Federal panel favors analysis of Yankee
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: November 25, 2008
MONTPELIER — A federal panel reviewing Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant's request for a license extension has partially upheld an advocacy group's opposition to that approval — the first time that has happened in any nuclear relicensing case.
However, the ruling by the three judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seems unlikely to pose a major obstacle to the plant's plans to continue operating beyond 2012. A spokesman for plant owner Entergy Nuclear said the company is already doing the additional analysis required by the panel before a new license can be granted.
Nuclear watchdog New England Coalition raised several technical concerns about the requested license extension. Two of the three, related to the plan for dealing with wear and corrosion of some parts of the plant including the steam dryer, were decided in the plant's favor by the panel.
However, the judges decided that the coalition may be correct to raise worries about the aging of several metal nozzles that are part of the reactor. Although the panel did not go as far as the coalition would have liked, the judges did require that Entergy must do more analysis of that nozzle wear before it can be given permission to keep operating.
"Is it legally permissible and technically appropriate to issue the license now, and allow Entergy to postpone the necessary metal fatigue analysis until later? Our answer is no," the panel members wrote in their decision. Yankee is now requesting several approvals needed in order to keep running, including from the federal regulators, state regulators and the Legislature.
The three-judge panel's decision does not go far enough and the decision not to find for the coalition in the other two areas of review should be reconsidered, said Ray Shadis, who worked with the coalition on preparing its case.
"We were shocked at how little the two technical judges understood about boiling water reactors," Shadis said. "The judges plainly did not allow New England Coalition witnesses an opportunity for rebuttal. It is impossible for us to see how they could have fairly arrived at the conclusions they arrived at."
Still, he added, "it is something of a minor miracle they granted us part of one contention."
The Vermont Public Service Department supported the coalition's case before the federal panel. The decision is the first of its kind, said Sarah Hofmann, director of the public advocacy division of the department
"It is historic in that no state or interveners has prevailed in a contention in a re-licensure case," she said.
The ruling will not, in all likelihood, prove a major stumbling block, Hofmann said.
"They probably can fix it, but they have to do it right and we will be watching to make sure they do it right," she said.
She believes the federal panel did its work thoroughly, Hofmann said.
"I think the ASLB took a lot of technical care in making the decision they did," she said.
The company is already doing the analysis required, Entergy's Laurence Smith said.
"Entergy had previously begun work in earnest on the two analyses and is confident that they will show that there is significant margin in the components so that they will continue to be in service safely throughout the license renewal period," he said.
Smith said the company is in the process of reviewing the decision, but would not appeal it.
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