The NRC says: “… we mean it.”

Woof,woof! The NRC is feeling good about itself. Sounding pumped, like a lean mean nuclear regulatin’ machine on their "blog" where they declare: “When the NRC says we consider new and significant information, we mean it.”
The story is that errors in recently submitted information were found during a review process for equipment replacement at an existing plant in the Southern US. Based on this new significant information the NRC found that designs for a new Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR) plant might have similar errors.
What is the upshot of these NRC discoveries? It could mean the NRC must revise reports and/or have the applicants make changes to design control documents which will delay their final decision on design certification. New information comes to light, consideration given to the new facts, followed by regulatory action. Has a watchdog stirred?

“We mean it” yips the NRC watchdog. Well, ok calm down. So let’s say significant new information about potential seismic activity near an existing plant (let’s call it Indian Point-which rhymes with Vermont Yankee) was readily available; the NRC would of course considerate it in the ongoing relicensing process. Well not exactly as a former oil industry geologist writing in a vtdigger.com opinion piece points out:

Judging by Indian Point, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may be forcing us to base Vermont Yankee’s geologic risk analysis on antiquated data:“Much new seismological information is available since their initial approvals (of Indian Point) in 1973 and 1975. Nevertheless the US NRC, so far has not permitted any new information to be used or old information on which the original licenses were granted to be contested in considering extension of licenses,” according to a 2008 study by researcher Lynn Sykes.

New York State has an aggressive attorney general who has called upon the NRC to do a comprehensiveColumbia University seismic review as part of their Indian Point relicensing process. The New York AG must have considered significant the findings from 2008 by seismologists. They found that two intersecting fault lines near Indian Point were capable of creating a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Despite all this, none of this recent information is incorporated into the current NRC process.

Now remember clearly the NRC claims–“When we say we consider new and significant information, we mean it”. Well, except when there are significant fault lines.

Entergy’s lines in the sand

The battle front is shifting slightly for Vermont Yankee power plant as it escalates toward a crunch point; a financial decision on refueling. Making it clear that Entergy will not glow quietly into the night Vermont Yankee Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard stated this week in an AP report he felt pushed into a corner by the State of Vermont. “…and there's a point where there's a line in the sand and we've got to make a decision whether we're pushed any further or not." Leonard also maintained the NRC had final say on the plant’s future. The re-licensing issue may be headed to the courts and we should hope the Vermont Attorney General can be as aggressive with Entergy in court as he has proved with sugared drinks. In more than a year that VY has been leaking radioactive tritium and leaching it into the Connecticut River no legal action was initiated by Vermont’s AG.

A little help from friends nationally. Just prior to Entergy CEO’s line- in-the-sand statement pressure was being brought to bear in Congress about the NRC’s speed in nuclear plant re-licensing. Representative Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee claims the NRC’s actions show indifference to the economic realities challenging its applicants and is pressuring the NRC to explain their nuclear plant license renewal procedures. Mirroring this,a energy trade publication reports two Republican Senators are raising pointed questions about the NRC’s speed in nuclear plant re-licensing. Senators James Inhofe, from Oklahoma and David “diaper me” Vitter, of Louisiana(home of Entergy VY’s owner) have written to NRC chairman Gregory Jazcko.
The Senators claim that "the commission has incentivized opponents to intervene solely because the NRC will delay the conduct of these adjudications and relicensing processes." Entergy Vermont Yankee and Entergy owned Pilgrim power plants both up for relicening where not mentioned specifically but understood to be the subject of this.

They [Inhofe and Vitter] asked him to explain how it determines whether opposition to a nuclear power plant license renewal application is deemed to be "local" and the agency decides on a"threshold of 'minimal' opposition" to a license renewal

Testing:“Everything associated with an actual disaster”

The headline Monday read: NRC Report Vt. Yankee hasn’t done all promised.
However the article reads as if Entergy had done nothing at all. According to the NRC, Entergy had promised after the tritium leak a year ago to do more studies on radioactive tritium and groundwater contamination.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that Entergy Nuclear had promised to do more studies on the issue of the tritium and other radioactive contamination and groundwater protection, but hadn’t carried out all those promises.

“No significant findings were identified,” Sheehan said Friday. According to the[NRC] report, Entergy “has yet to complete its longterm groundwater monitoring program.”

While noting that Vermont Yankee failed to complete its longterm groundwater monitoring program as they had promised ,the NRC obligingly employs a little of its faith based regulatory rhetoric, Sheehan said the NRC believed that Entergy

“effectively evaluated the contaminated groundwater with respect to off-site effluent release limits, and the resulting radiological impact to public health and safety; and complied with all applicable regulatory requirements and standards pertaining to radiological effluent monitoring, dose assessment and radiological evaluation.” Emphasis added

Well as long as the NRC believes they have effectively evaluated the contaminated groundwater, no doubt it will be too busy this week to work on past promises as today they start a simulated radiation leak exercise.
A control room simulator will “create blueprints for everything associated with an actual disaster” Once the plume is originated by the computers, plant employees will use wind patterns to track which way it would travel and state hazardous material technicians will be sent out to various sites to collect simulated measurements.

William Irwin, chief of Radiological Health for the Vermont Department of Health, said.

"We’re going to hold companies and people more accountable as a state. Vermonters should be proud of the systems in place."

A wee bit of the old glow in the dark?

Vermont Public Radio reported this week Entergy's Vermont Yankee has another leak. A high pressure emergency coolant system is leaking small puffs of steam, mild levels of radioactive steam. If it’s not exactly the same as many other times it’s at least a very familiar chain of events.

"We're talking about relatively mild levels of radioactivity coming out of here. This is a system connected to the reactor obviously but any radioactive liquid flowing out of here would be at low levels."

There was a notable delay in reporting the news to the public as often is the case. Remember as Vermont PSD Commissioner David O’Brien said recently

“How many days until the election?”

The leak (called minor by the NRC) was discovered almost a month ago, September 24th and reported to the NRC.

"Our maintenance department put a maintenance patch on this drain line to make temporary repairs and we have permanent repairs that will be made sometime in the future. But the high pressure injection coolant system is operable.

We have no issues whatsoever with the operation of the system and we're considering this routine maintenance

that our maintenance department would perform at a nuclear plant on a day to day basis."

Tuesday VPR reported poll results showing that statewide 44 percent of those surveyed said they want the plant to close, 39 percent supported re-licensing and 17 percent undecided with an error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Vermont Yankee leaking news:The Weekend Report

Today's Vermont Yankee News

"The observed short duration and small volume of leakage from the drain line appears to indicate that the event did not result in any impact to public health and safety," according to an NRC statement.

Vermont Yankee by coincidence or design never fails to make a small headline sometime on Friday afternoon or some sleepy Saturday or Sunday morning .What are the odds?
The latest caps a busy couple weeks getting the beast back online after refueling.
The newest hi-jinks at the troubled plant comes on the heels of misleading Vermont state officials about under ground pipes leaking tritium and the state senate vote against re-licensing ,strontium 90 was discovered in a fish near the plant and almost as a side show the entire unit was “Scrammed”, automatically shut down due to a switching problem during power up.

Picture this power plant running for twenty more years, 2032?
Safe, clean and reliable headlines released every slow news day.

A new leak of radioactive material has been found and fixed at the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, officials said Saturday.
Vapor and water containing 13 different radioactive substances was found late Friday coming from a pipe in a hole workers dug to find the source of an earlier leak.

"This was a new leak," Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said in an e-mail. "The leak has been stopped. ... There is no threat to public health or safety."
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission also said the public faced no danger.

also posted at Green Mountain Daily

Vermont Yankee:It Still Leaks 24-7

Yesterday the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 to close entergy’s Vermont Yankee power plant by 2012.
But hey, it still leaks 24-7.
“brings new insight on plant operation”*
Yesterday Entergy reported that after investigating itself for misrepresenting the existence of underground piping they had suspended four more top level engineers. Included, somewhat incredibly, is the head of the team currently investigating the underground radioactive tritium leak.
These four additional suspensions bring the total to 11 high level people suspended ,disciplined and officially reprimanded for involvement in the underground pipe issue.

Entergy Nuclear announced Wednesday that it had suspended four additional senior Vermont Yankee employees - including the man who had been leading the investigation into the tritium leak - after it concluded its investigation into whether its employees lied to state regulators about the existence of buried pipes carrying radioactivity.

Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said that no successor had been named to replace Dreyfuss on the tritium task force, but he stressed that finding the leak was a "team effort." He declined to say when Dreyfuss and the others were placed on leave and he said he couldn't say what administrative leave entailed.

Also placed on leave was Dave McElwee, Entergy's senior liaison engineer who was the main technical point man on regulatory issues for the company in Montpelier.

Prior to the tritium leaks and revelations of lying ,er, misleading statements Dreyfuss and McElwee were both featured prominently in Entergy’s public relations campaign. This was the rapidly terminated iamvy.com PR blitz. Before this current unpleasantness began Vermont Yankee Site VP Mike Colomb (also among those admonished for the underground pipe deception) described the ad campaigns goals like this

“brings new insight on plant operation, as the featured employees -- all Vermont residents -- express in their own words the pride and dedication they bring to their jobs, and why it is in the best interest of all Vermonters to keep the plant in service.”

"...vigilant in prosecuting crimes against Vermont's environment."

"Had these actions not been reported to the state so quickly, there was the potential for significant environmental contamination at the site and surrounding community,” said Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell. "We will continue to be vigilant in prosecuting crimes against Vermont's environment."

No it’s not the leaking tritium at Entergy’s aging Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant but 23 buried waste oil drums the Attorney General is talking about.

A Danby Vermont man got a one to two year suspended sentence, probation and a $10,000 fine .The maximum sentence was a possible fives years in jail and $250,000 in fines .

After this success there is no word on what Vermont’s vigilant regulators may have in store for Entergy and their tritium leak.
Currently the leak has spiked to well above the federal standard for drinking water (20,000 picocuries per liter) to 2.7 million picocuries per liter. Tritium levels in reactor water usually measure 2.9million picocuries

Recently the Vermont AG submitted a request to Entergy for information about whether plant officials lied to state officials about the existence of underground piping that is the source of the leak. Entergy has proven reluctant in the past to release documents without a court fight.