News of an “unusual event” at a nuclear power facility is not comforting.  It is particularly troubling when no details are given, and the source is the same entity that has provided false and incomplete information in the past.

What is clear is that there are continuing problems at the Vermont Yankee nuclear facility.

CLF has called for the plant to be shut down now.  Leaks since January are continuing to pollute our environment and harm our economy.

CLF recently submitted detailed legal analysis showing that Vermont regulators have the authority and the obligation to take action in response to the leaks. 

Let’s STOP the “unusual events.”  Enough is enough.

On July 20, transportation agencies completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Vermont’s Circ Highway.  The planned project would be an expensive new boulevard roadway outside of Burlington, Vermont.  The project is a poor public investment and a subsidy for sprawl.

Costing over $60 million dollars, saving only 4 minutes of travel time, limiting public transportation options, destroying irreplaceable farmland and wetlands while providing less congestion relief in Essex compared to improving existing roads is simply a bad idea.

Join CLF in calling for sensible transporation solutions, NOT more crowded roads and more pollution.  Submit comments online by August 27, 2010 or attend a public hearing:

Public Hearings will be August 9 & 10:

Monday August 9^th 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. @ Williston Central School Auditorium -195 Central School Drive, Williston

Tuesday August 10^th 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. @ Champlain Valley Exposition-105 Pearl Street, Essex Junction

See CLF’s website for more information and sample comments.

I was fortunate to join six activists in a meeting Wednesday morning with Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  We  delivered a clear message:

Lack of responsible regulatory oversight is unacceptable.  The public has lost faith in the NRC.

As James Moore with VPIRG stated regarding the repeated mishaps at Vermont Yankee:  “We need a cop on that beat and we don’t have one.”

Ray Shadis with the New England Coalition said:  “What we see is a system rotten one end to the other.  The NRC doesn’t see that.”

Chairman Jaczko claimed he shares our same concerns, stating he wished we could follow him around for a day and know that he hears these same concerns from his staff.     I said I look forward to taking him up on that invitation, as well as seeing more robust oversight and action — not just expressions of concern — in responding to mishaps.

Members of the public and the media attended our meeting.  After the meeting  Chairman Jaczko visited Vermont Yankee but declined to include media or the public during that portion of his visit.

Coverage on the meeting in the Times Argus, The Associated Press, and the Brattleboro Reformer. You can also listen to the radio coverage from WFCR out of Western Massachusetts.

Overwhelming support for SHUTTING DOWN VERMONT YANKEE NOW at the Vermont Public Service Board hearing last night in Brattlboro, Vermont. 

A BIG THANK YOU to all the folks who came to the hearing and told the Board ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  

The message from advocates was clear: Vermont Yankee must be shut down.  The continual failings and breakdowns are harming our environment and communities.  The pollution in the Connecticut River, groundwater and the soil must stop.  Great stories about the event in  Times Argus, the Brattleboro Reformer and the Keene Sentinel. 

The hearing was the Board’s chance to hear what the public thinks.  Many people from across Vermont, Massachusetts, and beyond, made the trip to Brattleboro.

If you couldn’t come to the hearing, you can submit comments on Yankee’s leaks electronically to the Public Service Board via:  psb.clerk@state.vt.us  or use CLF’s action alert.

Another radioactive fish was found near the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in southern Vermont.

This is the second time a fish contaminated with Strontium-90 was found in the Connecticut River.

Vermont Yankee officials defy common sense.  They continue to claim there is no connection between the contaminated fish and the nuclear reactor on the banks of the river.

CLF refutes these silly claims.  In testimony CLF filed with the Vermont Public Service Board last Friday, CLF refutes claims that contamination is not moving with water through the ground.

CLF’s expert showed that radioactive isotopes are not limited to areas near the leak.  Instead, they migrated through the site with the release of tritium.  Hydrogeologist Stratton French testified:

“A more likely explanation for their occurence at these distant locations is that these radioisotopes migrated beyond the release point along groundwater flow pathways.  This conclusion is supported by Entergy VY’s own sampling data.”

COME TO THE PUBLIC SERVICE BOARD PUBLIC HEARING ON THURSDAY EVENING

AT 7:00 p.m. at the  BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL.

Tell the Public Service Board whether you think.  Should the plant should be closed before 2012 in response to the continued leaks?  This is your chance for your voice to be heard.

I am headed to Brattleboro tomorrow with some other CLF folks to talk about Vermont Yankee at an evening event CLF is hosting.  If you are in the area, come join us.

Join me and other CLF staff at the River Garden in Brattleboro, VT on Thursday, June 10 from 6-8 PM for a community gathering and Q&A  on   Vermont Yankee.  See event details. 

I was troubled to learn this morning that there is a new leak at Vermont Yankee. 

The continuing leaks must stop.   The new leak highlights the lack of responsible oversight and management at the plant.  Yankee only began operating again on Saturday after a month long outage for refueling.  Then start-up was stopped twice because of problems at the plant.  

 The public expects both Entergy and regulators to be proactive to stop leaks from occurring in the first place.  That is not happening.

New leaks?  New contamination?  Who knows?

The latest report from the Vermont Health Department is troubling.  Results from the monitoring test wells at Vermont Yankee show that the level of contamination is increasing in nearly half of the wells.  And at least one of these wells is OUTSIDE the area identified as the contaminated plume.

This news comes on top of news that soil at the site is contaminated and fish in the river are contaminated.

Pipes at the facility remain inaccessible.  There is no way to know if they are leaking.  It took over two months to find one leak.  And another leak was found just last week.

As of Saturday, Vermont Yankee is running again after a planned outage and a few mishaps.

I would feel better if they cleaned up the mess before they turned the plant back on.

Want to talk about Vermont Yankee?

Join me and other CLF staff at the River Garden in Brattleboro, VT on Thursday, June 10 from 6-8 PM for a community gathering and Q&A on Vermont Yankee.   See event details.   

Over the weekend a fish found in the Connecticut river near Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant was confirmed to be contaminated with strontium-90.  Only a few days before, it was revealed that strontium-90 is contaminating the soil at the Vermont Yankee site.  Strontium-90 is a dangerous radioactive substance. 

Don’t you think these events are connected?  I do.  Yet Yankee officials claim there is no connection.  The fish was four miles upstream.  Last I checked, fish swim upstream and can swim four miles.  Then they said the radiation levels are consistent with what would be present from long ago nuclear testing or Chernobyl.

Unbelievable.  There’s a saying that when you hear hoof beats, don’t think of a zebra.  It is probably a horse.  I think Vermont Yankee is seeing zebras everywhere — avoiding the obvious in hopes of avoiding responsibility.  

This is shameful.

I loved the newspaper headline that greeted me this morning.   Did we win in our request to shut the plant down until the leaks are repaired and the site is cleaned up?  Not yet.  It seems Vermont Yankee simply hasn’t figured out how to put the plug back in after refueling.  Yankee’s unexpected emergency shut down yesterday is just one of many failings that demonstrates Yankee’s incapacity to operate responsibly.

The  public hearing scheduled for tonight has been CANCELLED  – ironically due to a power outage.  

Recent news includes finding strontium-90 at the Vermont Yankee site and the NRC saying  don’t worry about the mess, it will be cleaned up when the plant closes.  As I told one reporter:

“This is a good example of lax oversight by the NRC. I expect to hear I will clean it up later from my teenager. When it comes to radioactive contamination, people in charge should be more diligent.”