Yesterday, the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 to close Entergy’s Vermont Yankee power plant by 2012.

But, hey, it still leaks 24-7.

“… brings new insight on plant operation”* Yesterday while the Senate was voting, Entergy reported that after investigating itself for misrepresenting the existence of underground piping, they had suspended four more top level engineers.

Included, somewhat incredibly, is the head of the team currently investigating the underground leak of radioactive tritium.  These four suspensions makes a total of 11 high-level people suspended, disciplined and officially reprimanded for involvement in the underground pipe issue.

Entergy Nuclear announced Wednesday that it had suspended four additional senior Vermont Yankee employees – including the man who had been leading the investigation into the tritium leak – after it concluded its investigation into whether its employees lied to state regulators about the existence of buried pipes carrying radioactivity.  

Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said that no successor had been named to replace Dreyfuss on the tritium task force, but he stressed that finding the leak was a "team effort." He declined to say when Dreyfuss and the others were placed on leave and he said he couldn't say what administrative leave entailed.  Also placed on leave was Dave McElwee, Entergy's senior liaison engineer who was the main technical point man on regulatory issues for the company in Montpelier.

Prior to the tritium leaks and revelations of lying…err…misleading statements, Dreyfuss and McElwee were both featured prominently in Entergy’s public relations campaign; the rapidly terminated iamvy.com PR blitz. Before this current unpleasantness began, Vermont Yankee Site VP Mike Colomb (also among those admonished for the underground pipe deception) described the ad campaign’s goals like this:

“brings new insight on plant operation, as the featured employees — all Vermont residents — express in their own words the pride and dedication they bring to their jobs, and why it is in the best interest of all Vermonters to keep the plant in service.”