Engineers Find More Cracks in VY Steam Dryer

November 21, 2008 

McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Brattleboro Reformer, Vt.

During a recheck of the results of Vermont Yankee's steam dryer inspection,
engineers found that the number of additional hairline cracks in the dryer was actually
18, and not 16, as previously reported.

"These two additional ones were also likely created in the
early years of plant operations and are not a result of metal fatigue that had been
seen in some other boiling water reactors that had been through a power uprate,"
stated Rob Williams, spokesman for Yankee, in an e-mail to the media.

The steam dryer inspection was conducted during a recent refueling outage at the
nuclear power plant in Vernon. The inspection was the second of three required by
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission following the approval of a 20 percent power uprate.
In addition to the dryer inspection, Yankee technicians conducted more than 5,000
tasks including inspections and parts replacements.