I graduated from high school 25 years ago next month. I doubt I’ll go to the reunion, but a quarter-century is an appropriate vantage point for a backward glance. Jimmy Carter was president then, his reputation has traveled several full circles since. Gas cost 80 cents a gallon, the Cold War was still on, the Soviet Union was just beginning to sink into a quagmire in Afghanistan. In Vernon, Vermont, workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor placed two pencil-sized pieces of broken fuel rod into a containment pool; no one has seen them since.
This may or may not be the story of the 25-year absence of a nuclear fuel rod, the absence may have only been five or ten years. We don’t know how long the fuel rod has been missing, we only learned it was missing last week. This story is about hubris, a radioactive form of pride.
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to observe a representative of the nuclear industry in public, you’ll recognize the symptoms of this green, glowing hubris. These men – and they are overwhelmingly men – shine with attitude and condescension. We’re very smart, they telegraph. We know what we’re doing; you couldn’t possibly understand the arcane science under discussion. Then a fuel rod comes up missing and – d’oh! – they turn into Homer Simpson.
These are the facts: in 1979 Vermont Yankee had been operating for seven years and already the plant managers were so slipshod that a nuclear fuel rod could be lost, or at least fall beneath notice. In March 1979, the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania released radioactive steam in the worst nuclear accident in the western hemisphere. Apparently that event was not sufficient enough lesson to instill a sense of precaution in the people then running Vermont Yankee.
Flash forward 25 years. Vermont Yankee now belongs to Entergy Incorporated of Louisiana. Entergy is applying to state and federal regulators for permission to put 20 percent more fuel into – and get 20 percent more energy out of – Vermont Yankee. If this request is granted, it will be the largest such increase in the history of American nuclear power.
A week before the missing fuel rod was detected, hairline cracks were found in Vermont Yankee’s steam dryer. Such cracks can lead to the release of radioactive steam.
The absence of the fuel rod was detected during an inventory of Vermont Yankee’s 2,789 assemblies of spent fuel. Although it is Entergy Inc. policy to regularly inventory spent fuel assemblies, no such inventory had been taken until last week and that inventory was being carried out under threat of sanction by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission if it was not completed. This means – incredibly – that Entergy Incorporated bought Vermont Yankee without ever checking to learn how much spent nuclear fuel was on the premises. Are these the people we want running our nuclear reactors?
We are told our nation is at war with terrorists. We are told nuclear plants are targets in this war and terrorists are eager to acquire radioactive material to fashion “dirty” bombs. No official from the Department of Homeland Security has yet visited Vermont Yankee or addressed the issue of the missing fuel rod. Officials at Vermont Yankee say it is “impossible” that the missing fuel rod has been stolen, but since these same officials cannot account for the location of that fuel rod for the past quarter-century, we cannot assign credibility to any of their statements.
The Vermont Yankee officials say the missing fuel rod will most likely never be found. They say a contractor probably picked it up by mistake and that it was buried in a low-level radioactive waste landfill. It is unclear why a contractor hired to cart off low-level waste would be in the spent fuel containment pool, but if this scenario is correct, then it is a tragedy for the community that hosts the low-level dump.
Vermont Governor Jim Douglas says his faith in Vermont Yankee is diminished, but he refuses to call for a full safety inspection of the plant. A full safety inspection of the Maine Yankee nuclear plant was conducted in 1996 and so many defects were identified that the plant was shut down. Since Vermont Yankee provides one-third of Vermont’s electricity, perhaps Gov. Douglas prefers to remain ignorant of the full safety picture at Vermont Yankee.
In June 2000, two fuel rods were found to be missing at the Millstone nuclear reactor in Connecticut. They have never been found. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now beginning to require inventories at all nuclear reactors. How many more missing fuel rods have we yet to discover?
Dude, Where’s My Nuke?
I graduated from high school 25 years ago next month. I doubt I’ll go to the reunion, but a quarter-century is an appropriate vantage point for a backward glance. Jimmy Carter was president then, his reputation has traveled several full circles since. Gas cost 80 cents a gallon, the Cold War was still on, the Soviet Union was just beginning to sink into a quagmire in Afghanistan. In Vernon, Vermont, workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor placed two pencil-sized pieces of broken fuel rod into a containment pool; no one has seen them since.
This may or may not be the story of the 25-year absence of a nuclear fuel rod, the absence may have only been five or ten years. We don’t know how long the fuel rod has been missing, we only learned it was missing last week. This story is about hubris, a radioactive form of pride.
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to observe a representative of the nuclear industry in public, you’ll recognize the symptoms of this green, glowing hubris. These men – and they are overwhelmingly men – shine with attitude and condescension. We’re very smart, they telegraph. We know what we’re doing; you couldn’t possibly understand the arcane science under discussion. Then a fuel rod comes up missing and – d’oh! – they turn into Homer Simpson.
These are the facts: in 1979 Vermont Yankee had been operating for seven years and already the plant managers were so slipshod that a nuclear fuel rod could be lost, or at least fall beneath notice. In March 1979, the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania released radioactive steam in the worst nuclear accident in the western hemisphere. Apparently that event was not sufficient enough lesson to instill a sense of precaution in the people then running Vermont Yankee.
Flash forward 25 years. Vermont Yankee now belongs to Entergy Incorporated of Louisiana. Entergy is applying to state and federal regulators for permission to put 20 percent more fuel into – and get 20 percent more energy out of – Vermont Yankee. If this request is granted, it will be the largest such increase in the history of American nuclear power.
A week before the missing fuel rod was detected, hairline cracks were found in Vermont Yankee’s steam dryer. Such cracks can lead to the release of radioactive steam.
The absence of the fuel rod was detected during an inventory of Vermont Yankee’s 2,789 assemblies of spent fuel. Although it is Entergy Inc. policy to regularly inventory spent fuel assemblies, no such inventory had been taken until last week and that inventory was being carried out under threat of sanction by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission if it was not completed. This means – incredibly – that Entergy Incorporated bought Vermont Yankee without ever checking to learn how much spent nuclear fuel was on the premises. Are these the people we want running our nuclear reactors?
We are told our nation is at war with terrorists. We are told nuclear plants are targets in this war and terrorists are eager to acquire radioactive material to fashion “dirty” bombs. No official from the Department of Homeland Security has yet visited Vermont Yankee or addressed the issue of the missing fuel rod. Officials at Vermont Yankee say it is “impossible” that the missing fuel rod has been stolen, but since these same officials cannot account for the location of that fuel rod for the past quarter-century, we cannot assign credibility to any of their statements.
The Vermont Yankee officials say the missing fuel rod will most likely never be found. They say a contractor probably picked it up by mistake and that it was buried in a low-level radioactive waste landfill. It is unclear why a contractor hired to cart off low-level waste would be in the spent fuel containment pool, but if this scenario is correct, then it is a tragedy for the community that hosts the low-level dump.
Vermont Governor Jim Douglas says his faith in Vermont Yankee is diminished, but he refuses to call for a full safety inspection of the plant. A full safety inspection of the Maine Yankee nuclear plant was conducted in 1996 and so many defects were identified that the plant was shut down. Since Vermont Yankee provides one-third of Vermont’s electricity, perhaps Gov. Douglas prefers to remain ignorant of the full safety picture at Vermont Yankee.
In June 2000, two fuel rods were found to be missing at the Millstone nuclear reactor in Connecticut. They have never been found. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now beginning to require inventories at all nuclear reactors. How many more missing fuel rods have we yet to discover?
(c) Mark Floegel, 2004