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Yankee critics say documents found lacking
By SUSAN SMALLHEER David Lochbaum, a nuclear
safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that testimony
submitted by Entergy’s own expert last week to the Vermont Public Service
Board conceded that the so-called power uprate would age the plant even more. Entergy Nuclear wants to
increase power production at the plant by 20 percent, or 110 megawatts. “The increased flows and
temperatures will cause equipment to wear out quicker,” Lochbaum said. “Then
it becomes a business decision.” Entergy Nuclear has said it
plans on spending at least $60 million on capital costs at the plant because of
the power increase, but it has also estimated that it would make $20 million a
year in increased profits. At a press conference and a
later public meeting, Lochbaum and nuclear experts who are working with the New
England Coalition said their review of Entergy Nuclear documents in the past two
days raised more questions than were answered. Arnold Gundersen, a former
nuclear industry executive turned whistleblower, said that the testimony
submitted last week by Entergy’s expert, Edward Burns, predicted Vermont
Yankee would be shut down on average an additional seven days a year because of
problems from the power increase. And those are seven days
that Lochbaum, who worked as a
nuclear engineer in the industry for 17 years before joining the national
watchdog group, said that after looking at the documents, the good news was that
Entergy engineers were raising good questions. But the bad news, he said,
is they don’t have the answers — at least not in the documents provided to
the coalition as part of Entergy’s pending case before the Vermont Public
Service Board. “The problem had been
identified, but the solution? I can’t say,” Lochbaum said. “I would have expected to
see more answers,” he said. The New England Coalition
held the press briefing and information session for about 45 people, including
Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, and at least two members of the Brattleboro
Select Board. Greg Worden, chairman of the
board, said he had questions about the uprate. Lochbaum said the key
cooling systems at the plant, which would be even more critical in the event of
increased power production, hadn’t been analyzed for impact. Likewise, that there were no
studies of the effect of the increased steam and pressure on motor-operated
valves in the plant was one example Lochbaum gave. Raymond Shadis, a coalition
staff member, had assembled a group of experts on various nuclear issues to help
go over a raft of documents he had requested. But the documents were in
such disorder, lacking dates and, in some cases, missing hundreds of pages, the
information was virtually impossible to use, Shadis said. And Gundersen said it raised
questions about whether Yankee was in compliance with its original design, as
approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Shadis said the New England
Coalition last month had won an order from the PSB forcing Entergy to turn over
the documents, and they were provided in largely unusable form. As a result, Shadis said, a
hearing officer from the Public Service Board will be at Entergy Nuclear’s
corporate headquarters in Brian Cosgrove, Entergy
Nuclear spokesman, said later Tuesday when contacted at home that he was unaware
of the specifics of Burns’ testimony, but he expressed skepticism that he
would have testified that the plant would on average shut down an additional
seven days a year. But he said that Entergy
engineers had spent “hundreds of hours” assembling the requested documents.
He estimated that between 15,000 to 20,000 pages of documents had been collected
for the New England Coalition. “We’ve made a tremendous
effort for the intervenors,” he said. As for the state inspection
today, Cosgrove said Entergy welcomed the state hearing officer. The Vermont Department of
Public Service, which represents ratepayers in such cases, does not support the
increased power production at this time, saying Entergy hasn’t proved that
there’s a benefit to Contact Susan Smallheer at
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. |