Radioactive leak found in well water at VT Yankee

January 7, 2010

It is the third day into the 2010 legislative session and already Vermont Yankee is having reliability and health concerns. This is not the first time that the reliability of Vermont Yankee has been an issue.

This most recent radioactive leak was of a byproduct of nuclear power called tritium. It was found in a monitoring well at the plant.

This is not the first reliability and monitoring concern. It is one of many in the past few months. A few recent lowlights are:

• November - the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, citied Entergy for a low-level safety violation of the cooling towers inspection program.

• September - Another employee at Vermont Yankee was either drinking on the job or showed up after drinking and failed a random fitness-for-duty test (this time before 10 AM).

• August - Vermont Yankee failed to conduct required radiation monitoring at the power plant for over a year.  This is after they told officials that they had the required information but it had to be reviewed on site.  The truth was that no one had even begun to monitor this toxic waste.  Vermont Yankee's spokesman called this "an oversight."

All these issues and Entergy is transferring the aging nuclear plant to a spinoff company (Enexus) with “junk bond” credit rating.

It is clear that Vermont Yankee can’t be trusted and is just not good for Vermont.

In case you missed it:

Associated Press article, Vt. Yankee well tests shows radioactive isotope, click here>>>