(A follow-up on the brief teaser piece I posted yesterday. Thanks for writing this up. – promoted by JulieWaters)
Governor Peter Shumlin, expressing concerns about the continued lack of transparency at Vermont Yankee the aging & troubled nuclear plant, as well as the continuing discovery of additional problems including more radioactive waste contamination discussed these issues Tuesday.
The new contamination has been found in a different location than the leak which occured @ the same time just a year ago prompting concerns that there is a new leak at Vermont Yankee.
On Tuesday, in a morning press conference at the statehouse in Montpelier he addressed these ongoing problems at Vermont Yankee.
VT Digger’s Anne Galloway: “In the wake of new tests that show elevated levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, in two monitoring wells at Vermont Yankee, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced on Tuesday that the state will create an oversight panel to keep tabs on Entergy Corporation’s management of the plant.”
Once again reiterating a sentiment expressed last year during the tritium leak, as well as a comment made during his gubernatorial bid, that “Entergy Louisiana does not do business the way we do business in VT.”
Shumlin mandated DPS chief Liz Miller to establish a new committee to provide oversight and expertise on the plant’s condition for the state of VT, information regarding the problems at Vermont Yankee, including preparation plans for its closure and decommissioning in 2012. This panel would be named the Vermont Yankee Reliability Oversight Panel.
According to the Rutland Herald, Liz Miller, stated that though Uldis Vanags, the state’s nuclear engineer, is not a nuclear engineer but a health physicist, he would continue to remain as part of the team.
On the Texas-Vermont Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission, Governor Shumlin also replaces Steve Wark and Uldis Vanags with Peter Bradford, adjunct professor at Vermont Law School, member of Vermont Yankee Public Oversight Panel and former NRC Commissioner, and Richard Saudek, Montpeleir lawyer,former VT PSB chairman as well as former DPS commissioner.
More:
Gov’s presser on video: Shumlin announces plans for oversight panel to keep tabs on management of VT Yankee
By Anne Galloway on February 2, 2011
http://vtdigger.org/2011/02/02…
Double “good for you,” Governor Shumlin!! There is no excuse for the way planning toward decommissioning has been brushed aside throughout the Douglas administration.