Late this afternoon Vermont Yankee's Rob Williams issued a press release that Vermont Yankee has a tritium release. Williams'press release said:

Our environmental monitoring department reports that, for the first time, a small amount of tritium has been identified in a sample taken from a monitoring well at the plant. Tritium is a form of hydrogen that occurs naturally and is also a byproduct of nuclear plant operation. It is also used in illuminated products such as exit signs. Based on the experience of other US nuclear plants, we have been specifically monitoring for tritium as part of an industry-wide monitoring program.

Note the photo is not from the VY site, but tritium is a serious radioactive isotope with a half-life of 12-years, meaning that half will be gone in 12 years and half in 12 more and half of that in 12 more years which means that the radiation will be around for 10-half-lives which means at least 120 years.

It has been a bad day for Entergy, but I guess that is the cost of doing business with an aging reactor.

More below…

First VY had reduced its power because Velco had a cracked insulator in its switchyard. Velco could not make its switchyard repair without reducing power. Then, while VY's power was reduced to 70%, the plant had an annunciator alarm letting VY know there was low oil in a recirculation pump, which circulates water through the reactor. The plant has kept power reduced in order to find the cause of the low oil alarm, but as WCAX noted tonight, Vermont Yankee is still trying to track down its problem with its warning light.

The nuclear power plant is operating at 72 percent power. It was reduced to that amount Wednesday for routine transmission line work, but then a warning light came on about the oil level in two recirculating water pump motors. Those motors vary the power level in the reactor. Yankee is trying to figure out if there is a problem with the oil level or if the indicator light itself is faulty. Opponents say this is just another example that the Vernon plant is aging and should be shut down.http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=11786566

 Late in the afternoon Rob Williams announced the tritium leak, and that was followed by a DPS announcement that the Decommissioning Fund is flat and still well-below its highest mark of 28-months ago. This is not the first tritium release on-site at Vermont Yankee. Tritium has been found in the ground water and there is a wedge of tritium edging toward the Connecticut River. What does that mean? It means that tritium is in a plume moving outward away from the plant.

The following excerpts below, from the May 2009 ENVY Report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, clearly delineate radioactive releases to the Connecticut River from Vermont Yankee Nuclear power plant’s buried underground pipe which were not identified in the August 2009 Department of Health report.

“The presence of plant-related radionuclides in the onsite storm drain system has been identified in previous years at Vermont Yankee.”(Page 49)

“The highest detected concentration for all plant related radionuclides that were detected in the sediment samples was found in … Manhole 12… The sampling conducted in 2008 indicates that the presence of radionuclides in the storm drains has not changed significantly.”(Page 50)

Most disturbing to me is the quote from VY's report to NRC detailing the tritium wedge moving toward the Connecticut River, especially

“The presence of tritium in station air compressor condensate and manholes (Storm Drain System) has been identified since 1995… leakage of tritium to ground water beneath the site will be transported by natural ground water gradient to the Connecticut River.” (Page 51)

The problem with tritium is that it is chemically identical to water. This means that the tritium cannot be filtered out of the water like the other radioactive isotopes may be filtered from reactor water or other contaminated water. In the VY press release, Williams said, “Since 2007, Vermont Yankee and the rest of the industry have been taking a proactive approach in groundwater monitoring including communicating the results. So, while there are no regulatory requirements to report tritium at these low levels, notifications were proactively made to regulatory agencies and the public.” This is not really the case. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, who was appointed by President Obama over nuclear industry objections as the new NRC chair, has demanded that the agency staff evaluate the NRC activities and oversight of buried piping at nuclear reactors.

NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko has tasked the agency’s technical staff to review the NRC’s approach for overseeing buried pipes given recent incidents of leaking buried pipes at several U.S. commercial nuclear power plants.

“Although they have not jeopardized public health and safety, leaks from buried pipes continue to occur and we need to assess the NRC’s and licensee’s efforts to prevent them,” Jaczko said. “The agency’s handling of these events has focused on each incident as it occurs, but we need to look at what we’re doing on a generic level to determine what additional actions may be necessary.”

According to reports, “the staff must provide the Commission an information paper in early December that explains both ongoing and planned generic activities that address leaks from buried piping.” To date no findings have been made public.

Chairman Jaczko also asked the staff to discuss actions or plans regarding:

•Evaluating the adequacy of NRC requirements for designing, inspecting and maintaining safety-related buried piping, including rules governing operating reactors, reactor license renewal and new reactor licensing;

•Evaluating the adequacy of American Society of Mechanical Engineers Code for designing, inspecting and maintaining safety-related buried piping;

•Evaluating how effective current rules and voluntary initiatives for designing, inspecting and maintaining all nuclear power plant buried piping are in ensuring public health and protecting the environment, and;

•Recommending any necessary revisions to existing regulations, requirements, practices or oversight regarding the integrity of buried piping.

www.nrc.gov ADAMS#ML092460648

When I wrote the white papers to the legislature back in November and December 2007, I discussed the high cost of cleaning up Connecticut Yankee due to a tritium leak uncovered after the plant was shut down. Decommissioning Connecticut Yankee cost an additional $481 million dollars due to radioactive contamination of the soil and water from tritium and Strontium 90.  As I have written previously, the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Fund is short hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, the current VY decommissioning analysis is a generic plan that is not site specific to VY and therefore very inexact in determining accurate costs. The current decommissioning fund also follows NRC guidelines which does not account for returning the site to the greenfield status contracted and expected by Vermonters. One year ago during the opening week of the legislative session, the heading Jan 8, 2009 heading and story read:

Entergy: Vermont Yankee leaked radioactive water By Susan Smallheer Rutland Herald BRATTLEBORO — A valve leaking radioactive water inside Vermont Yankee's reactor building was undergoing emergency repairs Wednesday, Entergy Nuclear said. The leak did not require the company to shut down or even reduce power, according to Entergy Nuclear spokesman Laurence Smith. Smith said the leak, which was losing about 2-1/2 gallons of “slightly radioactive” water a minute, had been discovered about two weeks ago during routine company inspection by plant operators. Smith said the radioactive water, which comes from the reactor water's cleanout system, was cleaned and filtered before being returned to the reactor building. The water is not discharged to the Connecticut River, he said. He said the leaking radioactive water went into a sump drain, was filtered and was eventually returned to the reactor water system…

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090108/NEWS01/901080363/1002/NEWS01

Such are the problems with aging nuclear reactors…

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

Check out this video of Kristof Nordin discussing how growing indigenous vegetables benefits farmers in Malawi:

So I walk by the Statehouse every day and usually give it a wide berth. Yesterday I decided to stop in and poke around.

Unfortunately, my batteries were pretty much dead, but here’s about three minutes of silliness, sights, sounds – and an almost announcement for a statewide candidacy!

From today’s Rutland Herald, reporting on comments from Natural Resources Secretary Jonathan Wood:

The rule calls for a strict review process… It envisions a 30-day public comment period when no snow is on the ground, so people can look at the route of the proposed trail and point out perceived environmental threats.

As has been pointed out, however…

Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, and chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said it was ironic that a cash-strapped agency with an already big to-do list would want to take on managing ATV riders’ use of state lands.

But on a certain level, all this is moot.  As was previously document on GMD:

ANR has no authority to propose natural area/State land ATV trail rules.  The General Assembly has not granted powers to ANR that enable unelected agency officials to adopt rules designating ATV trails on State land or in natural areas.

So why are they doing it?  Apparently, simply because no one’s stopped them yet.  

Lawsuit, anyone?

What’s this?  Art Woolf made a mistake?!  In Wednesday’s Free Press, Candace Page reveals a slight miscalculation in the report filed at the end of 2009 by Douglas’ pet economists, Art Woolf and Richard Heaps.

Instead of increasing $241., the inflation-adjusted median income of Vermont couples filing joint tax returns actually fell $1,870. or 2.7 percent in 2008.

According to Woolf, the discrepancy came to light when he was  

recently checking his calculations and discovered he had transposed two formulas.  

The article goes on to say that Woolf thinks the corrected data “makes more sense.”  Duh!  Observed Mr. Heaps:

“Sometimes you just do something stupid.”

I will be the first to admit that any economic assertion by Art Woolf is likely to be received by me with skepticism; more especially because we are on opposite sides of an outstanding Act 250 appeal that involves, among other things, Walmart’s impact on local economies.  Still, anyone might wonder on what fluffy cloud of disconnect Mr. Woolf reposed when he came up with the glaringly erroneous result and did not immediately question it.   Being a longtime member of UVM’s economics faculty, surely Mr. Woolf knows that the first rule of math is to check your work!

I can’t resist the urge to speculate on what year-end decisions within the Douglas administration might have been influenced by this timely and remarkable discrepancy.  

Is anyone else tired of Entergy’s rather lame PR push to gain support for relicensing Vermont Yankee?

If so, you will enjoy the entertaining and informative parody posted by VY challenger Fake-Rob Williams. You see, Fake-Rob Williams (a parody of VY official spokesman, Rob Williams) has discovered that the link provided on Entergy’s “I Am Vermont Yankee” site for the public to post their presumably supportive comments about VY is, in fact, non-functional.  

Leaping into the breach, Fake-Rob Williams has helpfully provided an alternative site for readers comments called “I Love Vermont Yankee.”  Against a bubblegum pink background,  “I Love Vermont Yankee”  echos the features on Entergy’s “I am Vermont Yankee” website, offering smiling celebrity pics as stand-ins for the suspiciously homogenized representations of “actual” VY employees that appear on the Entergy site.  Fake-Rob makes his own comments on Vermont Yankee; remarks that he repeatedly tried to submit on the “I am Vermont Yankee” site over the course of an entire day, finding that they NEVER appeared in the queue of that day’s submissions.  Fake-Rob’s comments were a series of “helpful” reminders of the many embarrassing faux pas committed by VY and it’s employees over the recent past.

“For example, absolutely none of the messages you submit to the “Show Your Support” section of the official web site will show up. I should know. I’ve been testing it all day. I sent in a message about certain financial shenanigans, and another one about pending environmental problems. Then I sent in one about the stoned control room operator, one about the guard who shot himself in the foot, and another one about the woman in charge of checking people for alcohol impairment. (She showed up drunk.) These are controversial issues, and we need support on all of them. Big time. So what’s up with an official website that doesn’t take my pleas for help?”

Intrigued, I crafted my own “helpful” comment to submit on the Entergy site, about how my family is prepared to do our part for energy efficiency by accepting the opportunity to glow-in-the-dark, courtesy of Vermont Yankee. Nine hours later, my comment has still not appeared in the queue although many more have been added.  Curiously, there is not one single negative comment; and all of the positive comments are uniformly literate and enthusiastic!  

Looks like Brad Ferland has certainly rolled up his PR sleeves on this one, but forgotten a few lessons in credibility.

From TPM

Referring explicitly to one of Obama’s campaign pledges, a reporter asked {House Speaker] Pelosi whether C-SPAN cameras would be allowed to film the House-Senate [health care] negotiations.

“There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail,” she said, without addressing the question.

At the end of December, Vermont’s homegrown climate change denier and spirit designate of Ethan Allen, John McClaughry had articles all over crowing happily about what he called the ‘Collapse of the Global Warming Scam.’ For evidence of the supposed fraud, he cited cherry-picked hacked IPCC (the UN’s Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) emails and a British court ruling that the movie Inconvenient Truth needed corrections prior to being shown in schools.

McClaughry failed to explain the ruling thoroughly. In particular, the judge agreed with the main thrust of Mr. Gore’s arguments:

“That climate change is mainly attributable to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (‘greenhouse gases’).” The British judge’s ruling took the time to note three main points of agreement with the movie’s premise: that global temperatures are rising and are likely to continue to rise, that climate change will cause serious damage if left unchecked, and that it is entirely possible for governments and individuals to reduce its impacts.

About the “scam’s” demise McClaughry wrote:

“But its good news for the inhabitants of Planet Earth, who will now likely be spared a new world energy government promulgating economically destructive mandates, taxes and rationing on the world's struggling economy. Not a moment too soon.”

However the CIA must take it seriously as it turns out a program that allows

intelligence satellites to be used to monitor the polar ice caps has been restarted after it was mothballed by the Bush administration.  

C.I.A. Is Sharing Data With Climate Scientists

The nation’s top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests.

“That will be very important economically and logistically,” said Norbert Untersteiner, a professor at the University of Washington who “specializes in polar ice and is a member of the team of spies and scientists behind the effort,” arguing that Arctic thaws will open new fisheries and sea lanes for shipping and spur the hunt for undersea oil and gas worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

McClaughry may have declared the ‘Collapse of the Global Warming Scam’ a moment too soon, or perhaps for him it’s just part of the same conspiracy in the making. He may take solace that at least one Senator is not supportive of the CIA’s effort. When the CIA set up a small unit to assess security implications of climate change, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said the agency should be fighting terrorists, "not spying on sea lions."

The Vermont Workers Center’s Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign will be delivering thousands of postcards to the Vermont Legislature on Jan 6, 2010 at noon. If you haven’t already signed a postcard, please sign one at www.workerscenter.org/Jan6postcard. If you can attend, please email kate@workerscenter.org.

Our campaign fully supports the concept that healthcare is a human right and that health care cannot be traded fairly as a commodity (as is the case in the current U.S. multi-payer market-based health insurance system). I support pursuit of a single-payer system in Vermont in the interim while working on a national system. This is suboptimal but realistic.

I support a national single-payer health insurance system (Medicare for All) as evidence shows it is the only system that can be reasonably expected to extend medical and dental coverage to all Americans in a cost-effective manner. More than $300 billion annually would be saved in lower administrative costs; $100 billion in drug costs due to improved bargaining power with pharmaceutical companies; and $40 billion in eliminated costs for the currently ‘uninsured’. As such, Democrats and Republicans alike should support a single-payer system.

It is mystifying to see how the Democratic Party has pursued the more politically-expedient compromise of further institutionalizing our current broken system with ‘reform’ that leave millions without health insurance and many more millions without dental insurance, and won’t extend coverage for years anyhow. It is similarly surprising that the Party would give a bonanza to the insurance industry by imposing a mandate such that millions of healthy young people will be signing up for private insurance. Finally, there is little reason to believe the ‘reform’ will ‘bend the curve’ in any meaningful way. I believe it will dramatically increase the national debt or be curtailed in the first place in the ensuing years to prevent that from happening.

The biggest irony of the single-payer debate has been the Republican Party’s (and business’) refusal to consider the cost-savings of a single-payer health insurance system. The savings would lead to a significant stimulus to the economy as a consequence of improved competitiveness, profitability, and job creation. It appears that raw ideology has usurped serious thinking.

I believe our three congressional representatives (Senators Leahy and Sanders, and Representative Welch) should vote against any reconciliation health care bill that is similar to the recently passed House and Senate bills. There is an opportunity for a Vermont revolution leading to the export of robust Vermont values of fairness , reasonableness , and decency to the rest of the country.

Our congressional representatives should insist on an open and public debate about the potential merits of a single-payer system by the President and Congress.

They should also insist on a renewed professional and ethical commitment to public service by disposing of any PAC funding that may have established a conflict of interest, and thus, potentially clouded their objectivity. In the absence of such a ‘return to sender’, they should recuse themselves from voting on the matter. Such ethical requirements are standard for non-elected federal government officials and should be followed by elected officials as well.

History would judge such courage, enlightened thinking, and leading by example generously.

( – promoted by odum)

Longtime Libertarian Party candidate (he was the Libertarian candidate for governor in 1990 and has run for other elected offices) David Atkinson, of Braintree, is considering another run for the office it appears. Economic development and agriculture are his top issues, and one of his chief initiatives would be to “force” the feds into allowing Vermont to grow hemp – an important cash crop.  

This week we received a press release from Atkinson, along with a bumper sticker-sized sign with his slogan “Time for Change” and a picture of Atkinson peeking out of a clockface.  What time was indicated on the clock?  

Yep, it was 4:20.  And no, I am not making this up. Apparently, Atkinson will run if he gets 500 people to pay $2 each for his bumperstickers.