Entergy Nuclear deploys top level executives to Vermont for damage control

Shay Totten at Vermont's independent Seven Days reports that top level executives from throughout Entergy Nuclear's northeastern and national headquarters have taken up residence in the Green Mountain State, in an attempt to restore the trust of the public, legislators, and regulators in the company that lied about the existence of underground pipes carrying radioactive materials, which are now the likely source of large-scale leaks of hazardous radioactive tritium into groundwater and the Connecticut River. Bob Stannard, an eighth generation Vermonter whose family's roots in the Green Mountain State go back to 1760, who serves as "the people's lobbyist" for the anti-nuclear grassroots group Citizens Action Network, said "Bringing in the suits is like the British sending in the Redcoats to manipulate those pesky Vermont revolutionaries."

Entergy Nuclear: "Tell the truth or pay up and go to jail"

A scathing editorial by WPTZ, NBC Channel 5 entitled "Credibility Meltdown" marks a shift from support for a 20 year license extension, to opposition, due to "too many misleading statements from company executives who should know better. Too many cases of shell-game economics, broken pledges and hollow promises. Too many safety questions."

Tritium concentration in leak at Vermont Yankee nears theoretical maximum

The Associated Press reports that a sample of contaminated water taken from a sump pit at Vermont Yankee atomic reactor contained 2.7 million picocuries of tritium per liter. This is closely approaching the level of tritium concentration in the reactor's cooling water supply itself, which registers around 3 million picocuries per liter. Remarkably, in this sense, reactor tritium appears to be leaking, through unmonitored and uncontrolled pathways, in violation of clearly stated NRC regulatory criteria, from the reactor to unpermitted underground areas of the nuclear power plant, nearly undiluted. Tritium concentrations in groundwater monitoring wells are also showing increasing levels of contamination, now surmounting 834,000 picocuries per liter, over 41 times higher than allowed by EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Entergy Nuclear seeks to boost profits by neglecting maintenance

In an editorial that despairs of ever getting "Straight answers" from Entergy Nuclear about its degraded, leaking Vermont Yankee atomic reactor, the Rutland Herald reports that Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard recently told investors that cash flow problems at Vermont Yankee will be solved by raising electric rates, as well as by " 'lower[ing] working capital requirements'...In other words, the company is investing less in the plant to enhance profits, which may account for the fact that it is falling apart. " Entergy Nuclear is equally guilty of neglecting major safety repairs and replacements at its Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan. A Palisades' presentation to the Michigan Public Service Commission in 2006 (see page 2) revealed several major fixes required to address known safety risks at the reactor, including replacement of the corroded reactor lid, annealing severe reactor pressure vessel embrittlement, replacing the steam generators for the second time, and enlarging sump pumps and fixing filtering screens in order to deal with debris clogging coolant flow during an emergency. However, since taking over ownership and operations at Palisades in 2007, Entergy has fixed none of these major problems. And just as Vermont Yankee is leaking hazarous radioactive tritium into groundwater and the Connecticut River, Palisades is leaking tritium into groundwater and Lake Michigan. In both cases, drinking water supplies, food chains, and public health downstream are at risk.

VNRC cites groundwater protection laws in opposition to Vermont Yankee license extension

The State of Vermont's top health official has admitted that tritium leaking from the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor is almost certainly flowing into the Connecticut River and points downstream. The Vermont Natural Resources Council, which was instrumental in passing a 2008 Vermont state law that recognizes groundwater as a valuable natural resources owned in common by all Vermonters, is now seeking to apply that law to block the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor's 20 year license extension. Entergy Nuclear, which does not own the aquifer beneath its nuclear power plant, is leaking large amounts of hazardous radioactive tritium into the groundwater, which is very likely flowing into the Connecticut River. The leaks are now feared to be endangering drinking water supplies downstream. The Brattleboro Reformer's editorial "A broken trust" covers these developments.  Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen has called for Vermont Yankee to be shut down at least until the origin of its tritium leaks is found and fixed, in order to prevent any more tritium from being released into site groundwater and the Connecticut River. Vermont Public Radio reports that an area the size of a football field in the groundwater under Vermont Yankee could be contaminated with tritium.