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Measuring nothing

by: NanuqFC

Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 10:00:58 AM EDT

Imagine my surprise when I heard the (u)n-credible Entergy VY spokesman Larry Smith's pronouncement regarding yesterday's earthquake on this morning's VPR news!

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant spokesman Larry Smith said nothing was recorded by the plant's seismic monitor.*
*corrected

Perhaps 'nothing was recorded' because the machine wasn't plugged in ... or had no ink in its graphic pen ... or was under a pile of newspapers ... or because we're not supposed to worry about what an "unlikely" earthquake might do to fuel pool containment, not to mention cooling systems and reactor containment.

Or perhaps nothing was measured as the flip side of how Entergy's hyper-sensitive lab instruments measured tritium in riverbank samples "below minimum detectable levels."

At our house, 171 miles northwest of the nuclear power plant, the lights flickered once, and that was all.

But imagine, my friends, what will happen when there's a serious earthquake, before or after the plant closes. With onsite storage of old fuel (which, we learned from the ongoing Fukushima disaster, is still radioactively HOT!), that Vernon site, so close to the elementary school (3-tenths of a mile on the same road), will be dangerous for a very long time.

Just ask Arnie Gundersen.

I wonder whether the closing costs include the cost of building a new school. I wonder whether the evacuation plans include using roads that might be torn apart in a serious quake. I wonder why it is that we're using this hellish fuel at all: have we no regard for the future? For our children and their children?

Earthquake, yeah. Nothing recorded, uh-huh, right.

NanuqFC :: Measuring nothing

Tags: Vermont Yankee, earthquake, credibility, Local, (All Tags)

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Measuring nothing | 5 comments

Just another example of VY "magic math." (0.00 / 0)

by: Sue Prent @ Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 15:12:20 PM UTC

Homer Simpson works at VY? (4.00 / 1)

There was a Simpsons episode where a comet was heading for earth. The last scene was the townsfolk heading to the observatory that discovered the comet with the intention of destroying the observatory so that could never happen again.

Isn't that the same as VY? I know the Virginia reactor removed it's seismic sensors in the '90s because it interfered with profits. Without the sensors there can not be earthquakes, you know, if a tree falls in the woods and no one harvested it for profits, it really didn't fall at all.

Entergy's statements about the tritium are just like that, 'yes, tritium IS in the water, but we can't detect it, so it's OK!'

It's the same thing as the global warming deniers, like Rick Perry in TX. In the face of record heat waves year after year he claims that the earth is really cooling and that all scientists are faking the data to get more research money.

According to global warming deniers Texas has been in the '70s all summer and there is plenty of water, and anyone that says otherwise is a corrupt scientist just out for research grants.

Accordingly, anyone that suggests that an earthquake could damage a nuclear reactor is an anti-nuke hippie that doesn't trust the NRC.

by: Comrade Rutherford @ Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 15:20:27 PM UTC

Spinning or quaking? (0.00 / 0)

They can't(won't) measure the quake until they turn Larry Smith's spin machine off.

by: BP @ Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 21:56:24 PM UTC

Well, just carry-on then (0.00 / 0)

This doesn't concern VY directly but the attitude is similarly worrisome
Only months after Fukushima you might think there would be no hesitation by the "watchdog" NRC. But according to reports the NRC is still determining whether to send a formal team of inspectors to the North Anna VA plant.

North Anna was shaken by a 5.8 earthquake (some reports 5.9) and went to "alert" status. One of the four emergency diesel generators failed. The plant has four to five times the spent fuel stored on site than it was designed to accommodate. And perhaps more importantly

The ground below North Anna is a mix of soil and rock, so there are two standards. The rock part of the site is built to withstand the equivalent of a magnitude 5.9 quake. The soil part of the site, meanwhile, is built to withstand a magnitude 6.2 quake.

http://online.wsj.com/article/...
http://online.wsj.com/article/...

by: BP @ Thu Aug 25, 2011 at 00:41:13 AM UTC

"the 'needle' on the monitor might have moved" (0.00 / 0)

So says VY spokes flack Larry Smith now.
A geologist explained to the Brattleboro Reformer why in his opinion the recent earthquake didn't set off the alarm at VY. Keith Klepeis, a professor of geology at UVM said it's all about bedrock and "It sounds to me like they did the job well by building on bedrock." It seems the explanation could also be Entergy VY did the job well by placing the seismic equipment for minimal readings- on the ground floor of the control building.
Maybe the seismic monitor is on steadier ground than spokes-flack Larry Smith's newest clarification about the lack of any reading is.

Though it had been reported earlier that the monitor did not record any activity, on Thursday Smith clarified the information.
He said the "needle" on the monitor might have moved, but it didn't trigger the alarm.
"The seismic monitor won't actually record any data unless the earthquake ground motion is above the trigger setpoint," said Smith.
Because plant technicians were busy preparing for Hurricane Irene, he said, no one was available to tell the Reformer what that trigger setpoint is.

Smith still maintains no shaking was felt from the quake in the control even though the needle might have moved and while some VY employees reportedly did feel the quake at the plant.
It never rains if you keep your rain gauge in the house.Right?
http://www.reformer.com/localn...

by: BP @ Mon Aug 29, 2011 at 22:17:29 PM UTC