Vermont Legislators Seek Radiation Rule Review

November 14, 2008

McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bob Audette

Vermont lawmakers want the state Department of Health to rewrite a
rule about how radiation from Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is
measured.

Lawmakers say changes made to the rule never went through a formal
rule-making process. On Wednesday a special legislative panel voted
unanimously to declare part of the rule was unclear.

The change in the way the Department of Health measures radiation was
especially disturbing to Rep. Sarah Edwards, P-Brattleboro, and Senate
President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Putney.

"Safety is our top concern," said Shumlin. "And there have been
tremendous concerns about the way this decision was arrived at."

Edwards said the Department of Health violated state law when it
instituted the new measurement system and its important that the change goes
back through the public hearing process.

"This issue was arising when it was germane to the legislative work
around the uprate hearings in 2004," she said. "But it did not come to the
Natural Resources and Energy Committee though it should have."

While the Department of Health did do a presentation in Brattleboro in
2004, said Edwards, "It did not follow through on the public process."

Opponents of the nuclear plant have said the Department of Health
improperly reinterpreted the rule on how it calculates radiation releases.
In past evaluations it recorded exposure levels, which is the amount of
radiation in the air. The new method calculates the amount of radiation
actually absorbed by human tissue -- the dose.

Last July, the Vermont Department of Health issued its 2007 radiation
report, noting a 30 percent increase -- to 18 millirems -- in levels at the
fenceline of the plant since the 2006 report. If not for change, said
anti-nuclear activists, Entergy, which owns and operates the power plant in
Vernon, would have had to take measures to reduce the radiation levels at
the fenceline.

The higher levels were attributed to a 20-percent increase in power
production at the plant, from 540 to 650 megawatts.

The measurement method was changed after an outside consultant was
brought in to review the 2004 report and recommended Vermont recognize the
difference between exposure and dose.

Health Commissioner Wendy Davis is in the process of reviewing the
special legislative panel's findings.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Bob Audette can be reached at [email protected], or 802-254-2311,
ext. 273.