By CAROLYN LORIé
Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO -- Though there were terse exchanges, heated speeches and pointed questions, Thursday's meeting on the Nuclear Regulatory inspections of Vermont Yankee went relatively smoothly.

More than 500 people packed the auditorium of Brattleboro Union High School to ask questions and gather information about NRC's inspections on the fuel reported missing from the plant in April, as well as its engineering inspection of Vermont Yankee.

Many came wearing anti-nuclear buttons and carrying signs calling for the shut down of the plant.

Although a minority, employees from the plant also turned out, several addressing the crowd during the question and answer period. This was not the case at the March 31 meeting in Vernon, which was also attended by over 500 people and was recently characterized by one state official as "raucous and confrontational."

Not only was Thursday's meeting far from raucous but during the first 45 minutes of NRC presentation, except for the soft chatter of a small child, the audience was utterly silent.

The meeting was facilitated by the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel, whose members were the first to ask questions.

Among their conerns was the methodology used by the NRC to choose what components were looked at for the engineering inspections.

According to inspection leader Jeff Jacobson, the inspection consisted of two phases. The first looked broadly at a variety of significant plant systems, while the second phase narrowed in on smaller sample components and operator actions.

Of the 45 components examined closely, eight violations of NRC regulations were discovered.

Tim Nulty, a citizen member of the panel, asked why the NRC hadn't gone outside the agency to choose the components that were looked at.

"Why don't you to go opponents and ask them what should be looked at?" he asked. "That way we could get some agreement across the political spectrum."

Jacobson answered it would be logistically problematic, but felt that most experts in the field would agree with those chosen by the NRC.

Nulty asked David O'Brien, chairman of the panel, if that assertion could be tested.

This drew loud applause from the audience.

State nuclear engineer Bill Sherman voiced his support for the NRC's inspection, which he was closely involved with.

Representatives from several anti-nuclear groups were given 20 minutes to present information and ask questions. Among the groups represented were the New England Coalition, Nuclear-Free Vermont and Citizens Awareness Network.

Speaking as an expert consultant for the coalition was electrical engineer Paul Blanch, who has more than three decades experience in the nuclear industry.

Blanch and Wayne Lanning, the NRC director of reactor safety, had a heated exchange about Vermont Yankee's compliance with NRC regulations.

Blanch insisted that the regulator simply didn't know how the 33-year-old plant complied with or deviated from NRC regulations and therefore could not possibly assure that the plant was running safely.

Lanning countered these assertions, saying that the NRC was completely up to date on the issue.

"We are constantly reviewing it," he told the audience.

Also speaking for the coalition was technical advisor Ray Shadis. While addressing the NRC and the panel, Shadis held up two steel rods that were the same size as the segments of fuel rods thought to be missing from the plant.

He chastised the NRC and Entergy, owners of the plant, for describing the missing pieces as "pencil-thick."

"These are not pencil thick," declared Shadis, holding up the two rods.

He went on to ask pointed questions about the scope of the engineering inspection, saying it was minimal in comparison to the one performed at Maine Yankee in 1996.

While most of the speakers were against nuclear power, several spoke up in defense of the industry in general and Vermont Yankee in particular.

Len Casella, who has worked at the plant for seven years in fire protection, pointed out that he too had a family living and working in the 10-mile radius around the plant. "I have as much or more at stake in the safe running of Vermont Yankee than anyone else in this room," he said, to the loud applause his co-workers and supporters.

Also speaking on the plant's behalf was union representative Corey Daniels, who presented a resolution passed in the fall of 2003 at a AFL-CIO conference. The resolution supported the continued running of the plant and the approval of dry cask storage.

In one of the meeting's more surreal moments, Vernon resident Ed Sprague compared the New England Coalition to the insurgents in Iraq.

He accused the group of fear-mongering, disrespectful behavior and went so far as to suggest that they were probably capable of terrorist acts.

Despite brief contentious moments, most speakers were listened to without interruption and more than two hours were given to public comment.

"It's always good to have the public's input," said Sherman, as the meeting wound to a close, shortly before 10 p.m.

Before the meeting was over, the coalition presented the panel with a petition asking the members to vote on a two-part resolution. It called for an independent safety assessment of Vermont Yankee, as well as verification from Entergy and the NRC that the plant is in compliance with all applicable regulations. The panel agreed to take it under consideration.

According to Alexander, the petition was signed by more than 270 people, who he commended for their participation in the process.

"These people care about the future. This is the kind of effort its takes," he said.



And in the same issue of the paper, this editorial:

What a disaster

If Thursday's school bus evacuation drill is any indication, the area is woefully unprepared to handle a disaster that requires local students to be whisked away to safety. Despite the advanced notice and prior warning, little went off as planned.

Students in Windham Southeast and surrounding private schools were supposed to be evacuated based on the scenario that a deadly chemical spill had taken place in the Connecticut River. The scenario was considered a simulation of an evacuation based on a disaster at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

From the first notification at 9:25 a.m., the students should have started boarding their buses 20 minutes later. That actually never happened. The majority of buses didn't arrive at Brattleboro Union High School until 11:25 a.m. -- a full 100 minutes after the students should have boarded. [At last night's meeting, it was noted that Vermont Yankee's fuel rods would begin to expose after less than 30 minutes of boil-off. Less than a half-hour to get out... assuming that a warning is given immediately. And it ain't just schools that would be evacuating.]

Nearly from the start, the practice itself was besieged with problems.

The scenario called for Vermont Yankee to sound its alarm, but the plant wouldn't have sounded an alarm for this chemical spill scenario.

There may have been breakdown in communication at the Department of Public Safety in Waterbury, a relay point to call for buses from New Hampshire, where the bus company had apparently grown tired of waiting and had prior commitments to pick up children elsewhere.

In addition, the bus companies, faced with trying to reorganize the fleet for the evacuation, then wanted a student head count and a tally of how many buses to scramble. It took time to compile that information and relay it.

Some of the buses headed to Vermont took the wrong route.

And even then, there were too few buses. The school needed 30; only 20 arrived.

At BUHS, it seemed that students with their own cars were able to leave the school in time.

Officials admit the plan needs work. "If there are problems like this, then it's not a viable plan," schools Superintendent Ronald Stahley told the Associated Press following the drill.

Parents would rather know the practice run went off with nary a hitch. And thankfully, the drill was just that -- a drill. But it did little to bolster public confidence in the evacuation drill -- especially with a controversial power uprate request at Vermont Yankee.

Lessons can be learned, shortcomings can be bridged, and now officials will have to fully commit to ensure the next drill -- or worse, the actual thing -- runs smoothly.



Tidbits:

12/10/99: For the past three years, nuclear advocates have tried to convince the public and the legislature that Vermont Yankee was a valuable asset. Well, on October 15, we learned that the jewel in the utilities' crown has proven to be costume jewelry. Yesterday, nuclear power was safe, reliable, and economic. Today, it is a heavy liability that the owners of Vermont Yankee are glad to be rid of... WISE News

The reported waste stream for Vermont Yankee by that time (as documented from 1973-1992) was about 640,000 Curies—slightly more than half as solid waste and the rest as vented gas... Citizens Awareness Network    (The NRC website says, "The accident at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 [TMI-2] nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1979, was the most serious in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history... Approximately 43,000 curies of krypton were vented from the reactor building.)

4/23/04: The governor said he was very concerned about the operation of the plant. He pointed to the missing fuel, the cracks discovered last week in the steam dryer, a key component in the reactor, as well as the action last year by Entergy to start construction on a temporary building, and moving soil off site, without a permit as cause for concern... Rutland Herald, reprinted at the Bernie Sanders website

The office holiday party was yesterday, when we celebrate with staff, subscribers, and friends. Lots of food, plenty of good people. (Not like last time, when there actually wasn't really a party at all.)