Aug 6 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bob Audette Brattleboro Reformer, Vt.


A group opposed to the relicensing of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon is calling for an investigation into why Entergy, which owns and operates the facility, failed to comply with a Vermont Public Service Board order regarding the monitoring of spent fuel stored on-site in dry casks.

Citizen Awareness Network also wants the PSB to find out why the state's Department of Public Health and Department of Public Service failed to ensure Entergy was following through on its obligation to monitor the dry casks.

On July 31, Entergy acknowledged it was in violation of a PSB order issued in early 2008, which required Entergy to monitor the radiation and temperature of its high level waste storage area.

"Since Vermont's health department and public service department are responsible for establishing the monitoring system with Entergy and evaluating the data, there are also serious questions concerning the inability of (those) departments to adequately follow through and protect the public good," stated Wednesday's press release from CAN.

Not only did Entergy fail to comply with the board's order, it hasn't yet written a protocol on how to conduct the monitoring.

In a letter dated July 15, David O'Brien, DPS commissioner, wrote that he was concerned that Entergy was not being totally upfront with his department.

"In January of 2009 when the state nuclear engineer asked Entergy about the monitoring, he was told he could review the information at the site," wrote O'Brien. "This certainly implied that the monitoring was taking place, but we find out months later that it had not been done."

He warned Yankee site vice president Michael Colomb, "Without the active cooperation of the utilities, our job to regulate becomes more difficult and we have to keep uncooperative utilities under constant surveillance."

A spokesman for Yankee stated that Entergy is in the process of reviewing all state memoranda of understanding (MOU), board orders and certificates of public good to insure compliance.

The Public Service Board is reviewing Entergy's failure to comply with its order, said Susan Hudson, spokeswoman for the PSB, and won't have any comment until its review is completed.

The board's MOU was part of an agreement with the state that allowed Entergy to store nuclear waste in dry casks just north of the plant's reactor building. The monitoring was to have begun after placement of the first dry cask in the spring of 2008.

There are now five casks of nuclear waste stored on site.

In Entergy's July 31 press release, it characterized the failure as "an oversight."

However, stated the press release, "The normal radiation monitoring conducted per plant procedures and Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements shows that the radiation levels at the plant boundary over the time period in question were within the regulatory limits that ensure that public health and safety are protected."

The NRC has its own set of requirements for on-site spent fuel storage independent of Vermont's MOU, wrote Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, in an e-mail to the Reformer, including a daily inspection of the air vents that keep the dry cask temperature below 126 degrees.

"The air flows in the bottom vent, over the cask -- but not in direct contact with the fuel -- and then out the top vent," he wrote. "No radiation is released as a result of this cooling process."

However, he wrote, the casks themselves release very low levels of radiation -- about 1 millirem an hour.

"That amount could not be measured by someone standing at the plant's fenceline with a radiation survey meter."

Vermont Gov. James Douglas had no comment on the issue, stated his press secretary, Dennise Casey, though he did agree with the concerns mentioned in O'Brien's letter.

Everyone in Windham County, whether they support the relicensing of Yankee, should be concerned about the management of the plant by Entergy, said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin.

"It's just more in a long list of failures and disappointments that lead Vermonters to distrust Entergy Louisiana and their cheerleader, Gov. Douglas," he said. "If you consider the fact that these folks are running a nuclear power plant and yet they can't seem to get it together, it's alarming."

Entergy has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a new license that would allow it to operate the plant for another 20 years past its current 2012 license expiration date.

Entergy also needs a certificate of public good from the Public Service Board and approval from the Vermont State Legislature to continue operation.

Citizen Awareness Network asked the PSB to suspend its review of Entergy's application for a CPG "Until this violation is resolved, root causes ascertained and compliance with board orders is established."

CAN stated the failure was just one in a long line of "mistakes" at the plant since Entergy bought it in 2002.

"It speaks to a culture best characterized as systemic mismanagement."

That's just not true, said Yankee spokesman Rob Williams. He said all the people who work at Yankee are "constantly vigilant. We are a very self-critical organization."

Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 273.

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