Dan Barlow at the Herald makes the catch:

Fish taken from the Vernon pool had 70 picocuries per kilogram of the isotope, the Health Department said. Fish taken about five miles upstream near the Route 9 bridge had findings of 100 picocuries pr kilogram.

The state said the normal “background” levels for strontium-90 are between 120-360 picocuries per kilogram. Officials typically test the bones of fish – referred to as the “inedible portions” of the fish in the Health Department’s release – because that is where the isotope collects.

(Emphasis added.)

http://rutlandherald.com/artic…

Snark alert!

Over the next 20 years, if ENVY is relicensed, Vermont could become a leader in fish laundering, importing toxin-filled fish to swim in the Vernon pool until their strontium 90 levels are reduced. Thanks, Entergy!

Green jobs!

Reporter Susan Smallheer gets the the prize this week for Entergy Nuclear news stories. Writing in the Rutland Herald, Smallheer first broke the story of the fish caught in the CT River, laced with strontium.

VT’s radioactive Health Officer, Bill Irwin, claims the strontium couldn’t be from Vermont Yankee. Arnie Gundersen says it sure could be, and “I would check a hell of a lot more fish.”

As far as predictions and analysis go, I think Arnie’s got a better record.

http://rutlandherald.com/artic…

Susan’s next great story: sinkholes! For the last two years, engineers have noticed–and reported, five different times–sinkholes near the leak location. According to the NRC, Entergy Nuclear treated these as “trip hazards”, not indicators that something seriously wrong was happening underground.  Conveniently, when radiactive tritium showed up in the test wells by the river, those sinkholes helped Entergy know right where to dig for the leaks.

http://rutlandherald.com/artic…

Thanks, Susan. Keep asking questions.

In a further time-saving move for Vermont’s Public Service Board, which has yet to rule on Entergy Nuclear’s request to join six aging reactors in a shell corporation, NY’s Public Service Commission said NO! to Entergy’s request. Three of the six reactors Entergy wanted to spin off into Enexus are located in NY. The others are in VT, MA and MI.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/sto…

The decision by the New York Public Service Commission is a major set back for the New Orleans-based power company…

Entergy executives have conceded investor fatigue exists over the spinoff.

( – promoted by GMD)

“Entergy Vermont Yankee invites media to an important announcement …”

That’s what the press release said, so I went to the Vernon reactor site for the new media, greenmountaindaily.com.

As I stood in line to sign in, Larry Smith, head flack onsite for the aging reactor, recognized me and asked what I was doing there. I replied that I was there as a member of the media to cover the event for Green Mtn Daily. “No, you’re an activist. You didn’t get an invitation.”

I certainly did get an invitation. That’s how I knew about the event. But Larry insisted I hadn’t gotten a personal invitation. I scanned the list of attendees as I signed in. Of the 15-20 people in attendance, a third or more were Entergy employees. Most of the rest were members of the old media outlets: Herald, Reformer, Sentinel, Freep, Channel 44. A couple were from the Windham Regional Commission. These were the “key stakeholders” for this “special briefing”.

During this time, my Entergy minder had switched from the Media officer to the Security officer. After more discussion about online media and threats of arrest, I took Entergy’s pre-printed press release and left.

So enough about me. What was the “important announcement” Entergy Nuclear had in mind?

Nothing much new. What we’ve been hearing for weeks:

“Entergy today announced it has identified and stopped the source of tritium leakage…”

The press release continues with more big news, “… Entergy’s Ex. VP, Operations, Mark Savoff expressed regret the leak had occurred.”

No mention that Entergy replaced the underground or buried piping at its Palisades, MI reactor, or any plans to do the same at the older Vernon reactor.

A trifling amount of soil, (“about 150 cubic feet”) compared to the total contaminated area (well over one million cubic feet), will be removed as radioactive waste.

Short version of Entergy Nuclear’s “important announcement“: Once Again, Too Little, Too Late.

This leak occurred when two uninspected pipes, providing redundancy for the reactor’s Advanced Off Gas system, both failed. How long ago has not been determined.

When these two pipes failed, the leaking radioactive water should have been taken up by a sump pump. But the pump failed because it was clogged with muck and concrete dust. Then the radioactive water leaked out through joints in the concrete that surrounded the pipe array. The joints were supposed to have been sealed to prevent such leakage.

This is the kind of multiple, cascading series of failures that caused Entergy’s earlier transformer fire and cooling tower collapse. There’s no indication that Entergy Nuclear is taking real steps to prevent something similar from happening again. The next failure will probably be in a different system. It may have already started, but not yet been detected.

Keep your fingers crossed, seat belts fastened, and evacuation bags packed. The next 23 months may be bumpy.

It’s hard to list them all.

Because the Public Service Board is holding a hearing on Entergy’s failure to monitor the heat and radiation coming from their high level radioactive waste dump,

Because of the state’s Departments of Health and Public Service’s failure to monitor the waste as required,

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revealed the failure of Holtec, the manufacturer of the waste casks, to do required testing on the casks.

Holtec’s casks had weld failure, according to a whistleblower.

http://www.fox44.net/Global/st…

There’s no trust left. The legislature and the Public Service Board will not in good conscience find another 20 years of Entergy Nuclear operation in the Public Good.  

“Too Cheap to Meter” was the claim used to help sell nuclear power in the fifties, according to urban legend.

This recession we’re in may help that promise come true. The price for electricity on the spot market was cheaper than ENVY’s “everyday low price” to CVPS and GMP.

Wholesale prices in PJM Interconnection LLC, the largest U.S. power market, averaged $40.38 per megawatt-hour during the second quarter, down 60 percent from a year earlier.

Entergy Nuclear Plants

Beyond declining demand and prices, Entergy was stung by output disruptions, which contributed to a 44 percent drop in profit from its reactors. The company, which supplies power to about 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, got about 65 percent of its 2008 earnings from nuclear plants outside its service territories

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…

In a Friday filing, the department that’s supposed to represent Vermonters’ interests against the purely commercial concerns of Entergy Nuclear told state regulators that a full cleanup of the Vernon reactor site is unnecessary.

The Department recommends that site restoration include removal of all above ground structures and all below ground structures to a depth of at least three feet below grade, followed by regrading and reseeding where necessary or appropriate.

Don’t worry, say our state protectors:

the vast majority of contaminated materials will need to be removed

Entergy needn’t bother with the rest. That’s headed down the river to Mass. and Ct.

No point in looking for what’s been swept under the rug. There’s not enough money in the cleanup fund to deal with it anyway.

The full filing isn’t on line yet, but a pdf is making the rounds.

One of the consequences of Douglas budgeting seems to be failure to keep Public Service Board and Dept of Public Service websites updated.

Case in point- Docket 7530, in which Entergy asks to extend its boundary fence, because the increased radiation from the 2005 power boost puts them over the state limit.

A Public Hearing was held July 13, but the PSB website still doesn’t make the filing documents available to the press and public.

This is from the Public Service Board website.

“Public Hearings Scheduled:  

Docket 7530 In Re Petition of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, to locate a new perimeter fence is scheduled for July 13, 2009, at 7:00 P.M., at the Vernon Elementary School Cafeteria, 381 Governor Hunt Road in Vernon.”

Entergy Nuclear wants to move the fence farther away from their leaking reactor because they can’t comply with radiation limits.

I say, sure, let ENVY move the fence. Move it to the other side of the Vernon Elementary School  — the school’s too close to the reactor. Shut down Vernon School and have Entergy build a new school where it’s safe. The radiation exposure limits are not set to protect growing children. The limits are based on damage to healthy adult men, not on the effects to more vulnerable people.

And if everything is so hunky-dorey at Entergy, why haven’t the radiation calculations from last year been released yet?

Still massaging the data at the Dept of Health?

Or did Gov. Douglas lay off too many people?

NOT an April Fool’s spoof:

Yankee springs another hot leak

Published: April 2, 2009

BRATTLEBORO – Entergy Nuclear announced late Wednesday afternoon that it had another radioactive leak, this time in a filter that removes radioactivity from other water leaks.

The company, in its weekly newsletter to the media, said the leak was not affecting the operation of the plant. The leak was found in a filter in a portion of the plant that was plagued by another leak that was fixed last week after three months of leaking thousands of gallons of radioactive water…

…Today’s announcement is the third radioactive leak at the plant in the past three months.

http://rutlandherald.com/artic…

( – promoted by odum)

Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) spokesman David O’Brien has announced a “Name That Nuk” contest for the embattled Vernon reactor operator.

Originally incorporated in Vermont as “ENVY”, Entergy Nuclear seeks input from the public on which other Deadly Sin they would prefer. “That whole ENVY-thing isn’t working”, admitted O’Brien ruefully.

“We’ve got the whole robust gamut to choose from: pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony and sloth”, offered O’Brien. “It’s a tough call, just incredibly important, with long term implications for all Vermonters. First we thought we could get the Governor to make the decision. Then we realized that since Vermonters each have two pounds of nuclear waste stored for them in Vernon, we could instill some pride of ownership with this naming contest.”

Pat O’Donnell, R-Vernon/unGuilford, added, “We first thought “LUST” might be appropriate, since we’re located in Southern Vermont. But the good people of Vernon objected, and we decided to take the heat off by letting the public in on it.”

Allowing the public to participate is not without controversy. Some in the Douglas Administration wanted to rename the reactor “Healthy Living”, while “Vibrant Economy” and “213 Vermont Jobs” were favored by others. In the end, bowing to tradition, so beloved by traditional Vermonters, “We decided to stick with the Seven Deadly Sins”, said O’Brien.

Prizes include installation of radiant floor heating, heated driveways, and landscaping with radiant dairy cows. Or you can have the company’s mascot, Stronty the Clown with the Radiant Smile, at your children’s next birthday party.

All entries become the property of Entergy International. The final decision is final, with no backsies, broken deals, promises, fuel rods, cranes, valves, pipes or waste casks. Details on just how the public will make its will known are still to be worked out.