During routine surveillance, steam was seen coming from the high-pressure coolant injection system at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at 11:25 a.m. on Feb. 16.
“All unnecessary personnel were cleared from the reactor building as a precautionary measure and valves in the steam path were closed,” said Larry Smith, Yankee’s manager of communication. “The issue has been entered into the corrective action systems and an investigation has been started to determine the source of the steam.”
I’m beginning to think that the chief economic impact of the closing of Vermont Yankee will be on the professional investigator industry.
In the meantime, per Dave Gram/AP in today’s Reformer:
A major manufacturer in the nuclear industry is reporting a potential “substantial safety hazard” with control rods at Vermont Yankee and more than two dozen other reactors around the country, according to a report made public Wednesday by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said it had discovered extensive cracking and “material distortion,” and likely would recommend that the boiling water reactors using its Marathon control rod blades replace them more frequently than they had been told to previously.
Oh, and…
Signs of cracking in the blades would include increased levels of boron and tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, in the water used to cool the reactor, said Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman.
“As long as there is no significant increase in boron or tritium observed, the recommendation would be continue operation until the end of the operating cycle,” Sheehan said in an e-mail.
Tritium. Where have I heard of that before…?
Usually the first thing that enters my snarky brain upon reading these articles is “drip, drip, drip…” The sound that steady radioactive water torture makes as it wears on any thread of sanity left in a discussion on our energy future. We know the torture all too well at this point. We’re subjected to it every Friday. Today however, we have an aberration. Not only is it not Friday afternoon, but we’ve had a release of a wholly different state of matter.
Let us hope we never have a release in a solid state.
In Rod We Trust.
to look your best, everyone is watching.
Entergy Vermont Yankee is under massive pressure to finagle their 30 year license extension and this is the best they can run this facility!
How much more proof is needed that structurally Vermont Yankee couldn’t manage another 30 years.
The tighter they squeeze at Entergy the more bad stuff oozes out.
Captain of Titanic: “Don’t worry. We’re only pausing briefly to take on a little ice.”
Maybe they can blame it on the solar flare event today and tomorrow.
Lead even the corrupt lapdogs at the NRC to shut it down?
Do they really intend to wait until Vermont, NH, MA and CT are affected by their very own metaphorical mushroom cloud?
Didn’t everybody get the memo from Larry Smith? You only announce drip/leak/fracture on Friday, never, ever earlier in the week. It brings bad luck and gives Larry a sad. Silly media.
Extensive cracking and “material distortion” in the control rods.
I wonder what increasing the reaction by 20% does to these defective control rods?