[THE UPDATE, 05/30/10]

Another leak in those non-existent underground pipes was found:

Plant spokesman Larry Smith said late Saturday that radioactive water and vapor leaked from a pipe in a pit that workers dug to find the source of an earlier leak. The latest leak involved 13 different radioactive isotopes.

(Another radioactive leak found at Yankee, Barre/Montpelier Times Argus, 05/30/10)

But, as usual, nothing to be concerned about.

[END UPDATE]

It is much more fun to write about progress, but when the world is so full of bald faced liars and these same bald faced liars are feeding the imaginations of the public …  well … as tedious as it gets one must point out the bald faced lies.

Face it, by all available evidence the tag team of Louisiana Entergy Yankee and our very own Nuclear “Regulatory” Agency are, with the quiet acquiescence of the Douglas mal-administration, bound and determined to lie to us about seemingly any and everything.

Entergy Nuclear officials failed to investigate five sinkholes that developed outside the reactor building for the past two years that were near the site of what turned out to be the radioactive leak at Vermont Yankee, according to a state report.

. . .

“These sinkholes were basically small depressions that are not unusual given weather conditions that can result in frost heaves, etc., and cause a depression. These were categorized as trip hazards and were not linked to the leakage,” [Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission] wrote in an e-mail Wednesday.

(Official: Entergy ignored sinkholes, Barre/Montpelier Times Argus, 05/28/10)

LET’S BE PERFECTLY CLEAR ABOUT SOME THINGS!

(my emphasis)

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant had a radioactive leak years before the one found last month, confirming a disclosure last week by a consultant to the Legislature that a plant employee told him of a previous leak at the reactor, federal officials say.

Donald Jackson, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission section chief, confirmed in a conference call between NRC officials and reporters Monday that the 2005 leak occurred in the same pipe system that is the focus of the search for the source of the current leak. “In 2005, within the confines of this pipe tunnel, there was a problem with one of the pipes,” he said.

(NRC confirms Vermont Yankee had earlier leak, Boston.com, 02/24/10)

Simultaneously, of course, Douglas and his cronies were busy poo-pooing the above revelation:

David O’Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, said on Tuesday that a 2005 leak at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is not related to the current tritium leak under investigation.

(O’Brien: 2005 leak not related to current tritium probe, VtDigger.com, 02/24/10)

Louisiana Entergy Yankee, the NRC and Douglas and his his cronies all lined up to blow off the seriousness of the revelation regards 2005.

A leak of tritiated water was identified (in a piping system said to be non-existent a mere 4 years later), and that leak was temporarily fixed (no public record of it ever being permanently fixed) … yet when sink holes started appearing in the vicinity of the 2005 leak they were deemed to be worthy of no more attention than a frost heave in an early spring corn field!

How about a bit of a flashback (my emphasis of course)?

A tritium leak discovered at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon poses no danger to the public, said officials from both the Vermont Department of Health and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Despite the low significance of the danger to public health and the environment, Yankee personnel have been mobilized to determine the source of the leak.

“Yankee has assembled a multi-disciplined technical team to investigate the source of the elevated level,” said Yankee spokesman Rob Williams.

Vermont’s chief of radiological health, Bill Irwin, was notified of the leak as soon as it was discovered.

“They’ve been very open and forthright,” said Irwin.

. . .

“Yankee and the rest of the industry have been taking a proactive approach in groundwater monitoring including communicating the results,” said Williams. “So, while there are no regulatory requirements to report tritium at these low levels, notifications were proactively made to regulatory agencies and the public.”

The only other leak of tritium discovered at the plant was in 1976, said Williams, when contaminated water was found to have leaked into the river.

(Tritium leak found at VY, Brattleboro Reformer, 01/08/10)

And the whole time Louisiana Entergy Yankee was lying to the people of Vermont the NRC stayed tight lipped DESPITE HAVING BEEN ADVISED BY LOUISIANA ENTERGY YANKEE OF THE 2005 LEAK (that occurred in piping Louisiana Entergy Yankee denied the existence of)!

So where do the lies stop?