The PSB Does a Public Service

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Entergy might be careful what it wishes for in future.  After badgering the Public Service Board for months to take action on the issue of a Certificate of Public Good for Vermont Yankee, they are getting their wish; but it isn’t working out for them quite as they had envisioned.

Yesterday, PSB Commissioner Elisabeth Miller  wrote to the regional head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to express concern over the

pattern of human errors at the Vernon reactor during the past 15 months.

Miller lists five errors, ranging from failure to remove a plastic cover from a pump before it was installed to inaccurately measuring the dose rate from a shipment of radioactive waste.

Weighing in on the probable outcome of the Public Service Board’s decision regarding continued operation of Vermont Yankee, Governor Shumlin says he is optimistic that the Board will refuse to sign-off on the twenty year extension of VY’s permit to operate.

“I want to shut the plant down on schedule and I’m disappointed that it’s not going to be shut down next week but I’m hoping that we can get a decision from the Public Service Board that will bring that about as quickly as we can. I think it’s in Vermonters best interests – look, we’re not even buying power from the plant anymore.”

If the Public Service Board denies Entergy a Certificate of Public Good and the issue of relicensing is appealed to the US Supreme Court, it is still unclear whether or not Vermont Yankee could continue to operate in defiance of the PSB until a final ruling comes from the Supremes…which would probably mean years more of progressive decrepitude and consequences at the geriatric facility.

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

4 thoughts on “The PSB Does a Public Service”

  1. Past 15 months? Although it may be redundant to include the many years of ‘mishaps’, they bear repeating since they were ominous as to what we could expect from this bunch:

    2002-2010 Partial list

    http://www.vnrc.org/program-in…

    Hard to believe this was nearly 2 short years ago:

    http://www.greenmountaindaily….

    Page 3:

    “Entergy Vermont Yankee employees are stressed and underperforming in areas related to public safety. Faulty maintenance and repair work, poor quality control, abbreviated extent of condition review, supervision failures and poor interdepartmental coordination have led to a series of component and performance failures which seem to be increasing in frequency. In March 2011, Entergy attorneys told the NRC that delay in issuing the renewed license (regulatory uncertainty) was causing VY employees to lose morale and was negatively affecting Entergy’s ability to hire or retain qualified personnel. A few years earlier, a Pilgrim Nuclear Station employees union filed a petition for leave to intervene before NRC in opposition to an Entergy move to reorganize and consolidate its nuclear fleet. Pilgrim workers said that they did not want Pilgrim to become contaminated with Vermont Yankee’s “poor safety culture.”

    http://www.necnp.org/files/doc…

    New York wanted VY removed from Enexus before they eventually put the kibosh on it:

    Already, Vermont’s action has caused New York State regulators, where Entergy owns the Indian Point reactors, to consider placing new restrictions on Enexus, perhaps forcing Enexus to drop Vermont Yankee from its holdings and possibly even scuttling the deal entirely. The State is currently involved in litigation before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and asking for a denial of Indian Point’s request for a license extension.

    http://www.nirs.org/mononline/…

  2. Just to continue the list from VRNC’s website, here’s a link to 2011 & 2012, interspersed with a bit of regulatory history. Gotta add the latest condenser / “oops we left a scalpel in the patient” event.

    http://www.safeandgreencampaig…

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