State upbraids Entergy on bad info
APNewsBreak: State upbraids Entergy on bad info
By DAVE GRAM Associated Press Writer
State upbraids Entergy on bad info
By DAVE GRAM
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - State utility regulators chastised the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant on Thursday for providing inaccurate information about the extent of underground piping at the reactor, saying they may seek financial penalties against the plant's owner.
The Department of Public Service, which had supported Vermont Yankee's bid for a 20-year extension on a license set to expire in 2012, is putting that support on hold until it can get satisfactory answers, department deputy commissioner Stephen Wark said in an interview Thursday evening.
"For us, this is a very disturbing development," Wark said. "It requires us to re-evaluate our case that we brought before the (Public Service) Board." The department represents ratepayers in utility cases before the quasi-judicial board.
Also Thursday, the department's commissioner, David O'Brien, wrote to Entergy Nuclear, the parent company of the reactor's owner, to ask for a new sworn affidavit about the extent of underground piping at the plant. O'Brien also wrote that the department was likely to ask the board to financially penalize Vermont Yankee for its earlier misstatements.
The move comes five months after the plant made its most recent of several statements that it had no underground piping carrying water that could contain radioactivity, one week after the plant announced that radioactive tritium had turned up in a monitoring well at the reactor site in Vernon, and one day after spokesman Robert Williams confirmed plant technicians were considering underground piping as a possible source of the leak.
Entergy "did not provide accurate information to the department or its contractor" when asked about underground piping at the plant, O'Brien wrote in letters to Entergy and the Public Service Board.
The company has fully acknowledged the department's concerns and its management is directing a review of the questions received from state consultants and the answers given to them, plant spokesman Robert Williams said in an e-mail Thursday evening.
"Vermont Yankee shares the DPS concerns and takes them seriously," Williams wrote.
The company's goal is establish whether there was miscommunication, and if so, to determine how it happened "and set the record straight," Williams wrote.
The question about underground piping was one of numerous queries Entergy was asked to answer as lawmakers prepare to decide whether the plant should get the extension on its current 40-year license. Underground piping was specifically mentioned as an area to investigate in a law passed two years ago.
Entergy told investigators that "there were no piping systems that met the description" of underground piping set out in the legislation, O'Brien wrote.
He added that the tritium discovery showed that there is indeed underground piping that carries radionuclides.
Vermont's is the only Legislature in the country that has the authority under state law to vote on a nuclear plant's relicensing, which has turned Vermont Yankee's future into a huge political issue for the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the administration of Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.
Wark met with senior lawmakers early Thursday evening to tell them of the letters written by the department. Participants in the meeting said they were surprised at the level of frustration toward Vermont Yankee expressed by Wark, the No. 2 official at a department that up until now has been generally supportive of the plant.
© 2009, Telegraph Publishing Company, Nashua, New Hampshire
By DAVE GRAM Associated Press Writer
State upbraids Entergy on bad info
By DAVE GRAM
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - State utility regulators chastised the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant on Thursday for providing inaccurate information about the extent of underground piping at the reactor, saying they may seek financial penalties against the plant's owner.
The Department of Public Service, which had supported Vermont Yankee's bid for a 20-year extension on a license set to expire in 2012, is putting that support on hold until it can get satisfactory answers, department deputy commissioner Stephen Wark said in an interview Thursday evening.
"For us, this is a very disturbing development," Wark said. "It requires us to re-evaluate our case that we brought before the (Public Service) Board." The department represents ratepayers in utility cases before the quasi-judicial board.
Also Thursday, the department's commissioner, David O'Brien, wrote to Entergy Nuclear, the parent company of the reactor's owner, to ask for a new sworn affidavit about the extent of underground piping at the plant. O'Brien also wrote that the department was likely to ask the board to financially penalize Vermont Yankee for its earlier misstatements.
The move comes five months after the plant made its most recent of several statements that it had no underground piping carrying water that could contain radioactivity, one week after the plant announced that radioactive tritium had turned up in a monitoring well at the reactor site in Vernon, and one day after spokesman Robert Williams confirmed plant technicians were considering underground piping as a possible source of the leak.
Entergy "did not provide accurate information to the department or its contractor" when asked about underground piping at the plant, O'Brien wrote in letters to Entergy and the Public Service Board.
The company has fully acknowledged the department's concerns and its management is directing a review of the questions received from state consultants and the answers given to them, plant spokesman Robert Williams said in an e-mail Thursday evening.
"Vermont Yankee shares the DPS concerns and takes them seriously," Williams wrote.
The company's goal is establish whether there was miscommunication, and if so, to determine how it happened "and set the record straight," Williams wrote.
The question about underground piping was one of numerous queries Entergy was asked to answer as lawmakers prepare to decide whether the plant should get the extension on its current 40-year license. Underground piping was specifically mentioned as an area to investigate in a law passed two years ago.
Entergy told investigators that "there were no piping systems that met the description" of underground piping set out in the legislation, O'Brien wrote.
He added that the tritium discovery showed that there is indeed underground piping that carries radionuclides.
Vermont's is the only Legislature in the country that has the authority under state law to vote on a nuclear plant's relicensing, which has turned Vermont Yankee's future into a huge political issue for the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the administration of Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.
Wark met with senior lawmakers early Thursday evening to tell them of the letters written by the department. Participants in the meeting said they were surprised at the level of frustration toward Vermont Yankee expressed by Wark, the No. 2 official at a department that up until now has been generally supportive of the plant.
© 2009, Telegraph Publishing Company, Nashua, New Hampshire