Vermont Yankee: ‘yup tires still bald’

Entergy according to the Times Argus is seeking NRC permission for Vermont Yankee to stop a current required inspection routine.

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.

This is as if Vermont Yankee having been granted permission to drive a 40 year old nuclear vehicle with bald tires well above the legal speed limit has grown bored; bored with examining their old worn tires and repeatedly finding them still worn and tread-less ‘yup still bald’. So they want to stop the bother and expense of looking altogether. Simply put, if they ain’t looking they ain’t finding.
According to reports as of July 2010 required VY inspections discovered a total of 65 cracks. Entergy maintains that despite these "non relevant" cracks the steam dryer is in “good shape”.

The routine inspections are part of requirements the NRC placed on Entergy VY when it permitted the 40 year old plant to operate at 20 percent greater power production than the original design. A steam dryer is used to remove water from steam before it enters the power plant turbine. While not considered officially safety equipment by the NRC dryer failure can impact components that are. A test power up-rate of less than VY’s 20 percent at a similar US Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) plant resulted in major steam dryer failure.

Not that long ago in 2009 VY was happily bragging about their Nuclear Energy Institute(NEI)industry trade group award winning (cost saving) remotely operated steam dryer inspection mechanism. Certainly a clever thing but it wasn’t as if Entergy had an award winning repair to any “non-relevant” cracks in the worrisome steam dryer. They just found a slick way to monitor the steam dryer’s aging –and naturally cut costs.

An annual reduction of 3.6 person-rem of radiation exposure is expected along with a minimum $500,000 cost reduction per outage.

Also not that long ago Entergy hired a Vermont PR firm to splash on a quick fresh coat of PR paint? The IAMVY.com campaign and tagline safe, clean, reliable that resulted ring just as hollow now as in 2009 just before tritium leaks were disclosed. Now Entergy requests permission to practically stop required steam dryer inspections. I propose a new tagline for Vermont Yankee in the form of a question: VY:What could possibly go wrong?