As I wrote in Thursday’s paper, the Fukushima Daiichi accident is renewing a debate over whether the emergency venting systems that were added to boiling water reactors 20 years ago should be...
As I wrote in Thursday’s paper, the Fukushima Daiichi accident is renewing a debate over whether the emergency venting systems that were added to boiling water reactors 20 years ago should be...
Five days after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, America's leading nuclear regulator came before Congress bearing good news: Don't worry, it can't happen here. In the aftermath of the Japanese catastrophe,...
In the best case, hundreds of thousands of evacuees will spend months away from home
The fate of Japan's Fukushima prefecture, where hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated, appears to lie somewhere between the outcomes at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. There were no evacuations during the Three Mile Island accident, which released about 50,000 curies of...
As radiation levels rise at the crippled reactors in northern Japan, a basic question arises: how long can...
What you should know about the health risks from Japan’s nuclear accident, from an industry veteran.
The nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan is continuing to deteriorate. Multiple explosions have blown roofs and outer walls off reactor buildings, and a dire struggle is under way to prevent the worst.
For several days, authorities have attempted to reassure the public. Now, they are...
The detection of the highly radioactive elements cesium-137 and iodine-131 outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant heralds the beginning of an ecological and human tragedy. The open question is whether it will be limited, serious or catastrophic.
The two radioactive isotopes can mean...
A nuclear decommissioning expert says estimates to dismantle the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are too old and don’t reflect the current state of the economy.
According to study released Thursday from Fairewinds Associates, a consultancy hired by the state Legislature to...
Set to go online in 2016, Westinghouse's AP1000 and other third-generation nuclear reactors are on the verge of design approval by the feds--but not quite there
A new era for nuclear power is taking shape as third-generation reactors, designed to be simpler and safer, inch through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) design certification process. Much of nuclear's revival hinges on the ability of...
Arnie and Maggie Gundersen came to the Statehouse last week hauling a poster-sized map that detailed the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and the monitoring wells that dot the grounds.
Sitting before a legislative committee, Arnie Gundersen recounted the tritium levels found in each...
Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that states have a lot of control over the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, but that radiological issues remain the federal domain.
Tom Frederick, speaking at a meeting in Bethesda, Md., told a group of nuclear power...
A panel of experts convened on Tuesday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss how the agency should approach tritium leaks at reactors suggested that the biggest risk that nuclear operators faced was the erosion of public trust.
“Tritium is one of the most benign of radioactive...
The nuclear power industry—and President Obama’s plans to fund its growth—is bracing for a major setback today as the Vermont state senate is expected to vote to shut down a nuclear reactor with a history of leaks.
The thirty-eight-year-old Vermont Yankee plant, which is owned by Entergy...
Vermont would be the first state to close a nuclear reactor after 38-year-old Yankee's history of leaking cancer-causing tritium
Barack Obama's new dream of a nuclear renaissance faces a major reality check tomorrow when the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an ageing nuclear reactor with a history of leaks.
It would be the first time a state has moved to shut down such a reactor, and follows Obama's...
Nuclear industry experts Arnie and Maggie Gundersen predicted the problems at Vermont Yankee
The growing list of woes at Vermont Yankee [1] is bad news for its parent company, Louisiana-based Entergy [2]. But the technical mishaps, monetary shortfalls and radioactive leaks at the state’s sole nuclear power plant have been a boon for independent nuclear experts Arnie [3] and Maggie...
For years there have been many lawmakers, lobbyists and state officials at the Statehouse who thought Arnie and Maggie Gundersen were alarmist and rabid anti-nuclear kooks.
But it turns out that this husband-and-wife team from Burlington have been right about many things Vermont Yankee –...
Vermont Yankee could stop adding to the tritium leaking into the groundwater around the Vernon nuclear plant if it were to shut down the facility while searching for the leak, Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear engineer, told legislators Wednesday.
The plant has continued to operate since...
Says quickest way to stop tritium is to shut down
The plume of tritium leaking from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is suspected of being 35 feet deep, 200 feet wide and 400 feet long, according to the Legislature's nuclear expert.
Arnie Gundersen, a member of the Vermont Legislature's Public Oversight Panel for Vermont Yankee,...
SOUTH ROYALTON, VT –– The Environmental Law Society’s Advocacy Group will host a panel on the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at 5:30 p.m., Tues., Feb. 9 in the Chase Community Center at Vermont Law School. The event is free and open to the public.
VLS students will start the program...
The Douglas administration has been forced to take a tough line on false statements coming from the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and on the problems arising from the underground pipes now leaking radioactive tritium into the groundwater in Vernon.
Entergy Nuclear, the...
Does Entergy get it?
Does Entergy really think that reassigning Vermont Yankee site vice president Jay Thayer to another position in the company is enough to restore people’s trust? Even Department of Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien on Wednesday called the move "...
BRATTLEBORO — A top-level official from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was in Vernon Monday, sitting in on meetings with Entergy Nuclear on how to handle the newly discovered radioactive leak at Vermont Yankee.
Donald Jackson, the NRC section chief, was attending the Entergy...
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant's decomissioning fund -- which had been withering with the economy -- is showing signs of improvement.
Is it enough, though, to clean up the Vernon site after it shuts down? That perennial question lingers.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission,...
BRATTLEBORO -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s estimate as to how much it will cost to clean up the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant site is too low, stated a former industry insider turned nuclear safety advocate.
Two years ago, Arnie Gundersen and Fairewinds Associates...
BRATTLEBORO, August 21, 2009 -- Mechanical problems at Vermont Yankee can be fixed, said a member of the public oversight panel tasked with reviewing a reliability assessment of the power plant in Vernon.
"But we have concerns that the global and cultural problems -- not mechanical...
BRATTLEBORO — Entergy Nuclear has improved the financial package for the proposed spin-off company of its five northeast nuclear plants, including the Vermont Yankee reactor.
Mike Burns, an Entergy spokesman in New Orleans, said Tuesday that negotiations between...
BRATTLEBORO — Entergy Nuclear has improved the financial package for the proposed spin-off company of its five northeast nuclear plants, including the Vermont Yankee reactor.
Mike Burns, an Entergy spokesman in New Orleans, said Tuesday that negotiations between Entergy and New York state...
The companies that own almost half the nation's nuclear reactors are not setting aside enough money to dismantle them, and many may sit idle for decades and pose safety and security risks as a result, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The shortfalls are caused not by...
Back in the summer of 2006, VDB was considered radical for suggesting that the relicensing of Vermont Yankee was now an open question, rather than a done deal. Of course, here in the summer of 2009, relicensing is not simply one open question but several. Will Vermont relicense an aging nuclear...
A former member of the oversight panel that reviewed the results of an audit of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon was asked Wednesday to keep an eye on measures taken by power plant engineers to address issues raised in the audit.
BRATTLEBORO -- A former member of the oversight panel that reviewed the results of an audit of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon was asked Wednesday to keep an eye on measures taken by power plant engineers to address issues raised in the audit.
Arnie Gundersen, who calls...
Gundersen asked to keep eye on VY By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff, Thursday, June 11, 2009
BRATTLEBORO -- A former member of the oversight panel that reviewed the results of an audit of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon was asked Wednesday to keep an eye on measures taken by...
Vermont Yankee Oversight Panel (VYOP) report was 50 pages long, which makes it difficult to summarize in an opinion piece limited to 600 words, but...
When the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant finally closes, will there be enough money to clean up its radioactive legacy?
In the world of industrial-scale electricity generation, some structures are so large and powerful that the sight of them takes your breath away. Their...
