RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

NRC cites Entergy for inspection violation



Toolbox

Published: November 10, 2009

BRATTLEBORO – Entergy Nuclear's problem-plagued cooling towers have again been cited by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, this time for a low-level safety violation of the towers' inspection program.

A recent federal inspection of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor revealed the low-level safety violation, which involves the inspection procedure at the cooling towers, Entergy Nuclear announced late Monday.

The problem earned Entergy Nuclear a "green" finding from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the lowest level of safety problems. The highest is red.

Vermont Yankee's cooling towers have been the source of numerous problems at the Vernon reactor during the past two years, including the partial collapse of a portion of one of the towers in August 2007, and repeated problems in the summer of 2008.

According to a press release from Entergy, the violation dealt with "procedure compliance" and the company was found in violation for not entering cooling tower inspection results into the corrective action program in a timely manner, according to Entergy spokesman Robert Williams.

Entergy Nuclear has been replacing portions of the wooden cooling towers, and according to Williams, the upgrade is now two-thirds complete.

— Staff reports








READER COMMENTS


....and Entergy's broken promises to return the site to a green field when they are short the funds for even minimal decommissioning. Our Governor has turned a deaf ear on all these deficiencies while his foot soldiers in the Department of Public Service and Public Health do his bidding. Vermonters are left holding the bag while plans are entertained for Mr Douglas to go to Washington moving on to the lucrative lobbyist world of energy issues. He will be their poster boy.
-- Posted by ksw on Tue, Nov 10, 2009, 2:39 pm EST

report this comment


What me worry? The cooling towers fall, the transformers burst into flame, the condenser is as full of holes as swiss cheese, the steam dryer has 72 cracks and counting, the containment won't hold in an accident, containment overpressure won't work unless the containment is 100% leak proof, but our friendly NRC won't make us test the containment leak rate for another 5-10 years (after relicensing goes through); we have no clue about the embrittlement of the reactor vessel because we won't pull the test capsules, oops we forgot to monitor the dry casks, better change the state's radiation rules or we will have to downrate, darn those workers who get exposed to too much radiation and then can't open the security doors to get out, why are the neighbors getting restless as their neighbors' houses succumb to the Entergy bulldozers...was that an earthquake Sunday evening around 5 PM? What I wonder is, what is the management smoking?
-- Posted by Sally Shaw on Tue, Nov 10, 2009, 8:42 am EST

report this comment

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Register | Log In

Logout