Frankly I was worried sick. Entergy spokes flack Rob Williams’ capacity for generating logic-twisting Vermont Yankee press statements had seemed in decline of late. Was Williams about to shut down, perhaps be placed in SafeStor? Or would he simply be decommissioned?
Well happily none of that has come to pass, as it seems that longtime Entergy Nuclear VY spokesflack Rob got back on game. Last week it was reported that four radiation monitors at the aging Vermont Yankee plant failed on two separate occasions in June to give “correct” readings. Four monitors had shown high levels of radiation in the primary containment isolation system. These monitors control the automatic ventilation systems of the reactor building. The NRC said of the incidents:
“Failure of the radiation monitoring equipment is a serious issue, and could have under other circumstances led to significant harm if the failed equipment had not detected a radiation release at the plant,” [added emphasis]
Understandably Vermont Governor Shumlin wants more information about the failure of the safety monitors. But Rob Williams wants to spin this clear: there is no “failure” at Vermont Yankee, Williams maintains:
[the four monitors were] “showing spurious signals, but they were still able to perform their safety function.”
And he adds this:
“To be perfectly clear, the monitors did not fail. They did not fail; they were generating false signals.”
Well, there you have it from the spokesflack artist himself: The radiation monitors did not fail; they were just generating false signals. Go ahead, say that with a straight face, I dare you! You see the gas gauge read FULL but the tank was Empty. The gauge hadn’t failed – and Williams would insist it is still performing its function. The device just happens to be, you know, wrong!
And as we all know, Rob Williams can never “fail” but he has been known to generate false signals.
False info from a sensor is a failure. Just for future referemce, don’t ever try to get a job in a medical lab, okay? Thanks.
and claim to be truthful. One cannot be involved in the nuclear industry and not be a pathological liar.
Everything always “worked just as it was supposed to”, even when it doesn’t in their alternate reality.
Even a meltdown qualifies for this dubious distinction. When certain conditions are applicable even a meltdown “worked just as it was supposed to”.
has more potential to do harm than one that has quite obviously quit functioning altogether.
In this case, “the little boy who cried wolf” springs most readily to mind.
that random erroneous sensor readings are no problem in a nuclear power plant.
So can’t the “oil press guage” in your car be reading the oil pressure correcty but the circuit be sending a false signal to the “idiot light”?
at Vermont Yankee:
http://www.vermonttoday.com/ap…
Darren Springer, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Safety injects common sense into the discussion:
*emphasis
Ray Shadis comments:
Just turn up the radio and get an oil change! Tap on the dash every now an then when a sensor gives a ‘false’ reading.
I think this is a clever setup. Today it’s all these sensors that are putting out ‘false’ readings. Once folks are comfortable with that, and it enters the public discourse (much like the ‘no immediate threat to public health’), we will learn that VY spokesmen and CEOs and operators have been giving ‘false readings’ for the last 10 years. And no one will care. They will just recalibrate ‘false’ with ‘true’, much like the ‘underground’ pipes and the fence line recalibration.