Per The Rutland Herald:

Vermont Yankee’s steam dryer has withstood the additional stress from a 20 percent jump in power production despite developing an increasing number of cracks, Entergy engineers told a panel from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Wednesday.

And if the steam dryer was going to show serious problems, as it has at other, similar nuclear power plants which have increased power production, it would have by now, Larry Lukens, an Entergy Nuclear engineer, said.

Lukens said the steam dryer’s new cracks appeared in areas of the dryer that don’t receive a lot of stress, supporting his theory that the cracks are a result of natural aging in earlier welded areas rather than metal fatigue. He said the cracks did not affect the structural integrity of the large steel dryer.

Uhm… Good?

Or maybe not.  What Lukens is saying is that (1) there are cracks throughout the system, (2) just because there are cracks is no reason to be concerned and (3) it’s just part of the aging process.

This is my take on it:

You.  Have.  Got.  To.  Be.  Kidding.  Me.

This is not rocket science, though it requires rudimentary knowledge of The Way Things Work.

Large structures with small cracks in them might last for years, but if those cracks are exposed to continual vibrations (you know, like the constant stress of power output designed beyond the device’s original intent) or used beyond their intended age limit (this is not a McCain joke), then maybe those tiny cracks can get a little… what’s the word for it?  Oh yes.  BIGGER.

But I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about it.  It’s not as though any of the aging, antiquated equipment at Vermont Yankee has suffered from any sort of structural problems.

Nothing to worry about at all.

The Vermont state police have once again decided that warrants were an unnecessary part of their process.  Unfortunately for them, they were no match for mild mannered, 4′ 10″, 56-year old, librarian by day, civil rights defender by… okay, also by day… Judith Flint.

The short version: the state police showed up at Kimball Public Library to seize the library’s computers because they had a tip that Brooke Bennett may have used them at some point and she asked them for a warrant.  

As reported in, of all places, The Fresno Bee (used to avoid linking to an AP article; otherwise I’d use the Herald):

Children’s librarian Judith Flint was getting ready for the monthly book discussion group for 8- and 9-year-olds on “Love That Dog” when police showed up.

They weren’t kidding around: Five state police detectives wanted to seize Kimball Public Library’s public access computers as they frantically searched for a 12-year-old girl, acting on a tip that she sometimes used the terminals.

Flint demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business.

[…]

“What I observed when I came in were a bunch of very tall men encircling a very small woman,” said the library’s director, Amy Grasmick, who held fast to the need for a warrant after coming to the rescue of the 4-foot-10 Flint.

The police did return with a warrant eight hours later (see?  How difficult was that?), but concerns remain.  Continuing from the Bee article:

Once in police hands, how broadly could police dig into the computer hard drives without violating the privacy of other library patrons?

[Vermont State Police Colonel] Baker wouldn’t discuss what information was gleaned from the computers or what state police did with information about other people, except to say the scope of the warrant was restricted to the missing girl investigation.

“The idea that they took all the computers, it’s like data mining,” said [deputy director of intellectual freedom issues for the American Library Association] Caldwell-Stone. “Now, all of a sudden, since you used that computer, your information is exposed to law enforcement and can be used in ways that (it) wasn’t intended.'”

Go Judith Flint!  Go Amy Grasmick!  

And as far as the Vermont State Police go, why would you waste your time during a frantic search trying to obtain computers that you have no right to obtain when it’s easy enough to go to a judge first?

I mean, come on.  This is not rocket science.  

Okay… so this is quickie, but it’s good.  First, Paul Hodes (yay!  We worked on his campaign) is joining the chorus of members of congress from neighboring states who are weighing in on Vermont Yankee:

Hodes wants a description of how the NRC will notify New Hampshire federal and state officials of future incidents, documents on the latest incident and information on what is being done to ensure the water cooling system is safe.

Might I humbly suggest that Representative Hodes read Green Mountain Daily?  We seem to be breaking a lot of this news before the print media.

On other, awesome news, the NRC has told Vermont Yankee “no” when it comes to the decommissioning fund:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has shot down plans by Entergy Nuclear to tap into Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning savings account to pay for the handling of spent fuel.

The federal regulators also criticized the company’s projected rate of return on the $440 million fund.

The NRC said that if Entergy was allowed to use the fund for spent fuel management, there would not be enough money to fully dismantle and decontaminate the plant.

Entergy had submitted the plan to the NRC this winter, and the NRC ordered the company to submit a new plan within 90 days. The plan must be submitted five years before any nuclear reactor might shut down. Vermont Yankee’s 40-year license expires in 2012.

This is great news.  I blogged about this January.  Entergy’s been playing their own shell game, trying to use funds reserved for decommissioning to do other work, and the NRC actually said no.  

It’s good to see that sometimes they get it right.  

Per the Brattleboro Reformer:

On Sunday night, the NRC sent a team of four inspectors to try to figure out exactly what is happening with the cooling towers. That team includes a pair of structural engineers that will look at the upgrades that were made to the towers after the August collapse.

The special inspection team will be at the power plant for at least a week, said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“The full timeline for the inspection will be contingent on Entergy’s progress in making the necessary structural repairs and completing its root cause investigation,” he said.

Just something to note about this: Gaye Symington issued a press release on this on Friday night.

I wonder what Douglas has to say about it.

Okay… pulling up web site…

Checking all the July press releases…

Horrible political pandering about a dead girl… well, of course… he wouldn’t want to forget to do that.

Unemployment extension… because when the state economy’s in the tank we want to make sure we can still placate the people who are laid off as a result for an extra 13 weeks.

Request for increased LIHEAP funding… because since we’re not investing in any sort of alternative energy infrastructure, everything’s going to be insanely expensive…

Reminder of state tax holiday… because with all those layoffs at the state level, we really want to decrease our coffers…

Okay, but I’m sure his statement on VY is coming up any moment now…

Here we go… July 10… no, wait… that’s something about reintegration of troops.

Hmm.  I guess there’s nothing about this on the site.

Must be a clerical error.

UPDATE #4:

The NRC has issued a fairly rare Sunday press release.  As reported in evacuationplans.org, the document begins:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched a special inspection Sunday into the circumstances surrounding Friday’s leak in one of the cooling towers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vt., sending structural specialists to the plant.  The inspectors will begin work at the site Monday.

UPDATE #3:

Two updates.  First, the plant is apparently operating at 25%.  Furthermore, VT Yankee spokesman Rob Williams told the associated press (coming to us via the Rutland Herald) that:

“It appears that that broken or degraded bracket was not due to decay but appears to be related to stresses in the design of the new interface between the bracket and the previously replaced column in that area.”

Now, I’m not sure whether we should believe Williams or not, but the idea that the current problems are caused because they didn’t know how to fix the previous problems just sort of fits.

Here’s the rest of the story, as it was posted over the weekend:

Okay– this is what I understand to be going on: VY is operating at 40% 47% under 50% capacity (I keep hearing different numbers, but they’re all in the 40-50% range) due to some serious problems in the cooling towers.  Here’s Symington’s statement:

How many more times will we have to learn about maintenance issues at Vermont Yankee before Jim Douglas presents a plan for transitioning to other sources of power if this aging plant has to be shut down?

After last year’s collapse in part of the cooling system at Vermont Yankee, we were assured that a full-scale review was done of the wooden support structures and the problem had been fixed. Yet here we are again dealing with rotting wood in the cooling system. How can Vermonters have confidence in the ability of Entergy to maintain that plant if the same failures keep occurring?

Vermont’s business community needs to know that this major source of power is reliable. Vermonters need to know that it is safe. This incident underlines the need to have an independent assessment of Vermont Yankee and raises further questions about the wisdom of continuing to rely so heavily on it as major part of our power supply.

Here’s a report which hasn’t been posted online yet, but was forwarded via a whistleblower.  If I can find a clear link I’ll update it later, but here’s what I’ve got.  This version had typos in it (which I’ve corrected) which suggest it’s a preliminary draft and is not perfect in this version.

CR-VTY-2008-02904

Damage to East Cooling Tower Celll CT-1-1

During routine monthly inspections of the cooling towers, the Auxiliary Operator reported observation of some structural degradation to the distribution piping on East side of CT-1-1. The distribution piping appears to be sagging and significant leakage was observed from slip-fit joint adjacent to where where the distribution piping enters the cell from the inlet riser pipe.

A number of saddle supports for the distribution piping in this area were observed to be damaged. Because of these observations the decision was made to reduce reactor power and take the East cooling tower out of service. Open cycle operation of the circulating water system was established and the inlet riser valves to the East cooling tower (CW-6A/B) were closed to isolate flow to the tower.

Inspections of the West cooling tower revealed additional damage to some of the saddles which support the distribution pipe in CT-2-3 and CT-2-4.. There was NO damage observed in either CT-2-1 or CT-2-2. Therefore, it [shall] be concluded that safety-related CT-2-1 is structurally sound and fully operable at this time..

This is a developing story.  As soon as we know more, we’ll post it.

I also find it interesting that just because there’s “no damage observed,” it’s suggested that CT-2-1 is fully sound and operational.  How long was damage not observed in the other towers before they got taken down?

In the meantime, I will just note that, yet again, we’re dealing with a major problem that’s forcing us to purchase power from out of state while Entergy fails to maintain basic standards of quality at its own plant.

It’s time we find a new power source for this state.  It’s been time for some time now.

UPDATE: more from other news sources below the fold.

The Brattleboro Reformer covered this today.  Here’s a choice quote:

Whether there is a sag in the distribution platform or if any structural members have collapsed, wrote Williams, is still under investigation. It is also unclear how long the pipe had been leaking, he stated.

I’m beginning to suspect that Williams got his PR training the same place that Jason Gibbs did.

Continuing in the reformer, Shumlin nails it:

“To me,” said Shumlin, “this is further evidence that Entergy Louisiana does not do business in the best tradition of the way we do business in Vermont. They tell you what they want to hear but (their talk) rarely matches the facts.”

Update #2: And here’s a choice quote from the Rutland Herald:

Vermont Yankee was at 46 percent power late Friday, and company spokesman Robert Williams said the plant was relying on water from the nearby Connecticut River to cool the plant’s condensers. He said the leak was discovered Friday morning during a regular inspection.

Williams only released information about the leak in the east tower and failed to mention the problems in the west tower, which partially collapsed last August.

Here are some photos I took at last night’s 4th of July festivities in Saxton’s River, VT (full set of ten photos here).  Clicking on the photos gets you to larger versions:

How was everyone’s 4th?  Ours was relatively mellow.  No major celebration stuff; just a mostly good lazy day.

Per The Rutland Herald’s Administration cuts 150 state jobs:

Gov. James Douglas’ administration revealed its list of 150 job reductions across more than a dozen state agencies and departments Tuesday, the first step toward cutting costs in the face of a weak economy.

The reductions in areas of state government, such as human services, corrections, education, transportation and natural resources, are all vacant positions, meaning no actual workers were laid off as a result of the move, according to the administration.

“People need to know that we are not planning any layoffs as some other states are,” said Linda McIntire, the deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Administration. “There are all positions that have either been vacant or seen a retirement.”

Oh, really?

After the fold, we’ll go back in time just a wee little bit.  

Let’s just go into the not-so-far-back machine for a moment.  Specifically, we’re going back to June 17th, 2008, when I posted this piece, which included this quote, also from the Rutland Herald:

“It was a surprise,” said Dean, who has worked in state government for eight years and is – at least until the middle of next month – an information technology manager in the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

Dean and three other workers in the agency – a tourism data administrator, a systems developer and a community development consultant – had work to do and lost their jobs because of lack of money to pay them, not because of how they did their jobs, state officials said.

I will also note (as I did before) that I know from direct personal experience that at least one other agency has had to eliminate several temporary employees due to budget cuts and has been told in no uncertain terms that they need to have a reduction in four positions by December.  

I find two things troubling about this in terms of the process here:

1. That the Douglas administration would make such a blatantly false claim that’s easy to demonstrate to be false;


2. That the Rutland Herald would be so complicit in that claim as to state it not just as the administration’s claims but to present it as actual fact

I also find the cuts themselves to be immensely troubling.  I’m curious as to whether or not any of Douglas’ own staff or resources have been cut here.  It somehow seems unlikely, given that the legislature didn’t target any administrative personnel for cuts with the understanding that none of the cuts would result in layoffs.  Again, from the Herald’s June 17th piece:

The layoffs bother Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, and a member of the Appropriations Committee.

That’s because when some lawmakers wanted to target the communication specialists or spokespeople in the administration – such a measure has come up in each of the last two years – he blocked it, with the assurance that it would not result in layoffs, Illuzzi said.

“I went to bat to protect the public relations people. I went out of my way as a member of the Appropriations committee to protect them from being eliminated,” Illuzzi said. “We had a discussion about reduction in force. The clear understanding was that they were going to do this by attrition.”

Now the Joint Fiscal Committee – that is the legislative committee that remains in place to deal with money issues – should take up the matter, Illuzzi said.

The thing to do next is to slash the administration’s own budget.  Administrative spokespeople do not take priority over human services, no matter how much Douglas might enjoy having his lackeys around to make his budget cuts sound all nice and fluffy.

Per the Brattleboro Reformer:

According to police, Pratt and passengers in the car he was driving allegedly shouted racial slurs and threats at a group of black teenagers on Flat Street.

Pratt and the passengers, according to a witness, also threatened a girl in the group, saying they would shoot her in the face.

The car drove to the top of the Transportation Center, police said, where the passengers got out and allegedly continued to shout at the teens below.

“Knowing about the NHRA (Nigger Hating Redneck Association), in which Pratt is a member,” police wrote in an affidavit, one teen allegedly spit on Pratt’s window.

In response, Pratt allegedly pulled a handgun from the center console and displayed it, allegedly leading one of the teenagers to believe that it was directed at him without actually pointing it at him.

According to police, this alleged altercation was recorded on the Transportation Center’s video camera.

A couple things I should explain about this: I know the specific area that’s being discussed here.  It’s not the best part of Brattleboro, but it’s right in the center of downtown, near many businesses, and not the sort of place where you expect someone to be posing threats with a handgun.  

The police seem to be handling this well, being very proactive with it, but still, I find it intensely disturbing that this would happen in Brattleboro.  I know lots of places in Vermont where I would fully expect this sort of thing, but Brattleboro isn’t one of them.

I guess I’m writing about this to follow up with earlier conversations about race and racism in Vermont, to say “yes, most definitely: Vermont has a race problem” and it goes beyond a few isolated incidents.  If there’s an active group in the Brattleboro high school which plays at race baiting, this is a serious problem, not just for the black students who live here (though they bear the brunt of it) but for pretty much everybody.  

One stupid kid with a gun is dangerous.  A group of stupid kids with a gun is an accident waiting to happen.

A note: I am biased.  Mike is a friend, and a really great guy and a lot of fun to jam with.  But that’s not why I’m posting this.  I’m posting this because he did an incredible job in today’s Brattleboro reformer of exactly just what is wrong with the current administration.

Quoted in full from today’s Brattleboro Reformer’s letters to the editor:

Time to stop giving Governor Douglas credit he doesn’t deserve

Friday, June 20

Editor of the Reformer:

With Gov. Douglas’ recent campaign stop in Windham County, it’s a reminder to take note of the Douglas spin machine.

Most recently, the governor announced last week, he would “release an additional $1 million into the traditional weatherization program.” The reality check on this is the governor trying to take credit for something he was originally against. This is a pattern those of us in the Legislature have gotten to know all too well, and we hope others are also catching on to this.

The governor didn’t mention this is the same $1 million increase in weatherization, appropriated by the Legislature as part of its fiscal year 2009 budget bill. He also didn’t mention that his original budget proposal had no increase for weatherization.

It was the Legislature who had the foresight to look ahead and see an energy crunch coming. We passed an energy bill in 2007 he vetoed, but in an election year, with energy costs soaring, he signed on this year.

In this instance, since the governor is trying to take credit, it was the Legislature who saw the need and provided for a $500,000 expansion of weatherization services in the fiscal year ’09 budget. We then added another $500,000 to the weatherization program as part of the economic recovery package put together in April.

Another example of the governor’s “bait and switch” tactic of taking credit for things he opposed, involves Prevent Child Abuse Vermont.

Once again, the governor’s budget zeroed out of his budget, funding for this effective group of mostly volunteers. They get a relatively small, but vital budget allocation to help administer programs around the state that work to help prevent abuse. As someone who has worked for this group, I can attest to its efficacy and need.

After the governor zeroed them out of his budget, they turned to the Legislature — and yes, we restored their funding. Yet, when they had their showcase event at the Statehouse to celebrate their good work, who steps in front of the cameras? That’s right, the same person who zeroed them out of his budget.

In the Legislature, we’ve seen up close, too many instances of this kind of behavior and it’s time we call the governor on it. From the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to the Bright Futures Child Development specialists — and much more, the Legislature has had to provide the leadership that should be forthcoming from our state’s chief executive.

If Gov. Douglas wants to tout his record, let’s put the whole record on the table. And, let’s stop letting this governor take credit he doesn’t deserve.

Rep. Mike Mrowicki,

Windham 5 District,

Dummerston, Putney, Westminster

This clearly isn’t a front-page diary, but I thought y’all might enjoy it, regardless:

I go through these days when I just can’t think of anything particularly meaningful to post that hasn’t been said already.  I’m into all the political stuff that’s going on, and I’m reading, but my brain just can’t think of anything relevant to add.  Sometimes, on days like this, I do photo diaries, usually of birds or of light drawings.

Today, I thought, maybe I should do something about butterflies.

I do a lot of birding, but sometimes (actually, kind of often) things can get quiet while birding and I’ll notice interesting insects.  Fortunately, my camera allows me to get decent insect photography as well.  While I don’t know much at all about insects, I do know I enjoy photographing them.  After the fold is a mixture of butterfly and moth pictures, many of which I’ve managed to identify (with help), but some of which I haven’t.

Note: these are smaller versions of the photos, all of which are hotlinks to the larger version.  The links also frequently tell you what kind of camera I was using when I took the photo and if it’s my primary lens, they’ve got a “Sigma 50-500mm” tag added.  That’s the lens I use for most wildlife photography and is very flexible in the field.

My primary camera is a Pentax K20d, but some of these were taken with earlier models (*ist, K100D, K10d).  That said, here are the butterflies:

This photo is of a mystery butterfly.  I don’t know what it is, but I’d appreciate any help.  It was taken at Parker River Wildlife Refuge in early October of 2007:

This is a pair of white admirals, which found something it liked on the ground near our campsite a few years back.

This is an atlantis frittilary from Woodford, VT from two years ago:

This is Tiger Swallowtail from our garden, taken while I was still using a 35mm camera:

This Common wood nymph also came from Parker River Wildlife Refuge, from August of 2006:

This Black Swallowtail showed up while we were up on Putney Mountain watching hawk migration a couple years ago:

This red admiral showed up in our gardens one day:

This mystery moth was in our gardens last year:

This Milbert’s Tortoiseshell was flitting around while we were looking for obscure sparrows this weekend.  No obscure sparrows, but nice butterfly:

This is a Silver-Spotted Skipper from our gardens:

This Great Spangled Frittilary was in a spot we found while driving around the Island Pond area in Northeastern Vermont:

This creature showed up while we were looking for unusual birds in Kennebunk, ME a few weeks ago:

And, to close, one more photo of a Monarch Butterfly: