Environmental group wants Vt. Yankee license extension rejected because of false statements

Group wants Vt. Yankee license extension rejected

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A consumer and environmental group on Thursday called for state regulators to reject the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant’s request to operate for 20 years past the expiration of its current license in 2012.

In a filing at the Public Service Board, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said Entergy Corp. admitted it provided false information to the board by saying it did not have underground piping that carried radioactive material.

Underground piping has been determined to be the main, if not only, source of radioactive tritium leaking from Vermont Yankee into groundwater. A state official recently said the leak of tritium, an isotope said to cause cancer if ingested in high amounts, appears to have been stopped, but remedial work at the reactor site in Vernon continues.

The board already had completed testimony in its review of Vermont Yankee’s bid for a license extension but has since reopened the case in response to New Orleans-based Entergy’s admission that it provided false information.

“The detection of tritium in monitoring wells compelled Entergy to admit, after the evidence had closed and after briefing had been completed, what has now become obvious,” the research group said in Thursday’s filing.

The state Senate voted Feb. 24 against a bill that would have authorized the Public Service Board to issue a state license, or certificate of public good, for Vermont Yankee to operate past 2012. Vermont Yankee’s supporters hope to win a reversal of that action next year.

The research group decided to act now in part because of recent evidence that Entergy had not been forthright about Vermont Yankee’s underground pipes even since admitting in January that it had misled lawmakers and regulators earlier, said James Moore, director of the group’s energy program.

The group is also asking the board to order Entergy to reimburse parties in the board case that had to spend time and resources responding to Entergy’s misstatements, Moore said.

A request for comment from Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith drew no immediate reply Thursday.

Moore pointed to a letter sent to the Public Service Board last week by the state Department of Public Service, which represents ratepayers before the board, taking Vermont Yankee and Entergy to task for statements it has made during the board’s investigation of its earlier misstatements.

Entergy has been trying to distinguish between “underground” and “buried” pipes at Vermont Yankee. The corporation said that when state officials asked if the plant had underground pipes carrying radioactive materials, it thought they meant pipes that come into direct contact with soil and answered the question in the negative. The pipes that leaked tritium were enclosed in a concrete pipe chase underground.

Two department lawyers wrote to the board March 9, saying they found Entergy’s attempts to make this distinction “extremely difficult to believe.”