Hats off to Vermont regulators for requesting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to put an end to the string of mishaps at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

photo courtesy of shersteve@flickr.com

Vermont Yankee is an aging nuclear plant on the banks of the Connecticut River. It is increasingly showing its age and the time for stepped up oversight is long overdue. The request cites incidents that “continue to pile up”, including:

 “a misaligned valve in the pool where the plant stores highly radioactive spent fuel waste allowed 2,700 gallons of water to drain out of the pool. Another involved epoxy applied to a condenser to keep it from leaking; that interfered with the condenser’s operation and forced the plant to reduce its power output.”

It is time for the NRC to step in and show its willingness to exert more than lackluster oversight of the nation’s nuclear fleet.

With The New York Times reporting from Japan that “the nuclear accident at Fukushima was a preventable disaster rooted in government-industry collusion and the worst conformist conventions of Japanese culture,” it is important that similar problems not occur here in the US.

The NRC is responsible for matters concerning radiological health and safety at nuclear power plants. It is important that they provide real oversight and not have a cozy relationship with industry that lets problems “pile up” or human error and poor management continue.

Thank you Vermont regulators for keeping the pressure on the NRC.

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.