RPT-Fuel rods missing at Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuke

RPT-Fuel rods missing at Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuke

Apr 22, 2004 - Reuters Power News
Author(s): Reuters

(Repeats with no change to headline or text)

NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) -

Entergy Corp. said two spent fuel rod segments were missing at its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vermont, the company told the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in an event report Thursday. The company said in a statement released on the NRC Web site its engineers are "reviewing storage record and performing a thorough inspection of the spent fuel pool to determine the location of the rod segments." One of the segments is about the length and diameter of a pencil and the other is the same diameter and about 17 inches long. "Vermont Yankee has an extensive system of radiation monitors and, due to the radioactive nature of the material, the segments could not have been inadvertently removed from the pool in anything other than a container specifically designed ... to contain radioactive material," the company said in the statement.

Therefore, the company said, "Public health and safety is not at risk as a result of this issue." Officials at the plant were not immediately available for comment. According to the records, Entergy said, the highly radioactive rods were placed in a special stainless steel container in the spent fuel pool after a fuel inspection in 1979. Entergy acquired the station in July 2002. The spent fuel pool is 40 feet in depth and contains 2,789 spent uranium fuel assemblies that were used in energy production since 1972. The unit is currently shut down for a refueling and maintenance outage. The company said it will keep the NRC and state authorities informed on the progress of their investigation.

The Vermont Yankee station is located in Vernon, Vermont, about 80 miles north of Hartford, Connecticut.