Arnie Gundersen, who calls himself a nuclear safety advocate, agreed to spend three days per month monitoring the progress of those engineers on behalf of the Vermont state Legislature.

Entergy, which owns and operates Vermont Yankee, has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend Yankee's operating license for 20 more years.

The current license expires in 2012.

In addition to NRC approval, Entergy must also get the OK from the Vermont Legislature and the state's Public Service Board. The audit, which was conducted by Nuclear Safety Associates, was meant to inform the Legislature's and the PSB's decisions.

The Legislature will be voting during its 2010 session on whether Entergy should receive its stamp of approval for continued operation of Yankee after 2012.

Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Putney, asked Gundersen if he would be willing to accept the responsibility.

"With the Public Oversight Panel having completed its work there is currently no one monitoring whether or not Vermont Yankee is making any progress toward meeting the requirements established by NSA and the oversight panel," stated Shumlin, in his request to Gundersen. "The legislature needs assurance that before the start of the 2010 session adequate progress is made to meet the goals set by NSA and the oversight panel."

Because Gundersen was a member of the panel, he would be a good choice for the responsibility, stated Shumlin.

In his response to Shumlin's request, Gundersen wrote that he was honored to be selected for the role.

"I look forward to monitoring Yankee's progress toward the goals the panel established and giving a thorough report to the legislature," he wrote. "Close monitoring of Yankee's progress toward the oversight panel's goals is appropriate (especially since) ongoing condenser problems at Vermont Yankee (indicate) that its future reliability might be jeopardized, as the panel report and my 2003 testimony had previously indicated."

Earlier this week, Yankee reported that the plant's condenser, which acts as a radiator to cool down steam from the plant's reactor, had developed a leak of about one half gallon a minute. About 360,000 gallons of river water flow through the condenser per minute.

No radioactive water is leaking into the river, but river water is leaking into the reactor system. Filters are installed in the system to keep contaminants from entering the reactor.

Yankee technicians are planning to power down the reactor to about half its capacity to see if they can find the source of the leak. Last year, technicians were unable to identify the location of a similar leak.

In 2003, Gundersen testified that the condenser could prove to be a problem for continued reliable operation of the plant. He suggested that Entergy is not willing to pay the $100 million price tag for replacement unless it gets approval for extended operation.

The oversight panel found critical issues that need to dealt with quickly if Yankee is to be maintained reliably, wrote Gundersen in his reply to Shumlin.

"The recent discovery of further condenser tube degradation shows just how prescient the panel's report is and how important the implementation of our recommended modifications and management changes is to the continued reliability of Yankee," he wrote.

Shumlin consulted with the chairmen of the Natural Resources Committees and the Speaker of the House who all agreed to ask Gundersen to assume the role.

A spokesman for Vermont Yankee said he had no comment about the appointment at this time.