Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Deb Katz, the executive director of Citizens Awareness Network, an anti-nuclear organization.

Entergy says it’s no big deal; but what’s so great about having tritium leaking into the ground water? What’s so great about finding tritium in the Connecticut River or a fish with strontium in it? What’s so great about Vermont Yankee dumping hot water into the Connecticut River undermining the shad population?

Entergy says it’s no big deal again and again.

What’s so great about having a rogue corporation suing Vermont to undermine the will of the people? Doesn’t seem so great to the people of Vermont or the tri-state community does it?

Would this be a big deal to Entergy?

Is this what we have to look forward to in 2012? What’s so great about having the state’s radiological health officer say time and again that radiation leaks are nothing to worry about? According to experts there are no safe levels of radiation. Radiation leaking from any nuclear plant it is not a good thing. It’s not supposed to happen. So what is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doing? Nothing.

Currently 37 out of 104 plants are leaking and the NRC is doing nothing to ensure that the remaining 67 plants don’t. It’s not a safety issue. Not to NRC; not to Entergy. And of course the state of Vermont and the people can’t ever talk about safety, right? Entergy will take us to court. Meanwhile the NRC commissioners are attacking their chair, Greg Jasczko, because he’s attempting to implement safety measures as a result of Fukushima.

This week we learned that the tritium leaking from pipes that Entergy officials testified repeatedly did not exist, is now appearing in the Connecticut River. Entergy and our state radiological health officer, Bill Irwin, state that it’s only a little tritium and it’s not harmful, so it’s no big deal, right?

Remember that Entergy’s spokesman, Larry Smith, stated if those underground pipes that didn’t exist leaked, tritium would never be detected in the river. Remember, tritium has the same characteristics as water and is very, very difficult to detect. The fact that it was found in the river is disturbing.

Who ever thought it was a good idea to allow this corporation to dump 100-plus degree water into one of New England’s most important waterways? It’s compromised the shad population along with anything else that has a hard time living in heated water.

Why is Entergy heating the river? MONEY. If it couldn’t use river water to cool VY, then Entergy would be forced to use its cooling towers years round. Remember those towers? They are the structures that Entergy deferred maintenance on until one fell down; not once, but twice. It’s understandable why Entergy wants to use our river to cut its operating costs. But why is it good public policy to allow this corporation to heat up our river?

Why is it good public policy to let this corporation contaminate groundwater, heat and contaminate the river, and assure us again and again that none of this matters?

Why is our governor allowing a “what me worry” civil servant serve in a role designed to protect Vermonters.

Instead of Entergy, and some state officials, trying to convince us that this is no big deal, shouldn’t the real question be what’s so good about the cumulative effect of all this?

Why?

VTDigger

Contact: Deb Katz, Citizens Awareness Network

LIFE AFTER VERMONT YANKEE

WHEN: 7:00 pm Tuesday, April 5

WHAT: Forum with Panel discussion and Q&A to address what will happen when Vermont Yankee shutters in 2012. A three-person panel will talk about transition, clean-up, long-term waste storage and what role citizens can play in the process. An update on the crisis in Japan will also be offered.

WHERE: Rutland Free Library 10 Court St. Rutland, VT

WHO: Deb Katz, Executive Director of the Citizens Awareness Network;

Robert Stannard, Citizen Lobbyist for the Vermont Citizens Action Network

Chris Williams, Vermont Organizer for the Citizens Awareness Network
BACKGROUND:

With Vermont Yankee’s closure in 2012, the issues of transition, closure, decommissioning and how Entergy will address these issues now becomes significant. Recently questions have been raised about how the local community will be affected as well as the state and even the region. Can we survive without Vermont Yankee? Can citizens can play a role as Vermont Yankee is properly dismantled, cleaned-up and radioactive waste safely stored? The Citizens Awareness Network is sponsoring a forum to discuss the issues surrounding the decommissioning and clean up of Vermont Yankee. CAN has been intimately involved with closure and decommissioning of reactors in New England. “Nowhere is the colossal failure of nuclear power more evident than in decommissioning with its extensive contamination, ballooning costs, limited oversight, and lack of solutions for its contaminated wastes,” said Deb Katz executive director of the CAN “Added to this is the inability to trust a systemically mismanaged corporation.”

The choice to hold the forums was based on a lack of relevant information on what decommissioning entails, what choices Entergy is making and what has been the industry standard on decommissioning until now. “The decommissioning of the Entergy Vermont Nuclear Power Plant will be one of the most significant undertakings in Vermont’s history,” said Bob Stannard lobbyist for Vermont Citizens Action Network. “ We will have one, and only one, opportunity to get it right. Through this forum we hope to be able to chart the course of providing citizen participation designed to protect Vermonter’s interest as opposed to the interests of Entergy’s stockholders.”

A panel discussion will be followed by an open Q&A discussion.

This event is co-sponsored by Vermont Citizens Action Network, Citizens Awareness Netwok, the Safe & Green Campaign, Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance, New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution and Nuclear Free Vermont by 2012.

Panelists will be available for interviews before the event.

Citizens Awareness Network, instrumental in the closures of Yankee Rowe, Ct Yankee and Millstone Unit 1 reactors, intervened in the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearings on Yankee Rowe and Ct Yankee reactors. CAN won a lawsuit against the NRC in the first circuit Appellate Court over the illegal decommissioning of the Yankee Rowe reactor, the violation of citizen hearing rights and EPA regulations; Represented nuclear worker’s health and safety interests before an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; Participated in an NRC workshop – Site Specific Advisory Boards for Decommissioning, presented a model for public participation; Organized a “Peoples’ Hearing” on Decommissioning Presenters included representatives from Union of Concerned Scientists, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Radioactive Waste Management Assoc; Organized Caravan of Conscience Tours to accompany waste shipments from Yankee Rowe And Ct Yankee to Barnwell, SC to high light issues of environmental racism and to alert transport communities about the shipments. CAN commissioned a seminal paper by Dr. Gordon on the vulnerability of reactor fuel pools to terrorism in a post 9/11 world that focused on Vermont Yankee and Indian Point.

Bob Stannard is a registered lobbyist in Vermont having represented issues of concerns for entities ranging from municipalities to citizen groups. His issues have covered the spectrum from education funding to genetically modified organisms, to Right to Farm/nuisance issues. Currently, he represents the Vt. Citizens Action Network assisting them in their effort to close the Vermont Yankee power plant as scheduled in 2012. His interests lie in assisting those who either don’t have or have great difficulty having a voice in the legislative process. In addition to his profession as a lobbyist, Mr. Stannard is also an author and a professional musician.

VTDigger

Contact:
Debra Stoleroff
Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance
802.476-3154
debra@vtlink.net

Public Forum on Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant Closure and Clean-up
Tues, March 22
7 pm
Montpelier Unitarian Church, 130 Main St, Montpelier
Speakers:
Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Deb Katz, Executive Director of the Citizens Awareness Network
Robert Stannard, Citizen Lobbyist for the Vermont Citizens Action Network
Debra Stoleroff, Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance member

Forum Explores Clean-up of Vermont Yankee and Waste Storage

With just shy-of-one-year before the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor ceases operation, attention is now being drawn to facility clean-up and long-term waste storage. While Entergy, the Louisiana-based owner and operator, continues to stall closure efforts, citizen groups are exploring the next phase in this nearly 40-year saga.

“The Vermont Yankee design is the same GE Mark 1 and vintage as the Japanese reactors engaged in a slow motion catastrophe. The focus in Japan is on the fuel pools that are loosing water and releasing dangerous level of radiation. Entergy’s fuel is similarly located outside of containment — suspended 7 stories with the same metal roof as its Japanese sister reactors. Similar to Fukashima, VT Yankee’s decommissioning plan includes leaving the fuel in the pool intact rather than creating dry storage– I can only assume to save money. This has always been one of our concerns. Japan’s plight has confirmed, leaving spent fuel intact in the storage pools is totally unacceptable.” explains Deb Katz, Executive Director of the Citizens Awareness Network and one of tonight’s presenters.

The forum will focus on reviewing previous citizen efforts to watchdog the dismantling, clean-up and waste storage of decommissioned reactors, including Yankee Rowe in Rowe, MA. Panelists will share their experiences in these processes and elaborate on steps the state of Vermont, citizens and Entergy should take in order to begin the transition towards closure. Additionally, panelists will talk about relevant state legislation that can improve effective clean-up and stricter controls on waste storage.

Of particular note is Dr. Makhijani, a recognized authority on energy issues. He is President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, specializing in nuclear fusion. He is the author and co-author of numerous reports and books on energy and environment related issues. He was the principal author of the first study of the energy efficiency potential of the US economy published in 1971. He is the author of Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy (2007). He has many published articles in journals such as The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and The Progressive, as well as in newspapers, including the Washington Post. He has testified before Congress, and has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, CBS 60 Minutes, NPR, CNN, and BBC, among others. As well, Dr. Makhijani has served as a consultant on energy issues to utilities, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Edison Electric Institute, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and several agencies of the United Nations. In the last week, Dr. Makhijani has interviewed by most of the major networks to comment on the nuclear tragedy as it unfolds in Japan.

While Entergy continues to spend money on lobbying and misleading ads, citizens, legislators and organizers are thinking about the next phase. “We can’t wait around for Entergy, ” says Debra Stoleroff of Plainfield. “This is a huge undertaking and we plan to be proactive and as involved as possible. Of course, we will continue to support legislators in upholding their decision to close VY as scheduled, in March of 2012,” added Stoleroff.

The panel discussion will take place at the Montpelier Unitarian Church, 130 Main St, Montpelier. The forum begins at 7 pm and will be followed by a question and answer period. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled.

The event is sponsored by the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance.and co-sponsored by the Citizens Awareness Network, New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, Nuclear Free Vermont by 2012, Safe & Green Campaign, and the Sierra Club of the Upper Valley.

VTDigger

JAPAN SOLIDARITY VIGIL AT VERMONT YANKEE
SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 1:00 PM

As a public expression of solidarity with the thousands of Japanese workers and residents affected by the still worsening nuclear disaster in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, there will be a solemn, peaceful vigil in front of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant on Governor Hunt Road in Vernon, Vermont, this Sunday, March 20, at 1:00 pm.

“We who live in the shadow of Vermont Yankee regard the people living near the Fukushima reactors as our sister reactor communities,” said Deb Katz, executive director of Citizens Awareness Network. “Their suffering is breaking our hearts, and it’s a suffering which, given the long-lasting effects of the radioactivity spewing from these melting-down reactors, could continue for many years – and is unacceptable.”

New England Coalition trustee Leslie Staudinger said, “Our compassion for the nuclear plant workers and Japanese families in the evacuation zones is deep and heartfelt. Under these circumstances, our sadness moves us to act beyond the Coalition’s usual role as legal and scientific advocates and educators.”

In addition to expressing concern for the suffering of the Japanese people, the vigilers will continue calling for the closure of Vermont Yankee, a 39-year-old, accident-plagued facility of the same or very similar age and design (Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor made by General Electric) as the failed nuclear reactors in Japan.

“If this could happen in Japan, with all its technological sophistication and disaster preparedness,” said Nancy Braus of the Safe & Green Campaign, “what unexpected event might overtake the alleged safeguards we’re told are protecting Vermont Yankee?”

Vigil organizers have suggested that those who plan to attend wear black, bring a sign or banner in keeping with the purpose of the vigil, and park in the parking lot of the Vernon Elementary School across from the plant. All are welcome.

The vigil is being sponsored by the Safe & Green Campaign, Citizens Awareness Network, and the New England Coalition.

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VTDigger

Vermont Yankee, Nuclear Regulatory Commission image

Vermont Yankee is leaking radioactive liquid again — two months after the first two leaks found at the plant in January were repaired.

Larry Smith, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, made the announcement on Saturday.

The original leaks of tritium, a radioactive isotope, were discovered at the 680-megawatt nuclear power plant in Vernon on Jan. 7.

The latest leak comes on the heels of other problems for the 38-year-old reactor on the banks of the Connecticut River.

* Last week, there was an automatic shutdown of the plant because of an electrical problem. Read the Rutland Herald story.

* Strontium-90, a “bone-seeking” radioactive isotope with a half-life of 28.8 years, was reported present in soils several weeks ago. Read the AP story.

* A fish upstream of the Connecticut River tested positive for SR-90 last week. Read the AP story.

* William Irwin, the state’s chief radiology officer, told the Rutland Herald on May 28 that the tritium leak likely started two years ago when five sinkholes began to appear in the plant compound.

The newly discovered leak, which came to light on Saturday, came from a hole the size of an eighth of an inch in diameter in a pipe located in the Advanced Off Gas System, the area previously excavated for the March 25 repairs of the first two leaks.

Smith said the leak found on Friday night lasted four hours and contaminated a “one foot radius of soil.” There is no threat to public health or safety, according to a press release from Smith.

The plant, which had recently shut down for refueling, was in the middle of restoring power when the leak was discovered, according to Smith. The discovery did not halt operation of the plant, and by Sunday, Smith said, it had reached 100 percent “steady power state.”

Smith said the vacuum created by the reactor will keep fluid from flowing through the hole. It is unnecessary, he said, for Entergy to shut down the plant to repair or replace the leaky section of pipe, which is encased in concrete.

The leak, he said, produced a slow drip from vapor that amounted to a gallon of liquid.

The following radioactive isotopes were present in soil samples in measurable levels: chromium-51, manganese-54, cobalt-58, cobalt-60, zinc-65, zinc-69, niobium-95, rhodium-105, xenon-131, cesium-137, barium-140 and lanthanum-140.

Smith said in an interview and in a press release that the leak is “new.” In a statement, he said that four of the radioactive isotopes released into the soil at the plant (rhodium-105, xenon-131, barium-140 and lanthanum-140) are short-lived, which indicates, he wrote, that the “contamination was recent.”

Arnie Gundersen, the nuclear engineer hired by the Legislature to monitor the plant’s activities, said the hole couldn’t possibly be new.

“The water they collected is new, but the hole is old,” Gundersen said. “There’s no way you can get an eighth-of-an-inch hole in a two-inch pipe overnight. It just doesn’t happen.”

The proof that the leak is old, Gundersen said, is the absence of a short-lived isotope that would have indicated a more recent problem: Cesium-134.

“What he (Smith) said was, this particular pipe was only used in startup for off gasses,” Gundersen said. “That means for years, every time they started up the reactor, water would flow out of this newly discovered old hole and into the vault.”

Smith said Gundersen’s assessment is speculation. When asked if he thought the hole had been there previously, he said, “I have no idea. That’s why we’re investigating.”

Gundersen counters that the burden of proof should be on Vermont Yankee to show this is a new hole, since “the evidence they have provided shows it was an old hole.” He also says it should have been detected by the robots and inspectors who were combing the excavated area in the Advanced Off Gas system.

“I have two concerns,” Gundersen said. “The area into which it leaked is the most studied piece of real estate at the plant, and they didn’t see it. The idea that the plant would run for four hours and spring a leak — these holes don’t pop up like mushrooms overnight. That tells me the inspection wasn’t as adequate as it could have been.”

Gundersen said the concrete vault where the leaking pipe is located was inaccessible for 33 years, so no one knows what caused the leak, how long it has existed, or how many times it has leaked during the startup process.

“The point is, they had 50 to 60 engineers study this system for five months, and nobody figured this out,” Gundersen said.

The state’s consultant, Nuclear Safety Associates, reported on April 30 that Vermont Yankee does not “have an effective program or practices in place for early leak detection and monitoring of underground and non-readily accessible piping.”

Read NSA’s report.

“The extent of conditions from the current AOG leak event is unknown and will not be fully understood until after the completion of the Root Cause Analysis,” NSA officials wrote. “Therefore, underground and other non-readily accessible piping could be a challenge to future plant reliability if they are not proactively monitored, detected, and managed.”

Oyster Creek Nuclear Power plant in New Jersey and Indian Point Energy Center on the Hudson River in New York State are both planning to replace their Advanced Off Gas systems, Gundersen said. Several other plants that have also had tritium leaks are moving all of their pipes above ground. Gundersen called this the “ultimate solution.”

Smith said that replacing the Advanced Off Gas system might be one of the “corrective actions” taken by Entergy, the corporation based in Louisiana that has owned the plant since 2002, but that the expense would be a factor.

Bob Stannard, a lobbyist for Citizens Awareness Network, an anti-nuclear group, says Entergy hasn’t wanted to investigate problems, such as the sinkholes which first became apparent in July 2008, because the corporation doesn’t want to spend money on the plant.

“It’s not about doing the right thing, it’s about making money, and it’s shameful,” Stannard said. “They’re hammering on this plant, milking the last megawatt out of it. It’s leaking, falling apart. They say they’re concerned about safety. What they’re concerned about is profit. They want to make money off this plant.”

Twenty-seven out of 104 nuclear power plants in the United States have leaked tritium into the environment, according to the Associated Press.

VTDigger

For the past few months we’ve heard endless reports that Vermont Yankee is leaking poisonous radioactive Tritium into our groundwater. We’ve learned that we’ve been lied to about the existence of underground pipes. The source(s) of the Tritium leak(s) have not been found, while the poisonous substance travels underground toward the Connecticut River. It’s now clear that what is leaking is coming from the reactor itself. We also learned through a whistleblower that Entergy had a leak in 2005–serious enough that workers had to wear protective gear to deal with it. Yet it never informed the state or supposedly the NRC.

And how did Entergy deal with it? Instead of shutting the nuke down, the company put some kind of seal in it to continue to operate.

On February 25, 2010 the Vermont Senate held a courageous and historic vote; by 26 to 4 they overwhelmingly voted to deny Entergy the ability to continue to operate after its license expires in 2012. This was a validation of democracy and that the will of the people can triumph over a multinational corporation. Hundreds and hundreds of Vermonters contacted their Senators and made it clear that it was unacceptable for this corporation and this nuke to continue to operate.

And Entergy’s response? It denies the importance of this historic vote and still wants the Vermont Legislature to ignore its years of systemic mismanagement, delayed maintenance and deception to give it another chance to operate in the state. The deal that Entergy offered on the eve of the vote was to supply Vermonters with 25 MW of power at 4 cents a KW hour for three years!  As if this paltry token would somehow cover its checkered history in the state.

Then there is the decommissioning fund. Entergy arrogantly refuses to fully fund its decommissioning fund by 2012 as they agreed to do when it bought the nuke. Decommissioning and cleanup costs are skyrocketing, and with the current radioactive leaks into our groundwater, costs will rapidly increase.  Although Entergy has done a pretty good job of demonstrating the colossal failure of nuclear power while operating with its tower collapse, transformer fire, and repeated and unending leaks from pipes that never existed, decommissioning demonstrates how dirty nuclear power can be.

Yankee Rowe, the smallest commercial reactor, cost $39 million to build and a whopping $750 million to decommission due to leaks and ground water contamination. Connecticut Yankee cost over $1.2 billion to clean up the spills and groundwater contamination. This does not include the costs of guarding the high level radioactive waste indefinitely. So while the leak (s) continue into the groundwater and the Connecticut River, the NRC allows Vermont Yankee to continue to operate potentially endangering the health and safety of the river not to mention the health and safety of the tri-state community. Will people want to boat on a slightly radioactive river?

Then there is Entergy’s new Limited Liability Corporation Enexus. Originally dubbed Spinco, this new LLC would house Entergy’s newly acquired aging fleet of decaying nukes including Vermont Yankee.  It would start with a $3.5 billion dollar debt and only $700 million in reserve funds to deal with any equipment failures or accidents at any of these nukes, all of which have already been found to have tritium leaks.  And Entergy wants to tie any future power purchase agreement with Vermont to Vermont’s acceptance of Entergy’s Enexus.

To add insult to injury, Entergy’s CEO, Wayne Leonard, recently announced that if its new LLC didn’t fly with Vermonters, Entergy could, without state approval, proceed on its own to merge into Enexus and relegate its old nukes–with the $3.5 billion in debt and limited resources–to the new shell corporation Entergy.

We are at a tipping point. We have won a monumental victory. But we are not done. We are at the beginning of the end. Now we must focus our efforts on the Vermont House. All the people from the tri-state community who have worked so hard to make replacement a reality are still needed to ensure that democracy succeeds.  Entergy will not give up, neither can we.

Remember, we still must act today to change tomorrow.

VTDigger