Patching a pipe in a nuclear power plant with duct tape: we thought it would only happen on Prairie Home Companion. But this is an actual photo of the part of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant that houses the stop valve (at center) that malfunctioned August 30, causing the plant to surprise its operators by going into a scram. Notice the pipe at the right, with its duct tape patch. Note, too, the places where paint is missing and rust is taking hold. The plant’s owner, Entergy of Mississipi, has applied to extend the aging plant’s license from its current expiration date of 2012 to 2032.
For comment on this picture we contacted David Lochbaum, a former nuclear technician who is now a nuclear safety expert for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. Lochbaum said the pipe probably only carries nonradioactive drainwater, so a flimsy patch on it isn’t extremely dangerous.
However, Lochbaum added, if you take into account the patched pipe, the scraped paint, the rust and the dust, “… the housekeeping here is not what the industry norm is. If you go to most plants, you could eat off the floor. …If this is the way they take care of the equipment they need to make money, what kind of care are they giving the equipment that protects the public?”
On September 6 and 13 the Advocate published this photo (lower right) of the cooling tower that collapsed at the plant August 21, a photo evidently taken by the same unknown photographer who took the one at top right. Taking these problems together—the crumbling cooling tower, the scram nine days later and the rundown look of the plant components shown in the photo of the valve—Lochbaum said,
“Unless these are two pictures that are totally unlike the rest of the plant, it’s not going to make it to 2012, much less 2032. This reactor needs a lot of upgrade.” That, he added, would be expensive.
Perhaps too expensive; maybe that’s why Financial Week just reported that Chicago-based Exelon may buy the five nuclear power plants now owned by Entergy. They are Vermont Yankee; the Pilgrim plant in Plymouth; Indian Point near New York City; the FitzPatrick plant in Oswego, N.Y., and Palisades in South Haven, Mich.
Meanwhile U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont last week confronted Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale Klein with the photo of the cooling tower collapse and demanding an independent safety assessment of the plant before the license extension is approved. “I would hope [local residents[ trust the NRC,” Klein replied.
Retorted Sanders, “They don’t.”
However, the widely circulated picture by the anonymous photographer brought an admission from Klein that’s rare for an NRC official. “When you see that visible collapse,” Klein said, “it is a concern, and you would question the maintenance and safety and so forth.”
The NRC will hold a public hearing on the proposed license extension for Vermont Yankee at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro Thursday, Oct. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. and from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. At 6 p.m. there will be a rally at Pliny Park in downtown Brattleboro. In case of rain the rally will be held at the River Garden. For more information contact Bob Bady at 802-254-9098 or go to www.nukebusters.org.
