Report raises new questions about Yankee reliability

October 21, 2009

By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer
A consultant's first report to the Legislature raised new concerns about the reliability of the 37-year-old Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee in light of its owner's desire to re-license and operate the nuclear power plant for another 20 years.
Arnold Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates Inc. raised five concerns in his first report:

• Operator's slowness in showing how they would address 80 action items identified by an oversight panel last spring as critical to continued operation of the plan after 2012, when the plant's current license expires.
• Eight operations incidents since December 2008.

• Potential radioactive contamination in underground piping that wasn't previously disclosed.
• Corrosion problems in the water system at the plant.

• A corporate hiring freeze that could affect the plant's ability to remedy the 80 issues that need action.
Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windsor, said the report raises new concerns for lawmakers to weigh this winter. If Vermont Yankee reached agreements with Vermont's electric utilities on what they would pay for electricity produced at the Vernon plant, the Legislature likely would vote on whether to allow the plant to seek a new license to operate past 2012.
Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee didn't have a copy of Gundersen's report, but he discounted most of the concerns as less serious than portrayed by the Legislature's consultant.
Gundersen noted that as of Sept. 30, Vermont Yankee had plans for only 14 of the 80 issues identified as needing attention at the plan.

Williams countered, "The closeout of those issues is still on track. We have said all along the goal is by the end of the year."
Gundersen said the eight instances when the nuclear power plant had to reduce power production demonstrated "critical reliability issues."

Williams described the events as "various small leaks. The plant is working very well."
Gundersen called "microbiologically induced corrosion" a major concern. It occurs, he wrote, "when soil microbes from the Connecticut River enter the Service Water System and attach themselves to the inside of the pipe. These microbes create chemical reactions with the steel in the pipe that causes the pipe to narrow and weaken. An analogy would be a plaque buildup in one's arteries."
"That is well understood," Williams argued. "We have a process in place to look for it, and when it is identified, it is addressed."

Gundersen said the oversight panel, on which he had served, had raised concerns about high staff turnover and the need for more personnel to address problems that would arise trying to operate an older plant. Now, with a corporate hiring freeze instituted in September, Gundersen worried about Vermont Yankee's ability to address the list of the 80 problems.
"It isn't a strict hiring freeze," Williams said. "We continue to fill critical positions." He noted that in 2008 the plant hired 83 new employees, and in 2009 it has hired 30.
Williams said he didn't understand the concern Gundersen raised about contaminated underground piping: "We have committed to inspecting our safety-related underground piping as part of license renewal."
Shumlin praised Gundersen's analysis: "He has the engineering expertise that is so critical to understanding these issues." As to the differences between Gundersen's assessments and that of Vermont Yankee officials, Shumlin said, "He has an extraordinary track record for being right."

Contact Nancy Remsen at 651-4888 or [email protected]. To have Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.
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