Whistleblower urges against Yankee uprate

June 20, 2003

By SUSAN SMALLHEER Southern Vermont Bureau

MONTPELIER — Entergy Nuclear will make an additional $20 million profit a year if it is allowed to increase power production at Vermont Yankee by 20 percent, and thus it should be able to make some financial concessions to Vermont ratepayers, the state nuclear engineer said Thursday.

William Sherman told members of the Public Service Board that by his calculations Entergy Nuclear would be clearing $20 million and could give the state ratepayers some financial protection from potential problems caused by the increase in power.

The board also heard from a former nuclear industry executive-turned-whistleblower, who worked at Vermont Yankee in the 1980s, who urged the board not to increase power at the nuclear power plant.

If anything, he said, power should be reduced at the aging reactor, not increased.

“The time the plant was built, Lawrence Welk was on TV,” Arnold Gundersen said. “This plant was designed when John F. Kennedy was president.”

Power production increases, particularly the kind that Entergy Nuclear is seeking, have proved problematic. Two of the eight reactors that have received permission for extended power increases have developed significant problems.

And one, Quad Cities in Illinois, developed a very serious problem that it hasn’t solved yet, Sherman said. And it recently had to shut down again — something the Public Service Board made clear it was worried about.

Entergy Nuclear said earlier this year that the capital costs of the project are $60 million, although this week the company refused to say how much money the project would cost. The cost will be borne entirely by Entergy Nuclear.

Sherman, who works for the Department of Public Service, which represents ratepayers, said it was unknown how much money Entergy Nuclear was making on Vermont Yankee in all. It purchased the plant for $180 million last year.

The Public Service Department is worried that the increase in power production will make the 510-megawatt plant less reliable and more susceptible to problems and potentially costly shutdowns.

According to the power contracts Entergy Nuclear has with Vermont utilities, the utilities have to find their own power — usually more expensive on the spot market — if the plant shuts down.

There are three different kinds of power increases approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Entergy Nuclear has plans to apply for an extended power increase at 20 percent. Only one other plant in the country has received permission for a 20 percent extended power uprate: the Clinton plant in Illinois. Two other plants have increased power production by a total of 20 percent, but through different kinds of uprates.

The Public Service Board heard from Sherman and Gundersen, who testified that Vermont Yankee’s age made it a poor candidate for increased power production.

While the specifics of the increase in power still remain a secret, Entergy has said it will be increasing steam flows at the plant and more heat from the additional fuel packed in the reactor.

Gundersen, who worked for Nuclear Energy Services, was fired when he discovered low-level radioactive waste located in a safe at the company and reported it. He now lives in Burlington and teaches mathematics and physics at Burlington High School.

He told the board he once worked at several New England reactors, including Vermont Yankee, on putting additional storage in its spent fuel pool. His whistleblower story has been written about in The New York Times, among other publications.

Gundersen said Vermont Yankee was the 38th plant in the country to receive a license, and of those 38 plants, only 20 are still operating.

Gundersen said he suspected that Vermont Yankee didn’t have all its engineering blueprints and plans in order, an industry-wide problem that proved fatal for Maine Yankee and Millstone 1 in Connecticut . Both plants were shut down by their owners because it would have cost too much to document all the changes that had been made to the plants since they were built.

The deviation from the plants’ designs has been a serious problem for the industry.

But when pressed by David Coen, a member of the board, Gundersen admitted he had no hard evidence Yankee’s drawings and plans were not in order.

Board members continued to press Sherman on whether the state should ask for an independent safety assessment of the plant, something that appears to have struck a nerve with the board.

But Sherman said he believed it was unnecessary — that the NRC would do its job overseeing the plant and the power production increase.

But board members remained skeptical, with PSB Chairman Michael Dworkin pointing out that there were weaknesses and contradictions in NRC’s oversight and regulation on the issue.