"The observed short duration and small volume of leakage from the drain line appears to indicate that the event did not result in any impact to public health and safety," according to an NRC statement.
Vermont Yankee by coincidence or design never fails to make a small headline sometime on Friday afternoon or some sleepy Saturday or Sunday morning. What are the odds? The latest caps a busy couple weeks getting the beast back online after refueling.
The newest hi-jinks at the troubled plant comes on the heels of VY offcials misleading Vermont sate officials about under ground pipes leaking tritium and the state senate vote against re-licensing, strontium 90 was discovered in a fish near the plant and almost as a side show the entire unit was “Scrammed”, automatically shut down due to a switching problem during power up.
Picture this power plant running for twenty more years, 2032? Safe, clean and reliable headlines every slow news day.
A new leak of radioactive material has been found and fixed at the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, officials said Saturday. Vapor and water containing 13 different radioactive substances was found late Friday coming from a pipe in a hole workers dug to find the source of an earlier leak.
"This was a new leak," Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said in an e-mail. "The leak has been stopped. … There is no threat to public health or safety." The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission also said the public faced no danger.
emphasis added,BP
Entergy sent out this press release last night at about 9:30 pm. I have not altered the press release. Entergy spokesperson Larry Smith had the emphasis in bold in the original press release.
I guess this means that the plant will continue to operate while a solution is determined.
Press Relase VY AOG leak 5-29-2010
The end-of-week announcement of yet another leak or breakdown at VY. Nice catch, BP! I’m sure Larry Smith was counting on Vermonters to be down at the Lake or caught in holiday traffic, so that most would simply miss the understated item in the paper.
The Washington Post talked to chief Health Officer Bill Irwin, who does his best to encourage out-of-state tourism.
The headline is one for the record books:
Not to worry. Bill’s not worried:
It’s a short article, that raises more questions than it answers. Like, the DoH has 2,000 samples that haven’t been tested? Why the disparity in how long it takes to get radioactive isotopes identified?
The big tritium+ leak was identified in January from a sample taken in November. The strontium laced fish was revealed in May, from a fish caught in February. But overnight, ENVY can tell us that at least 13 isotopes were revealed in this “new” leak that won’t hurt a bit.
It has not been revealed how a 1/8 inch hole developed in a two inch pipe overnight.
— ENVY and NRC always use the standard phrase “no threat to public health or safety.” Does this magical phrase have some specific meaning within the nuclear regulatory framework? I mean, it sounds reassuring — but when they use the identical language every time, it makes me wonder if it has a special significance in nukespeak.
— In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and the multiple scandals at MMS, it makes me wonder exactly who’s running things at NRC. How many people have ties to the industry and/or have hopes of future employment? How many Bushies are still burrowed deep within the bureaucracy? It might be interesting to look at the resumes of the top people in MMS and NRC.