Vermont Yankee: What to do with spent fuel?

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2004 by McQuiston, Timothy

Brian Cosgrove estimates that Vermont ratepayers have saved $20 million under this power contract. The utilities have shed the liabilities and headaches of owning a nuclear reactor.

Even if both the Yankee and H-Q contracts have generally been higher than possible contracts from other generators, the stability of the contracts (with the

exception of the 1999 ice storm that shut down Hydro-Quebec) has provided some measure of reliability, both in price and source.

But no new major power plants have been built in Vermont in over 20 years, An attempt to site a natural gas plant in Rutland County in the 1990s went nowhere after stiff local opposition, despite the backing of Governor Dean. In the 1980s, Governor Madeleine Kunin wanted to run a natural gas pipeline to a Massachusetts power plant in exchange for favorable electric rates. That plan met even more furious local opposition and was eventually abandoned.

Now wind power is being touted as a clean, renewable resource to replace some, but not nearly all, of these expiring contracts. (see related story)

Vermont Yankee and Hydro-Quebec supply about two-thirds Vermont's electric needs. Both contracts (if Yankee applies for and is granted a license extension) could possibly be renewed at some point.

Missing Fuel Rods

A nuclear plant is always under scrutiny. Yankee has had more than its share of scrutiny in the last few months. In mid June, a small fire outside the containment area forced the plant to shut down for 19 days.

But the fire pails by comparison to the uproar over missing fuel rods. In April, Vermont Yankee reported that pieces of two fuel. rods (about the size of long pencils, one 17 inches long and the other nine inches) were missing from the spent fuel pool and had been, unaccounted for for over 25 years.

In mid-July, Yankee announced that the fuel rods had been located in the spent fuel pool in an aluminum cylinder.

In a press release on July 15, the day they were discovered,, Vermont Yankee Site Vice President Jay Thayer said, "We earlier had checked all the containers in the pool, but when we learned that General Electric (the reactor manufacturer) had designed and sent a pipe-like cylinder for the fuel-rod pieces, we rechecked the videotapes. That's when we noticed that what was previously thought to be part of an existing pool structure could very well be the canister that GE had sent here."

The cylinders were opened by remotely controlled devices and special cameras were used so operators could confirm that the fuel pieces were inside, according to the press release.

Brian Cosgrove explained that Entergy Vermont Yankee officials used a small team of investigators that combed records and interviewed employees who worked at the plant in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Cosgrove said one former worker remembered receiving a container from General Electric and made a sketch that resembled the container Yankee ultimately found. They also uncovered evidence that a container to hold broken fuel rods was shipped from GE in California in 1979, but there was no supporting documentation in Vermont