A 24” pipe in the feedwater system at the Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear power plant in Vernon, VT is leaking and therefore the plant has commenced a shutdown. The NRC has been notified according to a press release from VY spokesperson Larry Smith.
At approximately 7:00 p.m. Sunday night plant operators identified leakage of approximately 60 drops per minute from a system pipe. Subsequent investigation by technicians and engineers identified the leak to be in the feedwater system piping. Because the leak is in a 24 inch piping section which cannot be repaired with the plant in operation, a conservative decision was made to take the plant out of service to perform a repair.
It’s a big pipe and it’s under pressure.
The difficult to access heavily insulated feedwater pipe carries radioactive water at about 300 degrees in temperature and is operated under 400 psi (pounds per square inch of pressure).
At 24” in diameter this pipe is roughly as big in diameter as the rescue tunnel used to rescue the trapped 33 Chilean miners. Plant reliability at this aging nuke are at issue here as the feedwater system is one of those systems the state legislature asked to be scrutinized by the public oversight panel in the Act 189 Reliability Assessment.
In Jan. 2009, an age related feedwater leak required a 50% power reduction.
Last week Entergy public ally addressed persistent rumors and disclosed that Vermont Yankee is up for sale and they are actively trying to find a buyer. Accumulating reliability issues could make the sale of the 30 plus year old plant difficult as it is clear faces accumulating series of hurdles.
Maggie Gundersen, president of Fairewinds Associates, Inc, notes that this is another significant reliability issue for the aging VY plant and emphasizes the need for its retirement, decommissioning, and dismantlement beginning in 2012.
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