Fenceline Radiation at VY – how much radiation are you getting?

Statehouse, Montpelier Vermont

Synopsis of Oct. 8, 2008 hearing (re: Radiation Monitoring at Vermont Yankee), recessed until a date to be announced. 
The Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules grilled Vermont Department of Health (VDH) Radiation Dept. Chief Bill Irwin for 3 hours about his vacillation on whether to follow or not follow the Administrative Procedures Act and hold public hearings on the rule change. Irwin kept insisting that there was no rule change, and that no one ever asked him or the Dept. to hold hearings. (That last bit is incorrect, since he was explicitly asked to conduct an open process if he thought the radiation regs needed updating, after his presentation in Brattleboro). However, Rep. Marek can do math, and noticed that as gamma releases from Yankee went up, reported measurements of direct gamma at the fenceline were going down, and given the famous 25% uncertainty margin, VDH has been allowing Entergy to release up to 31 mrem for years, even under the original regulation.  If the rule has not been changed, the ruler has (perhaps VDH is using a "slide" rule.) Committee members wondered why Irwin and others at VDH said several times in the press and in internal memos that there would be a rule change and a public process, then failed to follow through. Irwin had trouble explaining why he changed his mind about that--he said after the hearing that VDH attorneys had advised him improperly.  Rep. Marek and the committee were unrelenting in their questions. They will be reconvening at a later date to hear testimony from citizens who had traveled to Montpelier to testify. It will be interesting to see how or whether the Rules Committee chooses to remedy the violation of the Admin. Procedures Act...They could demand a full rulemaking process, at which point any individual could ask for an injunction to enforce the existing rule (1 rad = 1 rem), potentially making Yankee power down.

Members of the public interested in providing testimony should contact Katie Pickens, assistant to the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, 802-828-5760.

--------- following is the Press Release for the 10/8/08 meeting --------

PRESS RELEASE

General Assembly – 133 State Street – Montpelier, VT 05602 – 802-828-2228 – Fax: 802-828-2424 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: October 2, 2008
Contact: Katie Pickens Phone: 828-5760 Fax: 828-2424

Public Hearing on the Department of Health Rules on Radiation Monitoring at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Including the Department’s Revision of the Computation Standards for Annual Acceptable Doses of Gamma Radiation.

Montpelier, VT. The Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules has scheduled a public hearing on the state's radiation protection rule for Wednesday, October 8, 2008 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in Room 11 of the State House, 115 State Street, Montpelier, VT. The committee is exercising its authority under 3 V.S.A. § 817 to hold a public hearing on an existing rule, the Vermont Department of Health’s radiological health rule, subchapter 1, on radiation protection, which may be viewed online at http://healthvermont.gov/regs/radio_health.pdf. The committee is interested in determining whether the Department of Health should have gone through, or should go through, the formal rulemaking process regarding the possible revision of the long-standing regulatory standard that establishes the number of millirems allowed per year at the site boundary of the Yankee nuclear facility in Vernon.

Among issues of particular interest to the committee are:

• Rule 5-303(K), the definition of "Rem" that defines a dose of one Roentgen (R) due to gamma radiation as being the equivalent to a dose of one rem.
• Rule 5-305(A), which specifies that the Department of Health "shall use the recommendations contained in the reports of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and the handbooks of the National Bureau of Standards as standards and bases for calculations to obtain and maintain safe conditions…”
• Rule 5-305(B)( 1)(E)( 1), which states: "The annual dose objective of the total body of an individual in an unrestricted area due to plant emanations of gamma radiation is 5 millirems. For the purpose of this objective, 20 millirems per year at any point on the site boundary bordered by land shall be considered equivalent to a 5 millirem dose at the nearest residences in Vermont."

It appears that pursuant to its authority in 5-305(A), the Department may have revised its standards with regard to the acceptable annual dose to humans located at the site boundary, but has done so by means of an internal computation, without revising the language that remains in rule 5-303 and rule 5-305. Of additional concern to the Committee is whether this possible revision may be in conflict with the requirements for formal rulemaking set forth in 3 V.S.A. chapter 25 (Vermont Administrative Procedure Act).