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COMMENT:

This is another “Rob Williams Says” story; Rob Williams being an Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee story. There are no countervailing or even confirmatory points of view expressed. I cannot think of a single instance when the Rutland Herald reported nuclear legal, technical, or safety issues raised by environmental and safety advocates without comment from Entergy Nuclear VY, but time and again ENVY gets a free pass to run out its self-serving version of events.  In this case, ENVY’s claim that the IGSC cracks have been there from day one is entirely unsubstantiated. Further, detailed photos of previous examinations reviewed by NEC’s technical advisor and experts, in our opinion, show crack growth. Entergy’s ongoing assurances regarding steam dryer condition must be scrutinized in the context of Entergy’s assurances regarding the condition of the rest of the plant; for example and notably its ongoing assurances to regulators and the public beginning in 2004 of the good condition of the VY cooling towers.

Raymond Shadis

Consultant to New England Coalition

- END COMMENT -

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081111/NEWS02/811100273

Vt. Yankee back on line; cracks found in component

November 11, 2008
By Susan Smallheer Rutland Herald

BRATTLEBORO — Workers at Vermont Yankee nuclear plant identified 16 additional cracks in the steam dryer, a key component in the reactor, which has failed at other nuke plants that have undergone power increases.

Entergy Nuclear announced Monday the plant had successfully completed a three-week refueling and maintenance shutdown, and Vermont Yankee was back generating electricity. Half of the plant's production is sold to Vermont utilities.

Robert Williams, Entergy Nuclear spokesman, said the discovery of the 16 additional cracks brings the total number in the steam dryer to 63 cracks.

Williams said the new cracks were a result of improved screening and high-tech evaluation. He said the company believed the 16 additional cracks were not new, but that technology was better at detecting them.

"Engineers added 16 additional ones to the steam dryer database this time. This was from a total of 466 individual inspections on the dryer. The inspections this time were more precise because they were done with a new, more stable camera platform," Williams said.

All the cracks were due to intergranular stress corrosion cracking, a result of aging, he said.

"That means they have likely been present since early in the plant's operating life. IGSCC is well understood process: it is due to the relief of metal stress first induced by the heat of the original weld process," he said.

Williams said the company had said there were 75 cracks in 2007, but improved inspection equipment, and engineering re-evaluation had lowered the number.

"None have grown," he said.

The inspection is required by NRC in the post uprate outages to check for similar problems that some other boiling water reactors experienced after an uprate in structural welds. "We didn't find any such problems in our welds," he said. Entergy Nuclear increased power production at Vermont Yankee by 20 percent in March 2006.

Despite the additional cracks, Williams said the steam dryer was in "good" condition.

At the Dresden reactor in Illinois, the vibration from additional power generation caused pieces of the steam dryer to come loose, and lodge in safety-related equipment.

The steam dryer, which is made of steel, removes water from the steam before it heads into the turbines.

Williams refused to say how much money Entergy had spent on the nuclear fuel and the maintenance work on the reactor, calling it "proprietary" information

But he said the expense of the outage is paid by Entergy Nuclear. Before Entergy Nuclear bought the plant in 2002, such costs were passed on to electric consumers, he said.

One-third of the nuclear fuel in the reactor core was replaced, and the other two-thirds were rearranged to maximize power production, he said. The old fuel that was removed from the reactor was placed in the spent fuel pool.

Williams said work was continuing on the cooling towers at Vermont Yankee and would continue through the winter and spring. The plant's two cooling towers have had repeated structural problems in the past 15 months due to rot and insufficient engineering analysis and repair work.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.

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