(Bumped up, do to some fairly substantive updates below the fold. – promoted by JulieWaters)

Some time ago, I wrote about the fenceline limits at VT Yankee.  Basically, we were looking at two different ways of interpreting the amount of radiation leaked by VT Yankee, one of which tried to look at the amount actually released, the other of which tried to look at how much the human body will absorb.  This allowed Entergy to compare numbers under one formula, and then under another, and say it had only had a small change from one year to the next.  

It’s kind of like saying that someone grew around 61cm in a year, because one year they were measured in inches and the next in cm.  Exact same size, but different measurement standards.  

Now come proposed rules by the Department of Health, which eliminate that conversion factor and goes back to the more strict standards, and Entergy is not amused.  

Per today’s Rutland Herald, once again from Susan Smallheer:

Entergy Nuclear said the new standard would cut radiation limits by 30 percent to 40 percent.

Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said the state already had the most stringent radiation standard in the country.

“We have always committed to meet the state’s 20 millirem limit not a 20 milli roentgen,” he wrote in an e-mail, referring to the different measurements for radiation release versus radiation absorption.

See, here’s the thing: the new ruling doesn’t cut radiation limits.  It eliminates a loophole that Entergy used (with the help of the Douglas administration) to bypass radiation limits.  Now that there’s a proposal to remove that loophole, Entergy is whining about it, and talking about their commitment, not to the actual law, but to what they think the law should be.

But the long and short of it is that this is really good news.

UPDATES after the jump.

Two new stories this morning:

First, there’s an environmental lawyer suing over the warm water issue:

David Mears, director of the Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School, said that Judge Merideth Wright didn’t follow the law closely enough to protect the habitat of the American shad, applying warm-water fisheries standards to that section of the Connecticut River, which has been designated a cold water fishery.

Entergy wants to discharge the water into the river warm to make money: Company officials on Tuesday estimated that it uses 20 megawatts of power to operate Vermont Yankee’s cooling towers, power that it could be selling on the power market.

Yes.  You read that right.  Entergy is complaining that it’s unfair for them to have to use power that they could be selling in the process of generating a lot more power.  

Second, the state’s radiological health chief is saying that increased radiation is just fine and dandy, but in doing so, makes some fairly obvious admissions:

Irwin answered “yes” when Sen. Mark MacDonald, chairman of the committee, asked if Vermont Yankee could still be within state-mandated radiation limits even while higher doses of radiation were falling on the school across the road from the plant in Vermont’s southeast corner.

Entergy Nuclear, which owns the plant, has been buying property next to the plant and moving its site boundary farther from the reactor. The state monitors radiation using instruments called dosimeters posted at the plant site boundary.

Under the committee’s questioning, Irwin agreed that moving the dosimeters farther from the reactor would make it easier for the plant to stay under the state’s radiation limits, even though radiation emissions had increased since the plant boosted its power output by 20 percent in 2005.

“Does that not allow sources that emit radiation to emit more radiation than they used to and still be in compliance?” MacDonald asked.

“Yes,” Irwin replied.

I actually love the creativity of just buying nearby property and moving the sensors.  It’s very… inventive.  It’s like adjusting the scale so I can convince myself that I’ve lost weight.

Sometimes when I read this, I think, “do they think we are idiots?”

Then I realize that they probably don’t care if we are idiots.  They just care if there are the “right” people in government who will let them get away with this stuff.

And you know what?

There probably are.