VT Yankee continues to leak tritium, sparking debate

On Jan. 7, 2010, Vermont Yankee, a nuclear power plant located in Vernon, Vt., discovered tritium leaking from one of its groundwater monitoring wells. More than a year later, some, like Governor Peter Shumlin, hope the plant will shut down, as they believe it poses a risk to the state. Opposition remains fierce, however; a group led by Patricia O’Donnell, who represented Windham County, where the plant is located, as a member of the Vermont legislature for 12 years, maintains that Vermont Yankee is a vital necessity. O’Donnell’s group works to inform Vermonters about the realities of the situation.
Rachel Pagano ’11 and Dunja Jovici ’13, presidents of College Republicans, coordinated with O’Donnell, who has already appeared on four access television programs and spoken at seven different forums across the state, to organize her visit to the College on Feb. 17.
“My goal is to make people know the truth,” said O’Donnell. “People need to make decisions based on fact and not fiction.”
After the initial detection of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, Vermont Yankee began investigations on Jan. 11, 2010 before finding on Feb. 14, 2010 that two steam pipes in the advanced off-gas pipe tunnel were corroded. The pipes’ failing joints caused the leakage, and mud and cluttered waste that remained in the pipe also prevented movement of materials, like tritium, which then flowed out.
George Crowley, a member of O’Donnell’s coalition, is an employee at Vermont Yankee. He oversees industrial waste management, but calls himself the “chemistry computer geek” of the lot. The plant’s most recent reading of tritium was 1,200 picocuries. To put this figure into perspective and highlight how little tritium was actually found at the plant, Crowley said that an average banana has 2,100 picocuries. Luminescent exit signs often found in public settings may contain 15 curies, which is equivalent to 150 quadrillion picocuries.
Though the plant’s May 14, 2010 reading showed decreasing amounts of tritium, studies proved that the radioactive chemical was traveling west to east through the soil from Vermont Yankee into the Connecticut River. On May 29, 2010 another leak was detected, and in June the Vermont Department of Health began its own independent investigation, which is ongoing.
“All we are asking is to keep an open mind,” said O’Donnell.
The Vermont Department of Health’s published investigation from Feb. 14, 2011 stated that yet another leak was discovered between wells GZ-24S and GZ-6, but Vermont Yankee said the January 2010 tritium incident was worse than the recent leak. The study also found that the plant’s five underground pipes can only hold 1,000 gallons of water, so very little tritium leaked into the groundwater monitoring wells, while in 2010 about 75,000 gallons of groundwater were suspected of contamination. In addition, the groundwater moves through the soil at a rate of 20 to 30 feet per year, so it will take a considerable amount of time for the contamination to affect individuals. Nonetheless, all pipes will be retested with a hydrostatic pressure test, as the Health Department’s investigation found 11 of the 31 groundwater monitoring wells to test positively for tritium. The Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) has scheduled a review of the power plant in mid-April.
Vermont Yankee’s mission statement asserts that the power plant attempts to take full safety measures at all times: “We take pride in operating safely, it is the most important job we do. Vermont Yankee has a strong safety culture and a proven 38 year record of safe operations.”
Sheldon Shippie, a member of the plant’s operations crew who monitors the plant’s activity from a control room and operates the valves and pumps, went to school for 18 months before he was certified to work at Vermont Yankee.
“It’s an engineering degree in three months,” he said. “That is by far the easiest part, too. It ramps up from there.”
Every sixth week, Shippie is required to complete both a written and a simulator exam. He is trained for emergency situations and “off-normal” circumstances. If an individual fails the test, he or she is taken out of the plant and must go through 30 to 40 hours of remediation and retake the test.
“It is stressful, but it works,” said Shippie. “Safety is ingrained in how we do business.”
Lynn Dewald, who works in the plant’s non-radioactive department, addressing topics like drinking water, air pollution and sewage, shies away from using coal or gas energy, as they produce more environmental outputs than does nuclear energy.
Pagano agrees.
“Our dependence on oil is expensive, polluting and makes us dependent upon very fragile parts of the world,” she said. “I think nuclear power is one of the ways that America can combat all these problems in the future.”
Vermont Yankee also employs two full-time inspectors, equating to 7,000 additional hours of inspection per year. Larry Cummings, a Vermont Yankee management employee, said having the inspectors present at the plant parallels the experience of “driving with a state trooper.” He believes their presence makes the nuclear power industry the safest.
Of the 104 power plants in the U.S., Vermont Yankee consistently ranks in the top 10 percent for safety. It was also named number one in reliability for several months. However, after the plant was shut down for 570 days due to a pin-hole steam leak, it lost reliability and now is in the top 25 percent.
“We couldn’t quantify how bad the [pin-hole] leak was, but we found out we shouldn’t have shut down,” said Shippie. “It could have been fixed online, but we weren’t 100 percent sure. We had to take the safe route.”
A 2009 comprehensive reliability audit stated, “Vermont Yankee is operated reliably and can be a reliable station beyond its current operating license.” This report, however, was issued before the tritium leak.
O’Donnell also points to the economic losses that will result if the plant closes. Six hundred and fifty Vermonters will lose high-paying jobs. Another 650 area jobs will be lost, in addition to $100 million in economic benefits. Other companies like IMB in Chittenden, Vt. that employs 6,000 and General Electric in Rutland, Vt. have threatened to follow suit and close if Vermont Yankee is shut down. Vermont would also lose 80 percent of its state power generation capacity, thus disturbing the balanced New England Grid, an energy system between Vermont, New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
“There is predicted instability in Southern Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and possible brown-outs of electricity,” said Cummings.
It will cost $80 million to restructure the grid, which means Vermonters will pay more taxes, as well as face a 30 percent increase in their electricity bills.
“Vermont Yankee is good for Vermont, good for the consumer and good for the environment, but none of this would matter without safe operations,” said O’Donnell. “Without Vermont Yankee, our green footprint is gone.”
Shumlin is currently negotiating an energy partnership with Canada, but Crowley questions why Vermonters should send money to another country to support their workers and taxpayers.
“None of us are happy to have had this [the leak] happen,” said Dewald. “It was unfortunate, but handled expertly.”
The Vermont Department of Health and the NRC will continue investigating the leak and will make decisions about the plant’s future in the spring.