| UPDATE: Today the Free Press continues to run the AP IMPACT report. Today's story: tritium leaks, like those found at Yankee, are present in 75% of all U.S. nuke plants.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress...
You have to wonder, though, how many of the plants lied about even having the pipes the way Vermont Yankee did.
If you've been following the stories about Vermont Yankee and Fukushima you will be interested in this story published in today's Burlington Free Press. LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.
We have no information on whether specific changes have been made to the standards for Vermont Yankee, but given the age of the plant it seems quite likely that they have.
Due to space limitations the full story didn't appear in the Free Press, but you should read it. The article discloses a series of failures in virtually every operational or safety system in nuclear plants across the country.
What's our experience in Vermont: collapsing and leaking cooling towers, valve failures, leaks from pipes that the management claimed didn't even exist, yet we are told that state regulators have no authority to even look at the safety of the plant that directly imperils residents of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Read the story, think about what's happening in Japan, and think about what you want to see here in Vermont. |
