Vermont Yankee removes executive, tritium levels increase

According to an Associated Press report filed yesterday, Entergy Nuclear has removed a Vermont executive responsible for inaccurate statements made last spring under oath regarding the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The AP quotes Entergy CEO J Wayne Leopold that the executive was "permanently relieved of his duties in Vermont and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the full investigation." The AP has identified the executive as Jay Thayer, a former plant manager who was brought back last year to help the Vernon plant get approval for a license extension. He was removed for the inaccurate statements regarding underground piping systems at the plant and then for not following up to correct those statements.
Last Wednesday, Governor Douglas called for management changes in light of the inaccurate information provided to Vermont regulators and legislators regarding the plant. The governor said he had lost faith in plant management. More than one Yankee official made inaccurate statements. Douglas also called for a halt in the process to relicense the plant because of that and the ongoing tritium leak, whose source has yet to be found.
For his part, Thayer acknowledged in January that the statements were wrong and that he did not get back to regulators concerning the underground pipes. He also publicly apologized.
In early January, the plant reported that the radioactive isotope tritium was found in a monitoring well at the site. It was subsequently learned that there were underground pipes carrying radioactive materials at the plant. An underground, cement trench was also found to contain tritium, cobalt-60 and zinc-65. Since then more monitoring wells have been dug.
Last night, Vermont Yankee reported that one of the new wells that previously had been found to contain tritium, was now measuring tritium increased levels of 80,458 picocuries per liter. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that occurs naturally and is also a byproduct of nuclear plant operation. The Environmental Protection Agency has set safe drinking water levels of tritium at 20,000 picocuries per liter. A plant spokesman says that tritium has not been found in either drinking water wells nor in the adjacent Connecticut River.
The Vernon plant is seeking approval from the state to relicense the plant another 20 years beyond 2012, when it is scheduled to be decommissioned. The Legislature must first approve the license extension before the Vermont Public Service Board ultimately rules on the case. Vermont Yankee owner Entergy is also seeking to spin the plant off, with five other older nuclear power plants, into a new company called Enexus.