NRC Announces Enhanced Oversight of Vermont Yankee

by: Maggie Gundersen

Wed Apr 07, 2010 at 13:11:46 PM EDT

will conduct additional inspections at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, operated by Entergy Nuclear and located in Vernon, Vt. Through enhanced specialized inspections, the NRC will oversee Entergy's efforts to address groundwater contamination at the site and to review and assess the company's response to an NRC Demand for Information (DFI) issued in early March.

In January, Entergy notified the NRC that it had received positive sample results for tritium from a groundwater well at Vermont Yankee. The NRC has been closely monitoring Entergy's actions to identify, mitigate, characterize and remediate the source of the contamination. The NRC's Resident Inspectors and regional specialists continue to provide oversight of the company's actions through direct observations and independent assessments.

Both NRC and Entergy continue to maintain that the "tritium contamination does not pose any health or safety concern for members of the public or plant workers".

NRC has continued this stance in spite of the extensive release of thousands of gallons of tritiated water and research by reputable scientists who contend that NRC does not adequately address the health effects of tritium.  

California and Colorado have set significantly more stringent tritium release standards of 400 pico curies per liter in California and 500 pico curies per liter in Colorado compared with the NRC standard of 30,000 pico curies per liter before even requiring reporting of tritium, and EPA requires a limit of 20,000 pico curies per liter for drinking water.  See original document below:

NRC Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee deviation memo 4-2-2010