A decision in the Vermont Yankee case is expected before the end of the year. Meanwhile, CLF in its role as “friend of the court” submitted a post trial memo supporting the State of Vermont’s right to have a say about Vermont Yankee. The brief explains that the Vermont Legislature acted well within its rights and why Entergy’s safety characterizations are faulty.
CLF Attorney Sandy Levine was a guest on the Callie Crossley show on WGBH in Boston Monday afternoon to discuss Vermont Yankee and the future of nuclear power.
Entergy’s nuclear plants continue to have problems calling into question their ability to be trustworthy and responsibly manage their nuclear fleet.
A problem at Vermont Yankee Sunday night reduced power to 36% and if the situation is not remedied shortly, the plant will be required to shut down completely.
At the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York State, investigations led to 4 workers being fired, 34 disciplined, and criminal charges brought against the plant’s former radiation protection technician. The investigations showed that employees falsified tests of safety equipment, failed to document air samples and failed to conduct leak testing, among other things.
In Michigan, the Palisades Nuclear Plant shutdown twice last week, due to a cooling system problem and also an electrical breaker fault.
This weekend Governor Cuomo stated that the Indian Point nuclear plant could easily be replaced with other power sources because “safety[is] first.”
Peter Alexander
Isn’t the real question here whether or not a state legislature has the power to grant or withhold the ability of a corporation to do business in the state? Entergy has proven itself to be an unreliable and untrustworthy “corporate citizen”–lying to regulators and the legislature alike; and as this article points out, Entergy is also a bad manager: for years we have seen that instead of using good preventive maintenance the company operates on a “run it until it breaks” philosophy. The state has more than ample reason to not want this rogue corporation operating a nuclear power plan (or anything else) in its borders. But is it possible that this, or any other corporation is so powerful that it can do anything it wants no matter what the state says? The argument sounds absurd, but that’s what Entergy’s attorneys are demanding.
J D
Really Pete!,
“”Run until it breaks” philosophy.” That quote shows that you are truly unaware of the monumental amount of preventive maintenance that goes into one of these units, and the level of care that people who work there put into their efforts to meet these requirements. If the plant’s operators were truly rogue as you say in your response than the NRC would have shut them down decades ago. This is not the 70′s, and nuclear power plants are not run like that. Please read up on it, the code of federal regulations that must be met are posted on the NRC’s website, while everyone is entitled to their opinion, mine is that if you are going to post a comment or an article, at least educate yourself first. Your comments are baseless and truly unfounded. You need to read up on the law, for it very clearly spells out what needs to be done, and what will occur if those requirements are not met. Vermont Yankee has continuously attempted to exceed the requirements of the law in order to put at ease the local population, and to prove that they have the best interests of not only the company but the public, and comments like yours that have not been researched but are based on hearsay serve only to fan the flames of the uniformed.