State of Vermont objects to NRC over faulty radiation monitoring equipment at Entergy's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor

Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor is a GE BWR Mark I, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

As reported by the Vermont Digger, State of Vermont Department of Public Service officials have written the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), objecting to and demanding answers about the repeated malfunction of vital radiation monitors at the age-degraded, problem-plagued Entergy Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor. VY is identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, a General Electric Mark I boiling water reactor.

Despite this, NRC rubberstamped a 20-year license extension at VY, the same month Fukushima's reactors melted down and exploded. It is unclear to the State of Vermont whether or not NRC even inspected the defective radiation monitoring equipment before rubberstamping the license extension. Entergy has announced it will replace the faulty equipment.

The article also mentioned previous age-related degradation accidents at VY, such as the infamous 2007 cooling tower collapse (photo above left); it also reported that VY's fair market value has declined 69% in the past year alone, calling into question its viability.

Wind outcompetes nuclear at Exelon's LaSalle, IL & Limerick, PA reactors

As reported by Hannah Northey at Greenwire, Exelon Nuclear has blamed low wind power prices for its decision to cancel power uprates at its LaSalle, IL and Limerick, PA atomic power plants.

The American Wind Energy Association kicked Exelon out of AWEA for its scapegoating of wind power for its own financial woes, as well as its opposition to an extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind.

Both LaSalle, IL's two units, as well as Limerick, PA's two units, are all GE BWR Mark IIs, very similar in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4 (Mark Is).

Will the State of Vermont Public Service Board deny Entergy Vermont Yankee a Certificate of Public Good?

Entergy's Vermont Yankee atomic reactor, a GE BWR Mark I located on the Connecticut River border with NH at Vernon, VT, 8 miles upstream from MA

Debra Stoleroff of the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance has put out the following announcement:

"The PSB hearings are public — if you are able, consider attending.  

Vermont Yankee Certificate of Public Good #7862 Technical Hearings

In Re: Amended Petition of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., for amendment of their Certificate of Public Good and other approvals required under 30 V.SA. § 231(a) for authority to continue after March 21, 2012, operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, including the storage of spent nuclear fuel

Before the Public Service Board

Location: Public Service Board Hearing Room, Third Floor, People's United Bank Building, 112 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Hearings begin at 9:00 am on Monday, 6/17 thru Friday 6/21 and Monday, 6/24 thru Friday 6/28

See the attachment for the list of daily witnesses"

The hope of those campaigning for Vermont Yankee's (photo, above left) permanent shutdown is that the State of Vermont Public Service Board will deny Entergy a Certificate of Public Good. This would make Entergy Vermont Yankee's operation illegal under Vermont State law. Senior politicians in Vermont, from the Governor to leaders in the state legislature, have publicly referred to Entergy as a "rogue corporation." Vermont Yankee is a General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor (GE BWR Mark I), identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4.

Prohibitively expensive cost of safety repairs leads nuclear utilities to instead permanently close age-degraded atomic reactors

"Burning money" image by Gene Case, Avenging Angels2013's 4 atomic reactor closures are the most of any single year in U.S. history. Bloomberg has reported:

"The last wave of U.S. [atomic] plant closures was in the late 1990s, when falling gas prices helped tilt economics in favor of retiring rather than attempting large-scale repairs...

“The decision to shut down rather than retrofit the San Onofre nuclear plant shows the changing economics of the power market,” Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocate of cleaner energy, said in a telephone interview. “We suspect other nuclear plant owners may start reaching the same decision.”

In fact, Dominion Nuclear made just such a decision, to permanently shutdown its Kewaunee atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline of Wisconsin last month. 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on October 22, 2012 that Dominion, referring to its losing battle to remain competitive in a deregulated electricity market, could not afford the needed safety repairs at Kewaunee:

'We looked at all alternatives to keep the unit operating, but we could not make the reductions in the cost without it affecting safety,' [Dominion spokesman Richard] Zuercher said."

As Howard Learner stated above, such market realities begs the question, which reactors will close next? On Feb. 8th, Entergy's brand new CEO, Leo Denault, when asked why several reactors in his fleet were so financially strapped, admitted in an interveiw with Reuters that:

"...some plants are in the more challenging economic situations for a variety of reasons, including 'the market for both energy and capacity, their size, their contracting positions and the investment required to maintain the safety and integrity of the plants.'" (emphases added)

Entergy operates GE BWR Mark Is at: Cooper, NE; FitzPatrick, NY; Pilgrim, MA; and Vermont Yankee. They are identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

More.

Kan, Jaczko, Gundersen, Bradford and Ulrich address Fukushima and San Onofre in southern CA

What lessons does the triple meltdown at the GE BWR Mark Is at Fukushima Daiichi hold for the U.S.? Well, for starters, the U.S. has 31 GE BWR Mark Is and IIs.

On June 4th, former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan (photo, left), former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Gregory Jaczko, former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford, Fairewinds Associates, Inc.'s Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen, and Friends of the Earth's nuclear campaigner Kendra Ulrich gathered in San Diego to discuss lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, and their application at the problem-plagued San Onofre nuclear power plant. A video of the entire event is posted online.

Kan and Jaczko served during the beginning of the Fukushima catastrophe. Bradford served during the Three Mile Island partial meltdown of 1979. Gundersen serves as FOE's expert witness, in opposition to San Onofre's proposed restart. Ulrich also serves on Beyond Nuclear's board of directors.

Arnie Gundersen went into the history of GE's involvement at Fukushima Daiichi, and draws parallels to risks at GE reactors in the U.S.

Three days after the event, on June 7th, Southern California Edison announced that it would permanently shutdown San Onofre 2 & 3 (Pressurized Water Reactors), due to dangerous design flaws in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan replacement steam generators.