRC on May 11, 2011 (pages attached)?
Table 1C from Entergy's report to the NRC stated that 3.17E-08 curies of strontium-90 were released in gaseous from at ground-level from Vermont Yankee during the 1st quarter of 2010. Past reports also show strontium-90 routinely released to the environment from VY.
So what you said in the statement about not detecting strontium-90 in monitoring wells may be true, it is not the whole truth is it Mr. Smith? In fact, it is so short of the whole truth as to be very misleading bordering on deceitful.
The whole truth is that Vermont Yankee routinely releases strontium-90 to the environment. This fact does not mean that Vermont Yankee is the primary or sole source of the strontium found in the fish. But this fact also means that Vermont Yankee cannot be excluded as a potential source, as your very misleading statement sought to establish.
I have copied Mr. Daniel Holody in NRC Region I. Mr Holody handles allegations. I trust he will look into whether Entergy was lying in its August 2, 2011, statement to the media or perhaps was lying in its May 2010 report to the NRC.
David Lochbaum
Director, Nuclear Safety Project
Union of Concerned Scientists
PO Box 15316
Chattanooga, TN 37415
(423) 468-9272 office
(423) 488-8318 cell
dlochbaum@ucsusa.org
First new music by two-term Congressman and famed songwriter John Hall, singing about the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan and the risks posed by other plants.
Commission says old water certificate was good enough for Vermont Yankee renewal
Friday, August 5, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff -- BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont had plenty of time to raise the issue of whether Entergy needed to include a new water quality certificate in its relicensing application for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
So stated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the Vermont Department of Public Service's and the New England Coalition's contention, filed on June 24, that the lack of a new certificate means the NRC unlawfully issued a new 20-year license for the power plant.
Aug. 2, 2011, 1:56 p.m. EDT, By Cassandra Sweet, Market Watch -- Entergy Corp., aims to negotiate agreements with Vermont and New York
state officials over its plans to continue operating nuclear power plants in those states rather than spend years in litigation, the company's top executive said Tuesday.
EDITORIAL | Boston Globe Editorial, April 24, 2011
A DEAL is a deal -- except, apparently, when Entergy is involved. The company, a major energy supplier in New England, provoked justified outrage in Vermont last week when it announced it was reneging on a longstanding commitment to abide by the state's stringent nuclear regulations.
Instead, the company has done precisely what it had long promised it would not: challenge the constitutionality of Vermont's rules in federal court, as part of a last-ditch effort to keep its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running. It's a stunning move.
Aug 2, 2011, By Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press Staff -- Gov. Peter Shumlin said Tuesday that laboratory tests for the first time detected the radionuclide strontium-90 in edible portions of fish in the Connecticut River near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
E-mail:
Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 5:10 PM
Entergy is releasing the following statement in response to Governor Shumlin's press release today:
"We are aware that the Vermont Department of Health may have detected strontium-90 in some fish from the Connecticut River. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Vermont Yankee is the source for the strontium-90. We have 31 monitoring wells on site that are tested regularly. No groundwater sample from any well at Vermont Yankee has ever indicated the presence of strontium-90, or any other isotope other than tritium. We do not know why the Governor would suggest Vermont Yankee is the source, but there is no factual basis for that suggestion."
Larry
Laurence M. Smith
Manager of Communications
Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee 802-258-4118
lsmit14@entergy.com
Hi ho, the derry-o: the obsessions of a single-party state
Aug 8, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 44 - By Geoffrey Norman, The Weekly Standard -- The salvation of the human race depended on the eradication of all things nuclear, starting with the Vermont Yankee plant on the Connecticut River in the ...
August 1, 2011 by Rod Adams, Energy Collective --On Friday, July 29, 2011, Matt Wald of the New York Times published an article titled N.R.C. Lowers Estimate of How Many Would Die in Meltdown that describes a US Nuclear Regulatory Commission project .........
Posted June 15, 2011 by Rod Adams, Energy Collective -- Arnie Gundersen has been making money by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about nuclear energy for more than a decade.
July 27, 2011, Author: Sonja Beeker, Editor: Irene Quaile / Wim Abbink, Deutsche Welle -- While President Obama still favors nuclear energy after the Fukushima disaster, the New England state of Vermont wants to scrap it altogether. The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is slated for shutdown in March 2012.
July 25, 2011, by Sandy Levine, CLF Scoop, Conservation Law Foundation --
The nuclear industry - and Entergy in particular - sure seems to have problems keeping promises. Back in the 70s, nuclear power was "too cheap to meter." With Vermont Yankee, Entergy officials swore under oath there were no underground pipes. Then those pipes were found to be leaking. Last month, Entergy told a federal court judge it needed an immediate court order to stay open to make the $65 million investment in new fuel. The Court didn't buy Entergy's bullying and last week declined to order a preliminary injunction. Today, Entergy announced it will purchase the fuel anyway.
July 25, 2011, 4:43 pm, By Matthew L. Wald, New York Times Blog --
Unless a court intervenes, the clock is winding down on the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. Its initial license expires next March, and the state of Vermont is blocking a permit that it needs to run beyond then.
The owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant says it will refuel the plant this fall despite uncertainty about whether it will be able to operate beyond March, when its current operating license expires.
07/18/11, John Dillon, Vermont Public Radio, (Host) A federal judge has handed the state of Vermont a first-round victory in its legal battle over the shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
July 18, 2011, 5 p.m., Assoc Press, Montpelier, Vt.- A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that Vermont's only nuclear plant should not stay open while a lawsuit about its long-term future plays out.
July 13, 2011, By Olga Peters, The Commons, BRATTLEBORO -- Does a quality Assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program work if employees report to their supervisors?
Raymond Shadis, technical advisor to the New England Coalition, says "no."
Entergy, owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, presented a QA/QC oversight program to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month.
Shadis described the program as "integral to the dumbing down of regulations," so the licensee can avoid the regulations.
July 16, 2011
NEC COMMENT:
NEC'S remarks were made during and immediately following a recent public meeting/teleconference between NRC and Entergy Nuclear Operations ("ENO") in which ENO discussed a new version of their quality control/quality assurance (QA/QC) program.
* ENO is that division of Entergy Corp. responsible for running its nine nuclear power stations.
* QA/QC programs are required by regulation to provide an independent check on the quality of all nuclear power plant construction, maintenance, engineering, and modification work and components important to safety.
* Independence is stressed because QA/QC personnel must be free to make objective inspections and analysis without peer or management pressure.
* ENO's new QA/QC program sets up a chain of information scheme for reporting QA/QC issues from the local personnel up the corporate ladder to ENO headquarters, but does nothing to ensure QA/QC performance or independence at the individual plants.
* In attendance by phone at this meeting, which was held at a NRC Regional Headquarters in Texas, New England Coalition presented comment and critique of Entergy's QA/QC program - in particular as it applies to Vermont Yankee.
* NEC pointed out that several in-service inspection, engineering, and maintenance failures at the troubled plant might not have occurred if a rigorous, independent QA/QC program was in place.
* Entergy has said, now that NRC has issued a renewed license, that it remains for Entergy to convince Vermonters that the plant is safe. NEC has pointed out to NRC, the State, and the public that no one can claim adequate assurance of public health and safety at VY without a robust, rigorous, and independent QA/QC program. Otherwise the structural failures, the leaks, the component failures, the operational goofs, and the systemic failures just keep on coming.
UCS Releases 23 Recommendations to Ensure Public Safety; Says Problems at U.S. Nuclear Plants Have Been Evident for Decades
WASHINGTON (July 13, 2011)-- The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today released two dozen recommendations to ensure the safety and security of U.S. nuclear plants. Many of the recommendations address problems that have been evident for decades, while others address problems brought to light during the recent accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility.
July 11, 2011 02:44 PM ET, Huffington Post / Jeff Donn, Associated Press -- "The US government recommended that all US nationals evacuate to at least 50 miles from the broken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan earlier this year. And the NRC chairman suggested that we'd do the same in the same circumstances in the US."
Are you within 50 miles of a Nuclear Power plant? Would you be subject to evacuation if a Fukushima-like disaster occurred in the United States?
Sunday, July 10, 2011, By Dave Gram, Associated Press, Montpelier Vt. (long-version)
When a nuclear watchdog group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a study on leaks of radioactive water at the Vermont Yankee plant, it was told the NRC had seen the report but had never officially taken custody of it - so it wasn't public.
Critics say it's a style of communication between regulator and regulated that cuts out the public and even state regulators ......
Friday July 8, 2011, By Josh Stilts, Brattleboro Reformer Staff --
BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont's attorney general said lawyers for Entergy have disregarded the court's post-hearing briefing order by submitting new evidence in their lawsuit for a preliminary injunction against the state.
..... "You can't put new evidence and new legal arguments before the court when the time to do so has passed," Sorrell told the Reformer. "You can't just slide it in a filing. Entergy should have to make a motion to the court as to why they should be able to bring forth new evidence."
Wed Jul 06, 2011 at 12:55:44 PM EDT, by: Caoimhin Laochdha, Green Mountain Daily --
After reviewing uncontroverted evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell gifted Entergy with a nicely wrapped State of Vermont package (glowing?) with a fat green ribbon tied in every direction.
The deceit perpetrated against our elected representatives, Vermont ratepayers and public safety official is now safely bundled into a spent fuel pool. At the same time, the old adage -- that there is an inverse relationship between the size of a Corporation's wallet and the likelihood of accountability for its wrongdoing -- has been enriched.
July 4, 2011, from NEC release:
NEC Decries "Secret Portal" of Information Sharing Between Entergy and NRC
According to an e-mail (attached) from Mary Mendiola, a Technical Librarian with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a recent document request (June 27th) from Raymond Shadis, New England Coalition technical advisor, yielded this response (June 28th) from NRC Region I health physicist, James Noggle,
"The NRC was provided a Hydrogeologic study report on Vermont Yankee online via the industry's Certrec computer system, which Entergy uses to provide inspection access to licensee documents, without the NRC actually taking custody of the document. Therefore, the NRC never received the document that Raymond Shadis is requesting. He should contact Entergy directly for this document, which they have previously released to certain State officials."
According to Shadis, "This little note opens a small window on a phenomenon over which I have been puzzling during the tenure of our interventions on Vermont Yankee licensing at NRC. For the last ten years we have observed, what we see as a remarkable decrease in the number of licensee communications posted on the agency's public accession pages, the Agency-wide Documents Accession Management System (ADAMS). Making documents of NRC's public business of regulating nuclear licensees available to the public is extremely important to the exercise of our hearing rights under the Atomic Energy Act. The hearing process requires that intervenors substantiate their contentions with plant-specific documentation, much of which is available only through ADAMS. We recognize the need for licensee's to make their records available to NRC inspection, but if licensees and the NRC can connive a means to share information upon which regulatory decisions are made out of the public record and out of public view, then they are way ahead of the game in defeating the rights of citizens to even try litigating to protect themselves and their environment. We will be protesting the transparent ploy to establish a private communication portal that is outlined in this email (attached) to our Congress and to the highest levels of NRC. "
Jul 1st, 2011, by Stephen Lendman, SteveLendmanBlog -- ... Vermont Yankee is perhaps the most notorious. Licensed to begin operating in 1972, Vermont's Senate voted 26 - 4 against re-licensing in February 2010, citing radioactive tritium leaks, falsified management statements, a 2007 cooling tower collapse, among other problems, proving the facility is a disaster waiting to happen.
Nonetheless, on March 21, 2011, the NRC extended its life for another 20 years until 2032. Moreover, Entergy, Vermont Yankee's owner and America's second largest nuclear generator after Exelon, sued to revoke a state law, giving it legislative authority to suspend operations when its current license expires next March.
The plant, in fact, has the same GE Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor design as Fukushima's Units 1 and 2. According to Citizens's Action Network's Bob Stannard:
"It's unimaginable to think that the NRC would declare this plant safe when (it) houses 640 tons of spent fuel in an unprotected fuel pool with no containment vessel. In Japan, the plant that's in the worst shape has only 80 tons."
If Vermont Yankee blows, perhaps all Vermont and New England go with it, and given its deplorable state, it may if it's 20 year extension isn't stopped.
June 30, 2011, By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer Staff, -- BRATTLEBORO -- Most of the information contained in a 501-page report detailing the subsurface conditions at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant wasn't surprising, said Bill Irwin, chief of radiological health for the Vermont Department of Health.
"The report provided a complete package of technical data allowing a thorough and independent assessment by all of the state's experts," he said. "While our general assessment has not changed, our basis for our assessment is stronger."
The conceptual site model, its technical name, was prepared by GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc.
June 28, 2011, Associated Press/Fox News, -- A U.S. senator from Pennsylvania is asking for a congressional investigation of whether evacuation planning has kept pace with population growth and increased power levels around nuclear power plants.
The request by Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. was prompted by an Associated Press investigative series on aging nuclear reactors.
Jun 28, 2011, By Michael J. Coren, FastCompany, -- Meanwhile, at Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb and home to 20,000 barrels of nuclear waste, wildfires are still raging.
UPDATE..... Sat Jul 2, 2011 5:42pm EDT, By Zelie Pollon, Reuters, SANTA FE, N.M -- Officials have yet to set any reopening date for Los Alamos, but with the risk to the laboratory and adjacent town mostly passed, lab director Charles McMillan said employees were slowly being prepared for reopening the lab.
Jun 28, 2011, 3:40 AM EDT, By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer, ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- When commercial nuclear power was getting its start in the 1960s and 1970s, industry and regulators stated unequivocally that reactors were designed only to operate for 40 years. Now they tell another story - insisting that the units were built with no inherent life span, and can run for up to a century, an Associated Press investigation shows.
By rewriting history, plant owners are making it easier to extend the lives of dozens of reactors in a relicensing process that resembles nothing more than an elaborate rubber stamp.
June 27, 2011, 7:33 P.M. ET, By Stephen Power and Corey Boles, Wall St Journal, WASHINGTON -- A U.S. senator is blocking the second term for one of the top regulators for America's nuclear plants, a move that could leave the Nuclear Regulatory Commission without a full line-up as it reviews the industry's safety practices.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said Monday he is holding up a vote on William C. Ostendorff for a second term on the NRC to protest a "misguided, improper" recommendation that the U.S. Justice Department intervene in a legal dispute between his state and New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. Release from Sen. Bernie Sanders office
June 27, 2011, 10:59 a.m., By Pat Parenteau, Faculty Commentary at VLS, South Royalton, VT -- As the two-day hearing on Entergy's request for a preliminary injunction wrapped up Friday, June 24, a few issues remained somewhat in doubt.
First, what effect will Entergy's not so subtle threat to close the plant if it loses the preliminary injunction have on Judge Murtha's decision? None, in my estimation. Federal judges are used to having parties predict the end of the world if they do not get their way. Assistant Attorney General Scott Kline is right that Entergy painted itself into this corner. The company could have filed this suit years ago if it really believed the state was acting illegally. It chose the time and place for this fight and it must bear responsibility for the consequences. My guess is Entergy will not throw in the towel if it loses. But whatever happens, it will be Entergy's decision, not Judge Murtha's.
June 24, 2011, 5:20 p.m., By Pat Parenteau, Faculty Commentary at VLS, South Royalton, VT -- My day one impressions of the two-day hearing in the Vermont Yankee lawsuit to consider Entergy's request for a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court:
5. Judge Murtha questioned whether Entergy had "clean hands." This doctrine holds that anyone seeking injunctive relief must come to court with clean hands. The state argues that Entergy has dirty hands for several reasons. First, that it reneged on the commitments made in the 2002 MOU that it would not raise preemption claims. Second, that Entergy was the one that requested Act 74, which it now seeks to declare unconstitutional. Third, that Entergy has testified a number of times that it recognized Vermont's right to consider non-radiological issues in the context of reissuing the state's certificate of public good, which is due to expire in March 2012. And finally, that Entergy could have brought this action years ago when Acts 74 and 160 were enacted if the company thought they were unconstitutional. So, whatever harm it now claims is self-inflicted.
June 24, 2011, 9:41 a.m., By Don Kreis, Faculty Commentary at VLS, South Royalton, VT -- Vermont Law School professor Don Kreis offers his take on the court hearing in Brattleboro
June 24, 2011, By Dave Gram, Associated Press, BRATTLEBORO, Vt.- A lawyer for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's owners said Friday the plant will likely have to close if a federal judge doesn't issue a preliminary order by July 23 blocking Vermont's efforts to close the Vernon reactor.
June 24, 2011 9:44 a.m., by Susan Smallheer Staff Writer Rutland Herald -- BRATTLEBORO - The president of Entergy Nuclear testified Thursday that a preliminary injunction could save Vermont Yankee from a permanent shut down.
But John Herron, president and CEO, said here was no guarantee that Vermont Yankee would continue running, even if it won its lawsuit against the state of Vermont.
"It has to survive on its own," Herron said. Losing money is "not an option for Vermont Yankee."
A temporary shut down would costs the plant millions, he said, including a loss of $20 million a month in revenue.
Jun. 23, 2011, JEFF DONN, AP National Writer, Three U.S. senators, alarmed by findings of an Associated Press investigation about aging-related problems at the nation's nuclear power plants, are asking for a congressional investigation of safety standards and federal oversight at the facilities.
The three said the ongoing AP series raises questions about whether the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has worked with the atomic power industry to allow aging reactors to keep operating by weakening safety standards or not enforcing them at all.
June 23, 2011, 11:46 AM EDT, Associated Press, BRATTLEBORO, VT. -- While federal regulators said Wednesday that the nearly 40-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear plant could continue operating safely, a number of residents disputed their assessment and said their decision to give the nearly 40-year-old plant a 20-year license extension was wrong.
June 22, 2011, Listen to VPR's Vermont Edition to hear professors Pat Parenteau and Don Kreis discuss the Vermont Yankee lawsuit and the key hearing June 23-24 in U.S. District Court.
Jun. 22, 2011, Todd B. Bates, Staff Writer, Asbury Park Press, In addition, plant owners cannot assure that a safety-related pipe will continue to function properly between inspection intervals, according to the Government Accountability Office report.
Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who released the report, said in a statement that "just as a power outage was the root cause of the core meltdowns at Fukushima (in Japan), a failure of buried pipes that carry cooling water to the reactor cores could lead to a similar emergency here in the U.S."
An investigation finds that federal regulators have repeatedly weakened standards
June 20, 2011, By Jeff Donn, The Associated Press ... Last year, the Vermont Senate was so troubled by tritium leaks as high as 2.5 million picocuries per liter at the Vermont Yankee reactor in southern Vermont (125 times the EPA drinking-water standard) that it voted to block relicensing - a power that the Legislature holds in that state.
In March, the NRC granted the plant a 20-year license extension, despite the state opposition. Weeks ago, operator Entergy sued Vermont in federal court, challenging its authority to force the plant to close. ...
June 16, 2011, 1:58 PM, By Ryan Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires -- WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Senator Thursday said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted in favor of a federal government intervention in a legal dispute between Vermont and Entergy Corp. (ETR) over continued operation of the state's only nuclear power plant.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said the commission voted 3-2 Wednesday in favor of intervening, but members of the commission on Thursday refused to disclose how they voted. Sanders said the Justice Department is considering whether to intervene on behalf of Entergy and had sought the nuclear agency's opinion on the matter.
Jun. 16, 2011, 1:04 PM, by Nicole Gaudiano, Gannett Washington Bureau -- WASHINGTON - Sen. Bernie Sanders said he has received information that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission secretly voted Wednesday to urge the Justice Department to side with the owners of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Station in a lawsuit the company has filed against the state.
During a Senate hearing this morning, the Vermont independent told NRC commissioners that they should tell the people of Vermont how they voted.
June 16, 2011, Thursday, Albany Times Union -- MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Aides to Sen. Bernie Sanders say he'll question Nuclear Regulatory Commission members on whether the agency is siding with Entergy Corp. in its lawsuit against Vermont over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
June 16, 2011, Thursday, By Susan Smallheer, Rutland Herald Staff Writer, -- Previously, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said that Vermont Yankee officials had to get state approval, not just the NRC approval, to continue to operate when its original 40-year license expires next March. Jaczko made those comments to reports in March after the NRC announced it had issued Entergy Nuclear a license amendment allowing Vermont Yankee to operate another 20 years.
June 14, 2011, By Dave Gram, Associated Press -- MONTPELIER - Massachusetts came to Vermont's aid yesterday in the legal fight over whether the northern neighbor can bar the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from operating within its borders.
June 8, 2011 , By Dan DeWalt, OpEdNews.com ....Entergy never thought that it would come to this. They are used to Louisiana, where the legislature is in the pocket of big energy, and the governor has to go along to get along. What a surprise for them to discover a citizen legislature that knows how to ask questions and is unwilling to countenance false testimony. Even worse, the state elected a governor that would reverse the policy of working in Entergy's interest and instead work to protect the people of Vermont from corporate abuse.....
June 08, 2011, VPR-News, Susan Keese -- A group of antinuclear activists hung nuclear hazard signs Tuesday along key escape routes within Vermont Yankee's ten-mile evacuation zone.
June 8, 2011, by Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, BRATTLEBORO -- A contractor for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant recently presented a map of the hydrogeological conditions underneath the facility in Vernon to Entergy, which owns and operates the plant.
Even though state agencies in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have seen the map during site visits to the power plant and on a secure web server, the public and environmental advocacy groups fighting for the closure of the plant probably won't get a chance to see it until the end of July or early August.
Also: http://healthvermont.gov/enviro/rad/yankee/tritium.aspx
June 6, 2011 · By Robert Alvarez, Institute for Policy Studies, Now that many Americans have stopped paying attention to Japan's nuclear catastrophe, shocking new details about its severity are finally coming to light. .... Consider this: the pool at the Vermont Yankee reactor, a BWR Mark I (the same design as the four crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors), currently holds nearly three times the amount of spent fuel stored at Dai-Ichi's Unit 4 reactor.....
June 2, 2011, by Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press, --The faculty at Vermont Law School have started a blog with their commentary on Entergy Corp.'s lawsuit against the state of Vermont, which anyone with even a passing interest in the case will want to check out. wordpress.vermontlaw.edu/vy/
May 30, 2011, AP/Boston Globe, RUTLAND, Vt. -- Vermont's largest electric utility has agreed to be acquired by Canadian utility Fortis Inc. for $700 million, the Central Vermont Public Service Corp. said Monday.
May. 25, 2011, Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press Staff Writer -- The state has filed its response opposing Entergy Corp.'s request in federal court to keep the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running while the company's lawsuit against the state is pending.
May 24, 2011, WPTZ-TV-5, SO. BURLINGTON, Vt. -- .... The agreement appears a further setback for owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, which is fighting the state to stay open beyond next year. ...
May 24, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff -- The Department of Public Service and the New England Coalition filed suit Friday against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission citing that the relicensing of Vermont Yankee is a violation of the Clean Water Act.
In March, when the NRC approved the new 20-year license of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, it did so without the plant obtaining either a water quality certificate or a waiver from the state of Vermont for the license.
"A precondition of licensing is receipt of a state certification that any discharges into navigable waters will comply with sections 301-303 and 306-307 of the Clean Water Act," .....
May 22, 2011, by David Biello, Scientific American -- But what is clear is that several nuclear power plants in the U.S. have the same safety systems that failed in Japan. And one of them -- Vermont Yankee -- just got another extension of its license to operate.
May. 17, 2011, Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press -- U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled that the New England Coalition's interests were sufficiently represented by the state Attorney General's Office. The anti-nuclear group may file a "friend of the court" brief in support of the state's case, Murtha ruled. Such briefs allow a group to advocate for a position but carry less legal weight than information from the parties to a case.
May 16, 2011, 1:49 PM Mon., by Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press -- Back in February, Attorney General Bill Sorrell said he expected to have his office's criminal investigation of Vermont Yankee officials' dealings with the state wrapped up by spring. As April showers have given way to May showers, Sorrell is no longer talking about a spring timeframe.
See also: Dennett alleges Sorrell signed confidentiality agreement with Entergy, (here)
May 16, 2011, by John Sullivan, in vtdigger.org -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is routinely waiving fire rule violations at nearly half of the nation's 104 commercial reactors, even though fire presents one of the chief hazards at nuclear plants.
May 13, 2011, VPR News -- Today, the Conservation Law Foundation and Vermont Public Interest Research Group jointly filed a motion in U.S. District Court to intervene as defendants in the law suit.
May 13, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, Brattleboro Vt -- BRATTLEBORO -- Court documents filed earlier this week by ....
Entergy's lawyers contest that NEC's right of intervention doesn't have merit because there isn't a difference between the vested interest of its members and who the state is representing.
May 12, 2011, vtdigger.org , Opinion -- .... The claim that no one has ever died from radiation poisoning is beyond the pale. Supporters of nuclear power refuse to accept the known and verifiable fact that there is no safe level of radiation. They will only accept the sudden death of a coal mine collapse or a gas explosion as their benchmark.
.... Is he aware that the Vermont Yankee plant has twice as much spent fuel in an unprotected pool as all four of the Fukushima plants combined, making it one of the most vulnerable plants in the country? ....
The only people who don't see this are those who are paid not to.
May 11, 2011, by Olga Peters, The Commons, Brattleboro Vt -- The New England Coalition (NEC) filed for intervener status in Entergy's federal court case against Vermont last week.
The May 5 move continued NEC's 40-year commitment to shutting down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, said members.
May 10, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, Brattleboro Vt -- "The bottom line is they just wanted to get rid of the guy and it was done grossly inappropriately," said his attorney William McCarty.
May 9, 2011 6:00 PM ET, by Tom Zeller, Jr., Huffington Post -- ... A single document from 1992 might well shed some light on how that process came to be. ...
May 8, 2011, vtdigger.org , Opinion -- This op-ed is by James Marc Leas, a patent lawyer in private practice in South Burlington. He served as a staff physicist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in the aftermath of the accident at Three Mile Island. This is the third in a series of commentaries about Entergy's case against Vermont Yankee.
May 7, 2011, by Tom Zeller Jr., NY Times, On page 2 of 5 -- No Rejections, In recent years, the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, Vt., has had several serious operational problems.
May 7, 2011, by Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, BRATTLEBORO, Vt -- While the state of Vermont is forbidden from bringing up safety and health issues when it defends itself against a lawsuit filed by Entergy in federal court, the New England Coalition is not subject to such a restriction.
May 5, 2011, Wake-The-Hell-Up! -- .... every once in a while they publish something bold and brave that gives me hope that modern day journalism has not completely lost its backbone.
May 5, 2011, vtdigger.org , Opinion -- This op-ed is by James Leas, an attorney in Burlington. This is the second in a series of commentaries about Entergy's case against Vermont.
May 3, 2011, vtdigger.org , Opinion -- This op-ed is by James Leas, an attorney in Burlington. This is the first in a series of commentaries about Entergy's case against Vermont.
Emergency Responders Readiness Test Set For This Week
May 2, 2011, WPTZ-TV-5, VERNON,Vt -- .... This exercise includes a post-plume phase on day two that will require sampling teams to take vegetation, soil, water, milk, and other samples
to determine the extent of contamination. ...
April 28, 2011, by Josh Stilts, Reformer staff, VERNON, Vt. -- About 50 people attended the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel meeting in the Vernon Elementary School gymnasium on Wednesday.
Board Voted 9-1 To Not Purchase Power from Vernon Nuclear Plant
April 26, 2011, WPTZ-TV-5-News, JOHNSON, Vt. -- The Board of Directors at Vermont Electric Co-op, Vermont's third largest electric utility, voted 9 to 1 to reject the proposed contract to buy power from the beleaguered Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
April 24, 2011, Boston Globe Editorial -- A DEAL is a deal -- except, apparently, when Entergy is involved.
The company, a major energy supplier in New England, provoked justified outrage in Vermont last week when it announced it was reneging on a longstanding commitment to abide by the state's stringent nuclear regulations.
Instead, the company has done precisely what it had long promised it would not: challenge the constitutionality of Vermont's rules in federal court, as part of a last-ditch effort to keep its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running. It's a stunning move.
April 19, 2011, by Robert Kahn, Courthouse News Service, BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (CN) -- Entergy, an energy giant that operates an aging nuclear generating plant on the Connecticut River, sued the governor of Vermont on Monday in a pre-emptive strike meant to stop the state from enforcing a law that gives it permitting power over the Vermont Yankee power plant. Vermont is the only state that claims it should have a hand in relicensing a nuclear power plant.
April 18, 2011 09:52 AM, Boston Globe, by Beth Daley -- Owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant filed a federal lawsuit this morning to prevent Vermont lawmakers from shutting the plant down when its 40-year license expires next year.
April 9, 2011, Boston Globe -- BRATTLEBORO, Vt.- Attorney General William Sorrell says the state is preparing for a legal battle if the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant tries to keep it running after its license expires.
April 6, 2011, WCAX-TV-3-News, Rutland City, Vermont -- Opponents of nuclear power want to make sure Vermont Yankee sets aside enough money to safely dismantle the plant.
April 04,2011, 6:06am, Vermont Public Radio, BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) -- Local, state and federal emergency responders will be converging on the area around the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant for a drill this week.
March 21 2011, Monday, VermontBiz.com, -- In a letter dated March 21, 2011, US Nuclear Regulatory Senior Project Manager Robert Kuntz notified Michael Colomb, Entergy Vermont Yankee Site Vice President, that the nuclear power plant in Vernon had been issued a renewed operating license for another 20 years.
October 22, 2010, by Press Release, Vtdigger.org , by Charlotte Dennett
... As part of her ongoing investigation into the lack of transparency at the Attorney General's office and into conflicting statements made by Attorney General Sorrell, Charlotte Dennett has requested the release, under Vermont's Public Records Law, of a confidentiality agreement that Sorrell signed with Entergy in early 2010, around the same time he began investigating the nuclear company. Sorrell's investigation was a response to widespread reports that Entergy officials had misled state regulators about the existence of underground pipes carrying radioactive materials at their Vermont Yankee plant.
Meanwhile, Entergy hired an industry law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, to conduct an "independent" review of the same matter. In late February, the review was completed and a report was turned over exclusively to Sorrell's office. In early March, Sorrell publicly stated that the report could not be released because it was part of his criminal investigation. Later that month, the confidentiality agreement's existence came to light when journalist Shay Totten reported in Seven Days that since "the report is covered by a confidentiality agreement signed by Sorrell, he refuses to release it publicly." Sorrell also refused a public records request for the report made by the Conservation Law Foundation [CLF]. The Foundation eventually forced the Vermont Public Service Board to release the report after Entergy failed in its bid to have a court order to suppress it.
February 27, 2010, by Charlotte Dennett, After Downing Street, forThe Free Press -- A driving snowstorm could not keep Vermonters away from the statehouse in Montpelier yesterday as the Vermont Senate convened a historic debate and then voted on the future of the state'
s aging nuclear power plant.
Some 1300 people -- most of them standing before live video coverage outside the small, overcrowded Senate chamber -- listened to several hours of respectful debate that even included the proposition of building a new nuclear power plant in Vermont as per President Obama's pro-nuclear agenda. But when it was all over, senators from both parties resoundingly voted against a last-minute amendment for a new plant to replace the old one, and similarly defeated re-licensure of Vermont Yankee in 2012 by a vote of 26 to 4. Amidst cheers, clapping and hugs from the victors, it was clearly another Vermont moment for a state that prides itself on being cutting edge on social, political and environmental issues. As the only state in the nation that by statute allows its legislature to decide whether to re-license a nuclear power plant, the vote is likely to have wide-reaching ramifications, including for residents of Massachusetts who live near the Vermont Yankee plant.
Reports and Miscellaneous Archives
Fukushima, the real story:
Japan - Secret US-Israeli Nuke Transfers Led To Fukushima Blasts
By Yoichi Shimatsu, former Chief Editor of the Japan (Weekly) Times, now Editor-at-large at the 4th Media.
Sixteen tons and what you get is a nuclear catastrophe. The explosions that rocked the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant were more powerful than the combustion of hydrogen gas, as claimed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company. The actual cause of the blasts, according to intelligence sources in Washington, was nuclear fission of. warhead cores illegally taken from America's sole nuclear-weapons assembly facility. Evaporation in the cooling pools used for spent fuel rods led to the detonation of stored weapons-grade plutonium and uranium.
The facts about clandestine American and Israeli support for Japan's nuclear armament are being suppressed in the biggest official cover-up in recent history. The timeline of events indicates the theft from America's strategic arsenal was authorized at the highest level under a three-way deal between the Bush-Cheney team, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Elhud Olmert's government in Tel Aviv.
(more)
Background:
Is Japan's Elite Hiding a Weapons Program Inside Nuclear Plants?
By Yoichi Shimatsu, Apr 06, 2011, (here) , New America Media, News Analysis
Confused and often conflicting reports out of Fukushima 1 nuclear plant cannot be solely the result of tsunami-caused breakdowns, bungling or miscommunication. Inexplicable delays and half-baked explanations from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) seem to be driven by some unspoken factor.
The smoke and mirrors at Fukushima 1 seem to obscure a steady purpose, an iron will and a grim task unknown to outsiders. The most logical explanation: The nuclear industry and government agencies are scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities hidden inside Japan's civilian nuclear power plants. (more)
Press Releases
Attorney General Announces Results Of Vermont Yankee Criminal Investigation
CONTACT: William H. Sorrell, Attorney General, (802) 828-3173
July 6, 2011
Attorney General William Sorrell announced today that, barring the receipt of additional evidence, his office has completed its criminal investigation and neither Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) nor any of its current or past employees will be charged with having committed perjury when state officials and others were repeatedly misled about the existence of underground piping carrying radionuclides.
During January of 2010, discovery of a tritium leak at its plant in Vernon prompted ENVY to inform state officials that during sworn testimony and through other communications in 2008 and 2009, it had provided incorrect information when it denied the existence of underground piping carrying radioactive materials. Then-Governor Jim Douglas, then-President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin and Speaker Shap Smith requested the Attorney General to investigate and determine whether in providing this incorrect information, ENVY or its personnel had violated Vermont's criminal laws.
After a lengthy investigation, including the conducting of dozens of interviews and reviewing tens of thousands of pages of documents, the Attorney General announced that his office lacks sufficient probative evidence to prove perjury beyond a reasonable doubt. "Clearly, Vermont Yankee personnel repeatedly failed to meet a minimally acceptable standard of credibility and trustworthiness, but proving that perjury took place is another matter entirely. We lack the smoking gun necessary to prove the crime and it would be unethical and irresponsible for us to press criminal charges when we do not have the evidence to meet our heavy burden of proof," said the Attorney General.
The decision was announced today at a Montpelier press conference. A report summarizing some of the evidence reviewed and aspects of the applicable law was released.
May 12, 2011
Regulatory Inadequacies Threatening U.S. Nuclear Reactor Safety Detailed in New Markey Report
"Fukushima Fallout" Reveals Breakdown in Emergency System Regulations Exposed Since Japanese Reactor Meltdown
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, today released a report prepared by his staff at his direction entitled "Fukushima Fallout: Regulatory Loopholes at U.S. Nuclear Power Plants", a summary of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulatory inadequacies, practices and decisions that impair effective nuclear safety oversight in the United States.
The report, created in the wake of the Japanese catastrophe, highlights the following key findings:
· Widespread malfunctions and inoperability of emergency diesel generators at nuclear power plants
· The absence of emergency back-up power requirements at some spent fuel pools
· The absence of requirements to prevent hydrogen explosions at reactors and spent fuel pools
· Outdated seismic safety requirements, even as applications for new licenses and license extensions for many nuclear reactors continue to be processed by the NRC.
"It is apparent that many of the failures of the reactor cooling systems and measures to prevent explosions that led to the meltdowns in Japan could also occur in the United States, and would not even be violations of current regulations," said Rep. Markey. "This is unacceptable, and I believe that the NRC must halt its processing of all pending nuclear reactor licensing applications until these vulnerabilities are fully remedied."
The report concludes that "An examination of NRC regulations demonstrates that flawed assumptions and under-estimation of safety risks are currently an inherent part of the NRC regulatory program, due to a long history of decisions made by prior Commissions or by the NRC staff that have all too often acquiesced to industry requests for a weakening of safety standards. Coupled with reports that the near-term inspections being conducted at United States nuclear power plants may be limited in scope and subject to restrictions on public disclosure, it would be unwise to move forward with any pending licensing actions before the NRC fully completes its review and upgrades its safety requirements."
to overhaul nuclear safety. The Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011 will impose a moratorium on all new nuclear reactor licenses or license extensions until new safety requirements are in place that reflect the lessons learned from the Fukushima reactor meltdown.
Rep. Markey has served on the Committees that have oversight over the NRC and the nuclear utility industry since 1976. For more than three decades, Rep. Markey has worked to secure nuclear power plants and ensure the public safety in the event of a nuclear disaster. In 1979, before the Three Mile Island accident occurred, Rep. Markey introduced legislation providing for a three year moratorium on licensing of new nuclear power plants until a top to bottom safety analysis on nuclear reactors could be performed. In 1982, he chaired a hearing on the distribution of potassium iodide. In 1986, he chaired hearings on the causes and consequences of the disaster at Chernobyl. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rep. Markey passed a law to strengthen security for nuclear reactors and materials, and a law providing for distribution of potassium iodide to those living within 20 miles of a nuclear reactor. In 2010, he requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into the resiliency of nuclear power plants to earthquakes and other natural disasters. And several days before the earthquake in Japan, Rep. Markey raised concerns regarding the seismic resiliency of the Westinghouse AP1000, a new nuclear reactor whose design is currently pending before the NRC.
No Relief for Vermont Yankee
David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, January 07, 2011, (pdf)
( Has a nice detailed, informative, color diagram suitable for framing :-)
On December 22, 2010, Vermont Yankee's owner informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that
workers had determined during the recent refueling outage that two of the four main steam safety relief
valves had problems likely rendering them inoperable during the prior operating cycle.
[.....] The problems identified by workers during last fall's refueling outage had to
be reported to the NRC because the potential existed for the plant's response to such events, had one
occurred, to be less than needed to protect the public. .....
60 Years on the banks of the Connecticut River
? Toby Talbot, Photo, June 9, 2009, at Vermont Yankee
Click photo below for -- CT Awarded $40M in Waste Dispute.
NRC affirms longer storage of spent fuel at reactor sites
By Patricia Daddona, The Day, Published 09/16/2010, (here)
Nuclear radioactive waste can be safely stored for at least 60 years beyond the licensed
life of any reactor, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided Wednesday. The NRC revised its
"Waste Confidence" regulation, increasing the number of years spent fuel can be stored at
reactor sites upward by 30 years.
Agencies Struggle To Craft Offsite Cleanup Plan For Nuclear Power Accidents
The Environmental NewsStand, Monday, November 22, 2010, (here)
EPA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are struggling to determine
which agency -- and with what money and legal authority -- would oversee cleanup in the event of a large-scale accident at a
nuclear power plant that disperses radiation off the reactor site and into the surrounding area.
The effort, which the agencies have not acknowledged publicly, was sparked when NRC recently informed the other
agencies that it does not plan to take the lead in overseeing such a cleanup and that money in an industry-funded insurance
account for nuclear accidents would likely not be available, according to documents obtained by Inside EPA (Part 1 and
Part 2) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
147 pages of government emails -- I recommend saving before it disappears
Environmentalists concerned with nuclear safety and cleanup issues say indications in the FOIA documents that
the government
has no long-term cleanup plan in the event of an emergency casts doubt on the nuclear power industry's ongoing efforts to
revive itself. The industry currently has 22 applications to build new nuclear power plants pending before NRC and is
marketing itself as a source of carbon-free emissions.
"This is a revelation that should call into question efforts to revive the industry," one environmentalist says. "Certainly
there should be no new [power plant] construction if this issue can't be resolved." The activist adds that the lack of a
cleanup plan is "pretty ironic because nuclear energy is not a new technology or issue. The first nuclear reactor was built in
1942 -- that's 68 years ago."
A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), which represents the nuclear power industry, says officials believe such
cleanups would be handled by the insurance fund despite assertions in the documents to the contrary.
The NEI spokesman also downplays the likelihood of such a cleanup being necessary, saying accidents are "highly unlikely to occur." (more)
This report was submitted on Feb 22 to Entergy, it was released on April 23,
2010, 142 pages, 4.1 Mb.
Entergy's hired response to widespread reports that Entergy officials had misled state regulators about the existence of underground pipes carrying radioactive materials at their Vermont Yankee plant.
Records show tritium leak reaches state land
By Susan Smallheer, Staff Writer, February 24, 2010, (here)
VERNON - The Conservation Law Foundation lobbed a big curve ball into the controversy over the
tritium leak at the Vernon Yankee nuclear reactor Tuesday, saying the land that is contaminated
appears to be "filled" land, and thus belongs to the state. The environmental group alerted
Gov. James Douglas to the problem Tuesday, saying it had done a records search at the Vernon
Town Hall and discovered the potential problem.
According to Chris Kilian, state director for the Conservation Law Foundation, maps showing the
Vermont Yankee plant, as well as maps submitted to the Public Service Board and the Vermont
Legislature, show Entergy's ownership boundary "well inland" from the banks of the Connecticut
River. Kilian said the land in question, which he said was about two acres and had multiple
buildings on it, was labeled "Vermont Yankee Easement Area." He said that phrase on the
Entergy maps had piqued his interest, resulting in the land research down in Vernon.
"CLF has conducted a search of the land records in Vernon and, to our surprise, there is no
record of even the existence of the 'easement area' parcel,'" Kilian wrote Douglas. "It appears
that there is a high likelihood that the undocumented parcel is owned by the state of Vermont."
Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said he was unaware of the land issue and said it
would be a while before Entergy attorneys could research the issue.
Kilian said that because the land appears to be filled in, the land actually belongs to the
state of Vermont, under the public trust doctrine. He said that because most of the tritium
contamination appeared to be on the state filled-in land, any current and future cleanup costs
would be substantial. He said the land area contains the construction office building, the
advanced off-gas building and several of the monitoring wells that have shown the greatest
level of tritium contamination.
Kilian said the visit to the Vernon town offices also raised the question of whether Entergy
had been paying taxes on the land for the last several years. Entergy has owned the plant since
2002.
From Archives in 2007
Decommissioning The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
An Analysis Of Vermont Yankee's Decommissioning Fund
And Its Projected Decommissioning Costs
By Margaret Gundersen, Paralegal, Fairewinds Associates, Inc.,
There are 5 attachments, of which 4 are tables.
Table-1-2008-Shutdown-2006-dollars.xls.pdf Table-1
Table-2-2008-Shutdown-inflated-costs.xls.pdf Table-2
Table-3-2012-Shutdown-1.5%-inflation-of-costs.xls.pdf Table-3
Table-4-2012-Shutdown-inflated-costs-at-2.5%.pdf Table-4
Attach-5 One_million_per_megawatt.pdf Attach-5 16 pp.
Related:
Sen_MacDonald_to_Com_O'Brien_VSNAP_letter_8Nov07.pdf (here)
VSNAP_questions_from_Sen_Mark_MacDonald_for_ENVY_13Nov07.pdf (here)
note :
Attachment 5: Vermont Yankee - Engineering Department Memo MSD 2002/002,
February 7, 2002 from Enrico Betti, Tom Marsteller, Joe Habich, Subject:
Condenser Long Term Plan, File: UND2002-042 07 [electronic PDF entitled: one
million per megawatt]
The Stage 2 analysis makes several new, important findings which are briefly
summarized below:
* In 2002, the decommissioning fund value was $304,000,000 while the
estimate to decommission VY was $620,000,000. The 2002 gap between the
funds and cost was $315,000,000. In 2006, the value of the fund stood at
$416,000,000 but a new Entergy decommissioning cost estimate dramatically
increased costs to $800,000,000. The 2006 gap between the funds and costs
grew to $384,000,000.
* Entergy has contributed nothing to the VY decommissioning fund since
acquiring VY in 2002 thus, in our opinion, creating an ever-widening gap
in its ability to decommission the plant in a timely manner.
* Entergy does not plan to dismantle VY at the end of its life, but rather
to mothball it for an additional 60 years, via a process known as
"SAFESTOR". Our review of the evidence shows that no single unit nuclear
reactor in the US has ever been placed in "SAFESTOR". VY would be the
first U.S. single unit reactor to be mothballed for decades, in the
alleged SAFESTOR. The benefit of a multiunit site is that there is still
a full contingent of nuclear engineers, operating personnel, security
and health physics personnel at the adjoining operating nuclear power
plants in order to adequately monitor and repair the unit that exists in
so-called SAFESTOR shutdown.
* Fairewinds believes that the financial requirements the State of Vermont
places on the decommissioning funds for wind farms are more stringent than
the conditions it applies to Vermont Yankee's decommissioning fund.
The Fairewinds Associates, Inc report was prepared pro-bono. Principal review
was conducted by Margaret and Arnie Gundersen. They may be reached at
802-865-9955 or via email at _ fairewinds@mac.com.
The file below was tagged as: fuzzy-math.html, instead of using the longer title: Commissioner's enthusiasm for VY measurements belies state rules.Fuzzy Math and radiation measurements at VY
Commissioner's enthusiasm for VY measurements belies state rules
By Kathryn Casa, The Commons, March 15, 2007 Issue
BRATTLEBORO - There appears to be some fuzzy math, or at least some fuzzy logic, at the state Health Department.
Health Commissioner Sharon Moffatt has enthusiastically endorsed a third-party conclusion that Vermont Yankee has never exceeded state radiation limits - a reversal of the department's own 2004 findings - even though there has been no formal rule change to support the study.
In a report released March 12, consultant Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) found "no indication (or statistically significant evidence) that the annual dose objective at the site boundary ... has been exceeded."
A Health Department press release the same day trumpeted the ORAU findings as a validation of the way Vermont Yankee measures radiation emitted from the plant, and declared that the report "resolves" the discrepancy.
" The report concludes that the past 35 years of site boundary exposure measurements by the Health Department overestimated the actual radiation dose," Moffatt said in the press release. " ... Using the measurement methodology supported by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the measurements of site boundary doses have been compliant with regulatory limits."
It's unclear why Moffatt so quickly endorsed the ORAU method, which differs significantly from the state's. Her departments must make rule changes through the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR), a specific process that involves bipartisan legislative public scrutiny.
An aide said the commissioner was out of state at a conference on Wednesday and not available to clarify her comments.
The department's radiological health chief, William Irwin, told The Commons that any changes "would have to be worked out in a logical fashion" that was likely to include public hearings.
Windham County Sens. Jeanette White and Peter Shumlin said earlier this week that they were wary of the ORAU report. White, a member of both the Senate Health and Welfare and Government Operations committees, said she planned to question the department more closely about it.
ORAU based its findings on the way Vermont Yankee measures radiation, which is different than the way the state measures it. ORAU said state regulations oversimplify the process, "thereby causing confusion and the likelihood of misunderstanding between regulatory compliance and the means to actually achieve it."
ORAU was hired by the state, and paid for by Vermont Yankee, after the Health Department's monitors registered radiation levels of 24.9 millirem during the final quarter of 2004. Vermont's annual limit is 20 millirem per year, but the state also allows an error margin of 25 percent.
Vermont Yankee has maintained its emissions have always stayed below the state limit.
The discrepancy stems from the different ways radiation is measured at the Vernon plant.
Vermont Yankee operators use a meter on the plant's main steam line to measure radiation in roentgen. They divide the roentgen measurement by .71, to determine rem.
A rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage X-rays. A millirem is one-thousandth of a rem.
VY spokesman Rob Williams said they employ the conversion factor "because it's accepted scientific practice." He said the ORAU report "confirms that the method we've been using is the appropriate method."
The state collects data quarterly from a series of dosimeters posted at or near the fence. Other dosimeters positioned around the county are used to determine natural background radiation, which is then factored into the state's calculations.
State and VY officials met behind closed doors with ORAU consultants for more than a year in an effort to resolve the discrepancy, which was critical to Vermont Yankee's plan to increase power output at the plant by 20 percent. The uprate, which was implemented in March 2006, was expected to increase radiation emissions by 26 percent.
Plant operators installed a shield on the main steam line to help reduce radiation emissions. However, casks installed at the site to warehouse radioactive spent fuel are also expected to increase radiation emissions.
" It all comes down to them trying to make this dirty reactor run, and it's putting out radiation that they can't control," said Ed Anthes of Dummerston, a member of the group Nuclear Free Vermont in 2012. "... They don't know how to contain the radiation, so all they can say is it won't hurt you - much."
Anthes cited a 2005 report by a National Academy of Sciences panel that concluded that there is no safe dose of ionizing radiation. "The report says every little bit hurts. We should reduce exposure and we should eliminate the generation of radioactive wastes by Vermont Yankee," he said.
Neither members of the press nor members of the public were allowed to attend the ORAU meetings out of concern that their presence would "impede the free flow of information between the parties," according to one participant.
Ultimately, ORAU consultants determined that Vermont Yankee's calculation was more scientifically valid than the state's. Using VY's calculation, ORAU determined that the 2004 radiation emissions were 18.64 millirem.
Vermont's 20-millirem limit is among the strictest in the country, 5 millirem lower than the limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Vermont's standard was set decades ago, the result of extensive public participation, according to anti-nuclear activist Diana Sidebotham, president of the New England Coalition, an anti-nuclear group.
Even ORAU acknowledged that using the department's existing method, there was an approximate exposure in 2004 of 26.25 millirem, a figure that exceeds both state and federal standards.
" Using the state's 'one to one' roentgen to rem conversion, the fence line dose objective of 20 millirem would be exceeded," according to the report.
But Health Department spokesman Robert Stirewalt said the state's 25 percent error margin eliminates any possibility that VY exceeded the limits "using current and past interpretations of measurement and regulation."
By "current" he appeared to refer to the ORAU method.
Stirewalt acknowledged that the state's "current radiological health regulations" specify that one rem is equal to one roentgen. He said the department "will change the current regulations through the administrative rule process which allows for public comment and a public hearing."
Irwin said he plans to propose a comprehensive set of recommendations to the Legislature by the end of 2007 that will, for the most part, follow many of those set forth by ORAU.
" But there would also be clear consideration of the original legislative intent of the regulations, the current interest of public health and any kind of representation of the comments of legislators and comments of the public," he said. "It's a process that's going to take some time."
Nuclear power 'increases child leukaemia risk'
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent, Telegraph Co.UK,
1/10/2008, (here)
Children living within three miles of nuclear power stations are more than twice as likely to get leukaemia as those who live further away, scientists say.
BTW, this is a steam-dryer :
Exelon's Quad-Cities replaced a pair of steam dryers for their GE Boiling Water Reactors in April and May 2005. They weigh 55 tons each.
A new opening in the Reactor Building was made to install the steam dryer.
Great pictures in PDF file: (here) or (here) from Barnhart Crane and Rigging.
Aging nuclear plants pushed to the limit
Increased power output raises safety concerns
Sunday, 11 June 2006, By Mike Hughlett and Robert Manor, Tribune staff reporters,
(here)
CORDOVA, Ill. - The Exelon nuclear plant here has suffered damaging vibrations for years, the unintended effect of an industry effort to run reactors harder, longer and faster than ever before.
When Exelon upped power output by nearly 18 percent at its Quad Cities plant in 2002, key components began shaking so badly that vibration monitors were thrown from their mounts and insulation fell from steam lines.
Later, Chicago-based Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear plant operator, found that vibration in the steam system had caused gaping cracks in heavy metal plates. Steel fragments ended up in places they decidedly shouldn't be, like stuck in a key steam pipe and wedged in the bottom of the reactor. "The plant literally began shaking itself apart at the higher power level," said David Lochbaum, an expert on nuclear energy safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Why civil disobedience?
Feb 19, 2012, by Dan DeWalt Opinion, vtdigger.org (here)
We are no longer a fully functioning republic, the three branches of government, while still separate from each other, have all been co-opted by the powerful monied interests, and serve now to see that those interests are tended to, while the rest of us be damned.
VT. Attorney General Appeals District Court Decision In Entergy V. Shumlin
Feb 18, 2012, Vt. Att'y Gen'l website
A Win for Open Government and Environmental Protection
Feb 17, 2012 by Louis Porter, CLF Scoop, (here)Nuclear Power - Federal Preemption's Hideous Upshot
After Palisades ruling, watchdog group calls for nuclear plant to be 'shut down before it melts down'
Feb 16, 2012, By Rosemary Parker, Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com, (here)
COVERT TOWNSHIP -- A watchdog group is calling for Palisades nuclear plant to be closed in response to Tuesday's action by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission downgrading the plant here to a status that requires much more oversight by the agency.
How does Michigan's Palisades nuclear plant rate? Among nation's four worst
... Managers of Entergy Nuclear Operations, the company that bought Palisades from Consumers Energy in 2007, took the blame for the problems at an NRC hearing last month.
Shut It Down Arrested for Trespass after Bringing Valentines to Entergy
Feb 13, 2012, Shut It Down, Photo: (here), Valentine Statement: (pdf)Occupy the NRC
Feb 11, 2012, CNN iReport, (here)
Not vetted by CNN
It's Time for Anti-Nuke Activists To Step It Up
Feb 10, 2012, by Eesha Williams, Earth First ! Newswire, (here)Jaczko dissents as NRC approves Vogtle permits
Chairman Gregory Jaczko broke with his colleagues, citing concerns about post-Fukushima safety improvements that the commission has yet to finalize.
Emails bare NRC's Fukushima chaos
..... The NRC was also worried about appearances. By coincidence, the NRC staff had told the commissioners on March 11, the day of the earthquake, that they intended to issue a license extension to the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor on March 16.
But the Vermont Yankee reactor was built to the same design as unit 1 at Fukushima No. 1; in the wake of the tsunami, the NRC communications experts realized, that would invite questions about the safety of the Vermont facility.
So on March 15, an email was sent to the commissioners saying: "In light of recent international events, the staff has decided to delay the issuance of the VYNPS renewed license so that it can better prepare needed communication messages for internal and external stakeholders."
On March 15, NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki fired off a note: "I am very confused on what the regulatory nexus is here. Are you withholding the issuance to perform some additional analysis? If so, what is the regulatory basis?"
Eric J. Leeds, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, wrote to another colleague that "I assured her we are not doing any additional technical reviews or analysis and we are simply ensuring that our communications plans are prepared for the stakeholder responses which are sure to come."
The NRC publicly approved the 20-year extension of Vermont Yankee's license on March 21.
Decommissioning Funds
As of January 31, 2012, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning- trust- fund accounts was $512,522,995. To put that into some perspective, the value of the fund for the last six months was as follows:
August 31, 2011 ....... $485,791,158
September 30, 2011 .... $472,346,906
October 31, 2011 ..... $493,533,589
November 20, 2011 ..... $492,514,741
December 31, 2011 ..... $497,664,652
January 31, 2012 ...... $512,522,995
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601
802-828-3088
Updated 2-09-2012
Lawsuit limits proposed over nuclear waste site selection
Feb. 8, 2012 | 2:24 p.m., By Steve Tetreault, Stephens Washington Bureau, (here)
WASHINGTON -- The nuclear waste commission has recommended that the government try a cooperative approach to recruit volunteer states to host a high-level radioactive waste site. But when several commissioners testified Wednesday in Congress, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., offered another idea: Don't allow lawsuits.
Link in doubt between Vermont Yankee, radioactive fish
Feb 8, 2012, by Terri Hallenbeck Burl Free Press, (here)Northern Vermont bass test positive for strontium, cesium
Tuesday February 7, 2012, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
Fish taken from a lake in northern Vermont had similar levels of strontium-90 and cesium-137 as fish taken from the Connecticut River near Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
Vt. Yankee owner wants $4.6 million in legal fees
4:22 p.m. February 3, 2012 Rutland Herald, (here)Seabrook evacuation plan still lacking
February 3, 2012, Glenn Richards, in Newburyport News, (here)Nuclear panel says work should start now to find waste sites
Jan. 31, 2012 | 7:02 p.m. By Steve Tetreault, Stephens Washington Bureau, (here)
WASHINGTON -- While it could take years for Congress to set the nation on a new path for managing nuclear waste, work could start immediately to identify and recruit new locations for a burial site, a study official said Tuesday.
Blue Ribbon Commission
on America's Nuclear Future
--- BRC Report on Nuke Waste
Jan 27, 2012, by Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (here)
... There remains no viable solution for either the management or certainly the 'disposal' of radioactive waste. Yet, the one essential recommendation that is not contained in the DOE report is to stop making any more of it.
NEW ENGLAND COALITION ON NUCLEAR POLLUTION
Post Office Box 545, Brattleboro, VT 05302
802-257-0336 www.necnp.org necnp@necnp.org
Contacts:
NEC President Ned Childs (802) 579-6601
NEC Senior Technical Advisor Raymond Shadis (207) 380-5994
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEC Comments on Blue Ribbon Recommendations on the
Urgent Need for Solution to National Nuclear Waste Imbroglio
January 27, 2012, Brattleboro,Vermont. The New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution issued the following comments on the recommendations released yesterday by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future:
NEC was the only Vermont-based organization to participate in the Blue Ribbon Commission's northeast regional meeting , held in Boston this past November, to discuss the Commission's draft report.
Although the Commission says it has no opinion on whether nuclear power be supported as part of our national energy mix, all comments indicate an irrational enthusiasm for continued taxpayer support of nuclear power. As the commission stated, "This nation's failure to come to grips with the nuclear waste issue has already proved damaging and costly and it will be more damaging and more costly the longer it continues." We couldn't agree more, and we agree that a national dialogue and changes in the decrepit Atomic Energy Act must update an anachronistic relationship between the federal government and the dependent nuclear power industry.
It should be crystal clear to the Commission that the main way to reduce the crushing economic, health and security burden posed by the waste is to stop producing more until the problem is solved. NEC is disappointed that the commission failed to issue a common sense moratorium on building new reactors and relicensing old ones until a consensus and timetable, fully funded and legally writ, on waste management is reached.
The Commission barely addresses what NEC, the Union of Concerned Scientists and many others consider the most pressing issue of all - what must be done now to remedy the hot and highly dangerous 'spent fuel' currently being stockpiled in elevated and accident vulnerable spent fuel pools at Fukushima-twin plants like Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim in Massachusetts and 21 others across the nation. That is why NEC has joined with Beyond Nuclear and groups nationally to call for closing these aging reactors in order to deal with this most pressing hot waste issue now.
The Commission completely neglects the other flow of radioactive waste not confined to faulty containment but even now leaking into groundwater, soil and rivers at a full third of our nations aging nuclear power plants. At Vermont Yankee, plant owner Entergy Corporation of Louisiana lied under oath about the actual existence of such still - leaking underground pipes. This waste must be dealt with long-term by communities who never bargained for and cannot financially support this cleanup long after the nuclear corporations move on.
"One thing I like about the nuclear debate is that there is an issue on which both sides can agree - the importance of getting fuel out of the spent fuel pools," NEC President Ned Childs said. "It is the reason the eyes of the world are focused on the spent fuel pool for reactor four at Fukushima Daiichi."
He continued, "True leaders would have faced facts and called for a simple principle of blocking the industry from creating more waste until a solution and a timetable for real waste management is achieved. The conclusions tell you the commission is rigged in favor of continuing the nuclear boondoggle, of kicking the can farther down the road while 'big nuclear' keeps profiting from the status quo and this waste continues to poison we the people."
NEC's Senior Technical Advisor, Raymond Shadis said the report "appears to have been written with its basic conclusions predetermined by the assumption that the nuclear industry must be accorded relief in tax-payer funded prompt development of new long-term waste storage options."
" Although the report appears deliberately vague on projected cost, siting and construction timelines, long-term environmental impacts, and political obstacles offered by each of the options considered, it is clear," Shadis said, "that the options considered will be slow to be realized and painfully pricey."
"The hard, hot reality of nuclear power is coming home to roost," said Childs. "As a nation, we may be finally waking up to the economics that show the 'back end' burdens of the nuclear fuel cycle - this noxious waste the Blue Ribbon Commission has been charged to reckon with - outweighs any 'front end' benefit of nuclear power."
NEC Says No New Agencies Needed, Beef-Up U.S. Department of Energy's role in managing radioactive waste.
NEC agrees with the BRC's finding that "launching ... a new organization could add to the financial burden on the U.S. Treasury and on American taxpayers and utility ratepayers." Forming a new organization for this purpose is simply unrealistic. Creation of a new agency would not likely enjoy Congressional support in the near term, thereby creating more and more delays for what we have already established is a critical problem that needs solutions now.
NEC recommends that the commission place more emphasis on sharing waste burden with the nuclear industry itself to reflect economic and security realities of today and advocate applying to nuclear similar waste standards to which other industries must abide.
NEC agrees with the BRC findings that legislation providing full access to nuclear waste fee revenues and the federal Nuclear Waste Fund is needed.
We also recommend that, due to the mounting costs of waste management and the substantial profits that the nuclear companies have made and relief they have gotten through the 'Judgment Fund' (liabilities already in the billions of dollars and projected to increase by at least $500 million for every projected year of delay), that this legislation include an increase in the 'polluter pays' fees paid by private companies to the Nuclear Waste Fund including a provision that prevents these companies from passing along increases to ratepayers since it is the ratepayers who have long subsidized the industry and the profits it has achieved.
To facilitate public input and consent processes the Blue Ribbon Commission says is needed, NEC recommends federal funding for intervenors so groups can better carry out their watch dog work as citizen advocates within the process
Participation in federal siting and licensing proceedings is the sole effective means of citizen redress before federal agencies regulating nuclear activities. The input of NEC and many other non-profit public interest advocacy groups has proven valuable in building a good record on issues before the NRC, DOE, FERC, EPA and even the National Academies of Science. Of these federal entities, FERC stands out in its assistance to intervenors, providing money, for example, to bring in experts on material technical issues that can assist the intervenors and FERC in their proceeding.
Citizens have many times demonstrated that they can make meaningful contributions to nuclear regulation process. NEC, as a citizen intervenor in both the Maine Yankee and Vermont Yankee ISFSI siting and construction processes, secured through negotiation, innovative, significant security and safeguards enhancements to dry cask storage
BRC has recommended that consulting the public be made a key part of the process in seeking waste solutions. NEC heartily concurs. BRC should include in its recommendations, as part of public input and consent process that groups like NEC get funding to do their watch dog work as citizen advocates within the process.
END
NUCLEAR POWER AND THE THREAT TO DRINKING WATER
Jan 26, 2012, By Frank Mand, Wicked Local Plymouth, (here)
... "In addition to the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, here in Plymouth, we are concerned about all of the region's nuclear power plants, including Vermont Yankee," Clark said, "which has a deplorable safety record and is also within 50 miles of the Quabbin reservoir, the largest source of drinking water in New England."
Almost 50 million Americans use drinking water from sources within 50 miles of active nuclear power plants - "inside the boundary the Nuclear Regulatory Commission uses to assess risk to food and water supplies" - the report states. Executive SummaryVermont Yankee reverberations resound
January 23, 2012, Burl Free Press, by Terri Hallenbeck, (here)
... Bob Stannard, an anti-Vermont Yankee lobbyist, said he thinks both sides might appeal, with Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. arguing it doesn't need Public Service Board approval.
VT Law School to host VT Yankee public forum Wednesday
posted Jan 23, 2012, (details)Vermont officials weigh next move in Vermont Yankee case
11:41 PM, Jan. 19, 2012, Written by Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press, (here)
MONTPELIER - The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant can continue to operate beyond March, a federal judge ruled Thursday, slapping down a state law that tried to shut down the facility.
The ruling, which all sides saw as a victory for Vermont Yankee and a defeat for the state, still leaves some decisions about the plant's future in the hands of the state Public Service Board, legal experts said.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha, who heard the case in September in Brattleboro, agreed with Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp.'s arguments that federal law pre-empts the state from regulating a nuclear power plant over safety concerns. Vermont's efforts, Murtha said, were replete with references to safety.
"There is evidence the statute was motivated by and grounded in radiological safety concerns," Murtha wrote in his 102-page decision. Murtha rejected state claims that safety wasn't the primary issue when lawmakers tried to shutter the facility.
Decommissioning Funds
As of December 31, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning- trust- fund accounts was $497,664,652. To put that into some perspective, the value of the fund for the last six months was as follows:
July 31, 2011 ......... $494,249,596
August 31, 2011 ....... $485,791,158
September 30, 2011 .... $472,346,906
October 31, 2011 ..... $493,533,589
November 20, 2011 ..... $492,514,741
December 31, 2011 ..... $497,664,652
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601
802-828-3088
Updated 1-17-2012
Entergy again,
Palisades nuclear plant may be named one of nation's 5 worst
Jan. 15, 2012, Tina Lam Staff Writer Detroit Free Press, (here)
The regional head of the NRC said last week that if performance does not improve, the agency would not hesitate to shut down the plant. Palisades is one of the nation's 10 oldest nuclear plants, and after hitting its 40-year life-span in 2011, its license was extended until 2031.
"Quite frankly, we find your performance troubling, and it declined in 2011," regional administration Cynthia Pederson said in a rare public rebuke of the plant owned by Entergy Nuclear Operations.
Decline in safety culture at Entergy Palisades nuclear power plant to be fixed, company tells regulators
January 11, 2012, 8:14 PM, By Fritz Klug, The Kalamazoo Gazette, (here)
There was a lack of leadership effectiveness, a degradation in safety culture, and a failure to identify, investigate and correct problems in a timely manner, said Anthony Vitale, vice-president of operations of Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
N.H. group says Vermont Yankee's days are numbered
Monday January 2, 2012, By Josh Stilts, Reformer Staff, (here)
VERNON -- As the year 2011 wound down on Saturday, a newly-formed New Hampshire group, opposed to the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, gathered at gates of the plant to ring in a "nuclear free new year."
DOH discovers tritium in Connecticut River
Dec 22, 2011, By Bob Audette Reformer Staff, (here)
The Vermont Department of Health Laboratory analysis of a water sample from the Connecticut River has again detected tritium. This sample was taken from the river on November 3 and had a tritium concentration of 1,120 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). No other radionuclides were detected.
The government is also considering setting the maximum lifespan for nuclear power plants at around 40 years, they said.
New England Coalition urges Vermont officials to support Chairman Jaczko in "mutiny" at the Nuclear Regulatory Comm
Wed December 14, 2011, Ned Childs, Raymond Shadis, vtdigger.org - (here)
Vermont Yankee's spent fuel pool contains more high level nuclear waste fuel than all four of the Fukushima reactors combined. NRC has calculated potential ... /
... also NRC photo of such submerged cables at VY below:
will meet in the Vernon Elementary School,
381 Governor Hunt Road, Vernon, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Wed December 14, 2011.
Provocative U.S. nuclear chief faces political test
Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:46pm EST By Roberta Rampton, Reuters,
(here)
(Reuters) - The embattled chief of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator found some powerful political support on Saturday ahead of Capitol Hill hearings next week that will scrutinize his bid to enact sweeping safety reforms.
Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is locked in a bitter battle with fellow regulators over how to move forward on expensive changes for the nation's 104 nuclear reactors - reforms prompted by Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident in March.
Decommissioning Funds
As of November 30, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning- trust- fund accounts was $492,514,741. To put that into some perspective, the value of the fund for the last six months was as follows:
June 30, 2011 ......... $494,188,382
July 31, 2011 ......... $494,249,596
August 31, 2011 ....... $485,791,158
September 30, 2011 .... $472,346,906
October 31, 2011 ..... $493,533,589
November 20, 2011 ..... $492,514,741
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601
802-828-3088
Updated 12-07-2011
Fukushima fallout: time to quit nuclear power altogether
Experience in northern Japan illustrates that even incremental investment in nuclear power threatens human civilization. The Fukushima disaster should once and for all drive global society away from nuclear power, and toward renewable energy.
Nov 28, 2011, By Lester R. Brown and Yul Choi, Christian Science Monitor, (here)
CLOSING VERMONT YANKEE ... HOW YOU CAN HELP
A supper and a briefing session on December 6th and 8th by the Safe and Green Campaign (info).
11-28-11
Vermont Yankee Siren Test Scheduled in Vt., N.H., and Mass., Towns Thursday, December 8
Nov 28, 2011, Rob Williams, email
On Thursday, December 8, at 1 p.m., an audible sounding will be conducted on the 37 sirens located within the Vermont Yankee ten-mile emergency planning zone.
The pole-mounted sirens are located in the Vermont towns of Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Vernon, and in the New Hampshire towns of Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey, and Winchester. In Massachusetts, the sirens are located in Gill, Colrain, Leyden, Bernardston and Northfield.
The three-minute siren testing is being conducted by the Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts state public safety agencies in compliance with the regulations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the effectiveness of the notification system.
Residents with questions on the annual testing can contact their town's emergency management director or Mark Gilmore at Vermont Yankee at (802) 258-4168.
Before the PSB: AARP says ratepayers should be repaid for bailout of CVPS
November 17, 2011, by Alan Panebaker, vtdigger.org (here)
The AARP is calling on the state's largest utility to fulfill a promise it made in 2001 when ratepayers bailed out Central Vermont Public Service.
In 1991, CVPS locked into a deal with Hydro-Quebec that went south, putting the company's financial health in doubt. The utility asked the Public Service Board to approve higher electricity rates that required ratepayers to cover the cost of the utility's imprudent financial decision. The board approved the rate increase on the condition that if there was a disposal or acquisition of CVPS assets or merger at above book value, that CVPS stockholders and ratepayers would share equally in those profits up to $16 million for ratepayers, adjusted for inflation.
Now that CVPS and Green Mountain Power propose to merge, AARP wants to make sure ratepayers get their money back.
"Ultimately, we're fighting for ratepayers, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet," said Dave Reville, communications director for AARP Vermont.
Reville says ensuring ratepayers get reimbursed for bailing out the state's largest utility is a matter of fairness.
"Our message to the Public Service Board and to utilities is to keep your promise," he said. (there's more)
.... While the disaster has reignited safety concerns in some U.S. communities, notably near the Vermont Yankee plant in southeastern Vermont and Indian Point, near New York City, analysts generally don't expect nuclear power to go away in the U.S.
In the U.S., the disaster has enabled anti-nuclear sentiment to gain traction. Notably, the Vermont legislature denied the 20-year license renewal of Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, despite the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval, says Miller at Morningstar. Entergy has sued the state to reverse the legislature's ruling.
Fukushima No. 1 tour an eye-opener
Radiation dangers temper sense of stability at scene of devastation
Nov. 14, 2011 By Reiji Yoshida, Staff writer Japan Times, (here)
Nov 10, 2011, by Alan Panebaker, vtdigger.org , (here)
Decommissioning Funds
On October 31, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning trust fund accounts was $493,533,589.
To put that into some context, here is the market values for the fund for the last six months:
May 31, 2011 ------ $499,671,742
June 30, 2011 ----- $494,188,382
July 31, 2011 ----- $494,249,596
August 31, 2011 --- $485,791,158
September 30, 2011 - $472,346,906
October 31, 2011 --- $493,533,589
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601
802-828-3088
Public anxiety lurks as government agencies prepare for a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System on Nov. 9 that could interrupt radio and television broadcasts for thirty seconds.
When it announced the test earlier this year, FEMA originally said it could last as long as three-and-a-half minutes, but the agency acknowledged to news organizations that it had reduced the test's duration, apparently over public concerns.
News reports cited one email distributed in a Washington D.C. school district that said there was "great concern" from local law enforcement and emergency management that the test would spark concern among residents.
National EAS test on Nov 9th at 2 PM Eastern -- First ever national emergency alert system test
As of September 30, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning-trust-fund accounts was $472,346,906.
To put that in some context, here is the value of the fund for the last 6 months.
April 30, 2011 -------$498,546,853
May 31, 2011 -------- $499,671,742
June 30, 2011 --------$494,188,382
July 31, 2011 --------$494,249,596
August 31, 2011 ------$485,791,158
September 30, 2011 --$472,346,906
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601,
802-828-3088
October 05, 2011 By Susan Smallheer, Staff Writer Rutland Herald, (here)
GERMAN ENERGY EXPERTS TO VISIT VERMONT OCT 10-12, 2011
The German delegation will speak in Brattleboro on October 10th, at 7:00 pm in the parlor of the Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Street. This event is free and open to the public.
Don Kreis: Searching for Your Friends at the Vermont Yankee Cocktail Party
September 28, 2011 Don Kreis, Faculty Commentary at Vermont Law School, (here)
A long time ago, during a job interview when I was a law student, the chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court asked me where I saw myself in 10 years. "Chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission," I confidently asserted.
Times have changed, and not just because I have long since left Maine for Vermont. What job would I least like to have right now? Chairman of Vermont's counterpart agency, the Public Service Board (PSB).
Long live, etc.
The MOU Rises Again
September 20, 2011, Don Kreis, Faculty Commentary Vermont Law School, (here)
... speculated that one option for Judge Murtha is to somehow send this case back to the Public Service Board, (here)
**** R E M I N D E R *****
NEW ENGLAND COALITION on Nuclear Pollution
40th ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING - GENERAL PUBLIC WELCOME
ANTHONY Z. ROISMAN - N.E.C. LEGAL COUNSEL IN 1971 presents
"IS THERE A FUTURE FOR NUCLEAR POWER IN THE UNITED STATES?"
SAT. SEPT 24
4:00 Membership Meeting
5:00 Anthony Roisman
6:00 Pot Luck Dinner
ST. MICHAELS EPISCOPAL CHURCH, corner Putney Road and Bradley Av., Brattleboro, VT
INFO: www.necnp.org (802) 257-0336
Decommissioning Funds
As of August 31, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning-trust-fund accounts was $485,791,158.
To put that in some context, here is the value of the fund for the last 6 months.
March 31, 2011 ------ $488,777,092
April 30, 2011 -------$498,546,853
May 31, 2011 -------- $499,671,742
June 30, 2011 ------- $494,188,382
July 31, 2011 --------$494,249,596
August 31, 2011 ----- $485,791,158
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601,
802-828-3088
Updated 9-13-2011
Six arrested after citing Vermont Yankee for polluting all
Posted August 30, 2011 9:50 pm Shut-it-Down Affinity Group, (here)
Vermonters Build a Direct Action Anti-Nuke Movement They Hope Will Go National
August 29, 2011, By Dan DeWalt in OpEdNews, (here)
... Entergy was stunned when their corps of high-priced lobbyists failed to prevail at the statehouse, but they are counting on their high-powered legal team to carry the day for them in the favorable atmosphere of the federal court system--packed as it is these days with judges named by Reagan and two Bushes.
And even though the Supreme Court claims to support the concept of states' rights, it is not clear that that bias will over-ride their love for corporate personhood/rights.
Aug 26, 2011
Entergy now testing below minimum level of detectable credibility
On August 16, 2011, a Petition Review Board of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) provided its recommendations to accept and reject in part emergency enforcement actions requested by Beyond Nuclear in an April 13, 2011 petition regarding the 23 Fukushima-style reactors now operating in the US.
The Beyond Nuclear petition, which NRC confirms includes more than 5,000 additional co-petitioner requests from around the country, seeks to suspend the operation of the dangerous and deeply flawed General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors until certain safety conditions are met. The NRC review board will now look further into several of Beyond Nuclear's requested actions.
The petitioners are seeking to have the agency; 1) hold public hearings in each of the emergency planning zones for the Fukushima-style reactors; 2) revoke the agency's 1989 NRC prior approval allowing nuclear power plant operators to "voluntarily" install the same radioactive containment venting system demonstrated at Fukushima Daiichi to have a 100% failure rate during a severe nuclear accident and; 3) issue an Order to all GE Mark I operators to immediately install dedicated emergency back-up electrical power systems to keep cooling the densely-packed nuclear waste storage pools that sit atop each of the reactors in the event of simultaneous loss of all off-site and on-site electrical power for safety systems.
FEMA: Lack of communication caused 'disorder' in exercise
August 13, 2011, By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, (here)
BRATTLEBORO -- Regular visitors to the Reformer's website will notice some changes to our online content, beginning Monday.
Court Dates for 15 arrested after advocating for solar power at Vermont Yankee
Posted Aug. 06, 2011 8:05 P.M., Shut It Down Affinity Group, (here)
Slight recovery
Decommissioning Funds
As of July 31, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning-trust-fund accounts was $494,249,596.
To put that in some context, here is the value of the fund for the last 6 months.
January 31, 2011 ---- $479,025,703
February 28, 2011 --- $487,654,356
March 31, 2011 ------ $488,777,092
April 30, 2011 -------- $498,546,853
May 31, 2011 -------- $499,671,742
June 30, 2011 ------- $494,188,382
July 31, 2011 -------- $494,249,596
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601,
802-828-3088
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
The human subject here is every single one of us, everywhere, but especially, in the American case, the hundred million who live near 104 operating nuclear reactors in the US.
Voluntary consent, which morphed into informed consent, prohibits "any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion." Familiar with the story of the doomed Shoreham reactor? Follow the Vermont Yankee case? Does the term "tritium leak" ring a bell? Remember claims from the fifties that atomic electricity would be "too cheap to meter?" Do you consent to the NRC's lowering safety standards when industry fails to meet them?
Steve Breyman is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Entergy Moving Forward With Vermont Yankee Refueling
Japan Passes Law To Cleanse Internet Of "Bad" Fukushima Radiation News
July 24, 2011, Alexander Higgins, Jersey City Civil Rights Examiner, (here)
Japan has passed a law that will enable the police and contractors to monitor internet activity without restriction to "cleanse" the Internet of any "bad" Fukushima radiation news.
On Friday, a major victory by New York State upset the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rubber stamp process to relicense the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The historical decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled in favor of a petition served by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that argued the NRC's environmental review violated the law.
This was the first successful motion of its kind and it heralds the growing trend to battle "business as usual' when it comes to relicensing aging nuclear power plants who want to stay in business past their 40-year life expectancy.
..... Entergy is also battling the state of Vermont who ruled last year to close their Vermont Yankee plant by 2012. Entergy, seeking to block the state decision, has filed a complaint against Vermont in US District Court, although the NRC approved the relicensing for the plant in March, 2011 for an additional 20 years. Vermont Yankee is not the only nuclear plant whose relicensing application has dragged on for years. The relicensing process for Entergy's Pilgrim Station reactor in Plymouth, Massachusetts, whose current license expires in June of 2012, has also gotten bogged down under a swelling list of contentions.
As of June 30, 2011, the market value of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning-trust-fund accounts was $494,188,382.
To put that in some context, here is the value of the fund for the last 6 months.
January 31, 2011 ---- $479,025,703
February 28, 2011 --- $487,654,356
March 31, 2011 ------ $488,777,092
April 30, 2011 -------- $498,546,853
May 31, 2011 -------- $499,671,742
June 30, 2011 ------- $494,188,382
Sarah Hofmann,
Deputy Commissioner,
Vermont Department of Public Service,
112 State Street,
Montpelier, VT 05620-2601,
802-828-3088
Updated 7-10-2011
Vermont likely to foot legal bill no matter who wins
July 8, 2011, Cheryl Hanna, Professor at Vermont Law School, (here)
I and a faculty colleague recently received a question for a reader about Act 74 and the provision that gives Vermont the authority to bill back costs associated with litigation in state or federal courts that involve an entity holding a certificate of public good. The Act was passed late last session and there was little testimony on the bill.
The Entergy Investigation
July 07, 2011, by John McClaughry Vermont Tiger, (here)
... Furthermore, according to the Assistant AG conducting the inquiry, his office reviewed not tens of thousands of pages, but an astonishing two million pages submitted by Entergy.
The media reported that Sorrell expended about $100,000 on this project. That appears to be 1 1/3 years of one assistant AG, exclusive of benefits. That attorney would have had to review 5,800 pages per working day, in addition to conducting the "dozens of interviews", responding to correspondence, and writing reports. There is something about this that strains credulity.
Greenberg: Why the Entergy case is self-refuting
July 6, 2011, John Greenberg, Opinion, vtdigger.org (here)
Fifteen Women Arrested after Advocating for Solar Power at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant
July 5, 2011, by marianna, (here) American Friends Service Committee
Appeals court dismisses nuclear waste suit
July 1, 2011, 1:21PM By Nedra Pickler and Dina Cappiello, Associated Press, (here)
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration won a legal battle Friday in the long-standing fight over where to bury the nation's nuclear waste, but it's not likely to be the last.
The federal appeals court in Washington ruled against South Carolina, Washington state and others that want to ship radioactive spent nuclear fuel they are temporarily storing to a repository 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain.
Vt Law School professors debate Yankee suit
June 28, 2011, By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer Times Argus, (here)
... None of the professors, who are contributing to a blog about the lawsuit, predicted an outright victory for either side. And, they said, much depends on the lawsuit's trial, which is now set for September 12.
VY operators sue Vermont over their own poor career choice
Jun 23, 2011, by: JulieWaters, Green Mtn Daily, (here)
So let's get this straight: they chose to take a job at a plant that was scheduled to close in 2012. And now they're suing Vermont because they don't like that they may have to get training elsewhere to work at another plant.
Editor's note: This op-ed is by Bob Stannard, a musician, author and former lawmaker.
Crosby & Nash
on Vermont Yankee
at their concert in Burlington Vermont on 5/11/2011.
(youtube)
posted-06-12-11
Move-On Sponsors Anti-VY Petition
June 01, 2011, by Kurt Daims, Sally Shaw, Paul Gillies, and others.
We need an honest assessment of the VY cleanup costs to fight Entergy's deceptive PR campaign. The eminent domain procedure provides a way for the legislature to make the assessment. Now MoveOn.org is helping to promote the Brattleboro resolution for Eminent Domain over Vermont Yankee (EMDOVY ) across Vermont and to present the petition to the state legislature. Please go to
Bob Stannard, an antinuclear lobbyist in Montpelier, says "It is very clear that Vermont taxpayers will be on the hook if no citizen action is taken."
Request for Additional Information to Support the Review of 2011 Decommissioning Funding Status Report
Wed 25 May 2011 12:05:17 PM EDT
NRC to Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. respond to (request), within 30 days.
... for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Stations 1, 2, and 3, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, James A.
FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant, and Palisades Nuclear Plant,
as required under Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Section 50.75(f)(1).
Are You There, God? It's Me, Fake-Rob Williams
Spiritual Musings of Vt Yankee's PR Guy
Sunday, May 15, 2011, (here) .... We've had a game change here, and public opinion no longer matters to us at all. Sure, tireless old ladies continue to SHUT DOWN VERMONT YANKEE and get hauled off to jail ....
Report seeks restart of Yucca Mountain project
Independent agency says Yucca decision not based on science
By Rob Pavey, Staff Writer
Augusta Chronicle, May 11, 2011, (here)
The U.S. Energy Department failed to cite technical or safety issues in its hasty termination of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and should make preliminary plans to restart the project, according to the Government Accountability Office.
(here)
FAQ
Q .. Will you make the archives from your old web site available?
A .. The short answer for now, is no.
Most of the archives from early 2003, to those in March 2011, have expired links that redirect you to paid archives.
Besides taking up a lot of space, they have also become a liability. A substantial portion of most news archives contain "fair use" copyrighted material.
It would not be prudent putting my previous archives online, until the "fair use" doctrine becomes settled law again.
INTRODUCTION
Amicus Curiae Professor Jason Schultz ("Amicus") is an Assistant Clinical Professor of
Law and the co-director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the
University of California's Boalt Hall School of Law.
Amicus submits this brief concerning the
Court's Order To Show Cause ("OSC") why this action should not be dismissed on fair-use
grounds. While Amicus does not take any position about whether the Court should dismiss
Righthaven LLC's ("Righthaven") case sua sponte at this juncture, Amicus submits this brief to
clarify the proper legal standards under section 107 of the Copyright Act and to correct
misstatements contained in Righthaven's OSC submission.
A fair-use inquiry balances four statutory factors. See 17 U.S.C. § 107. Righthaven,
however, asks this Court to ignore those traditional factors and embrace an inflexible, one-factor
test that prohibits a fair-use finding whenever an entire copyrighted work is used. That approach
finds no support in the text and purposes of the Copyright Act and the cases interpreting it.
Indeed, the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and this Court have all found the use of entire
copyrighted works to be consistent with the fair-use doctrine. Those rulings recognize that
copyright law balances two important public interests: promoting creative expression and
encouraging the use of copyrighted works for socially beneficial purposes.
David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, January 07, 2011, (pdf)
( Has a nice detailed, informative, color diagram suitable for framing :-)
On December 22, 2010, Vermont Yankee's owner informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that
workers had determined during the recent refueling outage that two of the four main steam safety relief
valves had problems likely rendering them inoperable during the prior operating cycle.
[.....] The problems identified by workers during last fall's refueling outage had to
be reported to the NRC because the potential existed for the plant's response to such events, had one
occurred, to be less than needed to protect the public. .....
Judge Orders Entergy Shareholders to Refund Millions in Overcharge
Mississippi Attorney General, December 13, 2010, (website)
"Entergy is now sitting under a mountain of evidence that its business practices have been just plain bad for Mississippi ratepayers," said Attorney General Hood. "We will not rest until every business and residential customer in our state is made whole."
Entergy corporate insiders (including the Chairman/CEO) dumping their company stock fast
by: odum, Green Mtn Daily Tue Dec 07, 2010, (here)
....reports that the Chairman/CEO of Vermont Yankee parent company, Entergy, just dumped up to 40% of his stock in his own company... and if he thinks it's time to sell-sell-sell, watch out.
Retirement Planning?
Guru says sell Entergy!
Sell: Chairman and CEO J Wayne Leonard sold 227,954 shares of ETR stock on 08/10/2010 at the average price of 79.11. J Wayne Leonard owns at least 360,683 shares after this. The price of the stock has decreased by 8.49% since. Other insiders have also decreased their positions in the company.
-- GuruFocus, Dec 5, 2010, (here)
EFF is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.
Do you trust VY? Then ask yourself ...
To all of those in support of extending Entergy Vermont Yankee's operating license for 20 years
beyond its current expiration in 2012, and to all of those sitting on the sidelines without an
opinion, please consider the following:
1. Do you believe that Entergy Vermont Yankee has your safety in mind when its response to
problems that jeopardize our very lives is consistently, "Oh, this is unacceptable and it won't
happen again?"
2. Do you believe that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has your safety in mind when its
response to problems at Entergy Vermont Yankee is consistently, "Oh, we missed that
problem/defect/deficiency/neglect/compliance failure, but this will not happen again?"
3. Do you realize that your homeowner's and automobile insurance policies provide no coverage
in the event of loss due to a nuclear incident? If your property is rendered uninhabitable for
30 plus years as a result of nuclear contamination, you will suffer a total loss.
4. Do you realize that your business' insurance policy excludes loss due to a nuclear incident?
Are you prepared to rebuild your business elsewhere (from your savings) should a nuclear
accident destroy your assets and render your business location uninhabitable?
5. Do you expect to sue Entergy Vermont Yankee for compensation in the event of a nuclear
catastrophe? Do you have enough savings to sustain you during your 10-20 year wait for a
settlement?
6. Do you expect a bailout from the state of Vermont or the federal government in the event
that our region is rendered uninhabitable? Perhaps you should talk to some Hurricane Katrina
victims for an accurate assessment of state and federal governments' responsiveness to
uninsured losses.
7. Do you have a plan to restart your life with no home, no place of work, no means of
transport and no health insurance? (Your employer certainly won't be providing it if he/she has
suffered a total loss.) Do you have at least $350,000 in cash saved, as you stand no chance of
securing financing since you will have no collateral.
Now many, including our legislators in Montpellier, may argue that a nuclear catastrophe at
Vermont Yankee is only remotely possible, and they may deem this letter histrionic hyperbole.
To that I offer the following retort: If a nuclear catastrophe at Vermont Yankee is such a
remote possibility, then it should be possible for the state to mandate that our homeowner's,
business and automobile insurance policies be amended to provide full coverage against loss
resulting from a nuclear incident. If a nuclear accident is indeed such a remote possibility,
the insurance industry underwriters should be happy to provide such coverage at a minimal cost,
which the state of Vermont should be willing to cover. If the cost of providing such coverage
is more than the state of Vermont can afford, then one must assume that the insurance industry
underwriters consider a nuclear catastrophe at Vermont Yankee not to be such a remote
possibility after all.
Stephen L. Taylor,
Newfane, June 21, 2008
Posted without profit or payment for research and
educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section
107.
Smart Meters, Updated Feb 16, 2012
Governor calls strontium-90 discovery in fish near VY 'troubling' 
AP IMPACT: NRC and industry rewrite nuke history .jpg)
Leas: Entergy's position inconsistent with Supreme Court decision
