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Vermont May Revoke Nuclear Plant License
mdsolar writes "Following the Vermont Senate's 26-to-4 vote not to approve a 20-year license extension for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, the Vermont Public Service Board will consider revoking its operating license as well. Meanwhile, the plant continues to operate without its Director of Nuclear Safety Assurance, who has been placed on administrative leave; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has merely issued a Demand for Information rather than shutting down a plant that is lacking a full complement of safety personnel. It may be that the NRC is not capable of doing what is needed with regard to Entergy, the plant owner, which is also facing prosecution by the Mississippi Attorney General."
FTA:
The following week Vermont Yankee officials were accused of misleading state regulators and lawmakers by saying the plant did not have the type of underground pipes that could carry tritium.
Actually, I don't think they were misleading the regulators... It appears that they didn't have pipes that could carry the tritium. If only we could figure out why they were there in the first place.
This is the problem with the Nuclear Industry. Although there have never been any major accidents or injuries, they have a 40 year history of:
Massive cost over-runs on almost every nuclear power plant built
Poor management
Poor maintenance
Not fixing identified problems until forced by government action
Getting caught lying about things big and small
Having no plan for dealing with radioactive waste other than bury it in someone's backyard and let them deal with it when the containers start leaking.
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What amazes me is their Senate voting to effectively shut down the source of over 1/3 of their power generation *before* they have even found a source to replace it.
Typical response from people with small minds. How about the MILLIONS in high paying jobs it dumps into the local economy? It isn't like these people are going to stay and work at Walmart for 8$ an hour if the plant closes. Vermont like Maine(which I moved to Florida from) is run by short sighted liberals who run on SMUG and fail to embrace reality.
TMI was a perfect example of starting off well and letting things slide later.
In the early design and construction stages a lot of care was taken, the small risk of getting hit by a large aircraft from a nearby airport resulted in building containment vessels to withstand impact. However years later by the time it was up and running nobody cared much about the control systems and they wouldn't have been acceptable in any other form of power plant, chemical plant or oil refinery in the country. When the accident happened the carefully designed containment vessels which were unique at the time saved everyones bacon but nobody knew what happened because the instrumentation and control systems were rubbish. It was sheer dumb luck that it happened there and not at another of the plants where the consequences would have been worse. It gave us the best sort of nuclear accident you can get - one that wakes everyone up.
Now far too many have gone back to sleep. There are of course plenty of petty idiots that like to pretend that only Russians get things wrong and there is no need to be careful.
You do realize that a more likely alternative is coal, a technology that produces more radioactivity, more toxic waste, and has killed far more people?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Do you mean to imply that we are adapted to the uranium and radium released by coal plants?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Entergy claims they have saved Vermonters $300 million over 8 years http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/02/26/leaking_credibility_vt_yankee_must_step_up_or_face_closure/ But they have also failed to contribute to the decommissioning fund required for all nuclear plants and the deficit seems to be just about that much. So really, what they have been doing is faking cheaper power to constrain competition in a dishonest manner.
I cannot say I have ever seen a comment stating that nuclear power "never-has-any-kind-of-problem-EVAR", except when followed with a "when the proper safety procedures are followed". I mean, it's kinda hard to ignore Chernobyl* and TMI** when the "nuclear power is dangerous" crowd keeps trying to shove them in everyone's faces as examples of why nuclear power is dangerous.
*What happens when proper safety procedures are not followed.
**Not a problem at all, but they still try and bring it up despite the fact that proper safety procedures were followed, and thus the risk was minimal.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
Three Mile Island is an example of how safe nuclear power is, NOT how dangerous it is.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
Hmmm, long term creditability... Exactly how many people have been killed due to nuclear accidents in the US?
The public applies a double standard to energy production. Dangerous fossil fuels get away with murder while picocuries of radiation (an average banana has more radioactivity than was found) shuts a safe non polluting plant down.