On March 24, 2004, Entergy VY was written up by the Sr. Resident Inspector for not following procedure appropriately in searching the spent fuel pool.
On March 26, 2004 an Entergy Nuclear employee emailed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Sr. Resident Inspector Pelton saying the container on the bottom of the spent fuel pool has been looked into and the spent fuel pieces are there.
This above email is a mis representation from the licensee(Entergy) to the regulatory body (NRC).
On March 31 at a public meeting in Vernon, Inspector Pelton is quoted as having said,"... WE FULLY UNDERSTAND ALL OF THE INVENTORY AND THAT EVERYTHING THAT THEY SAY IS IN THERE IS RIGHT WHERE IT BELONGS."
He was not speaking truthfully here.
On April 20th - with the assistance of a special camera Entergy determined that indeed the two fuel rod pieces were missing.
On June 9, 2004, I called the Sr. Resident Inspector and asked him to email me a copy of the 3/26 email from Entergy. NRC said "no".
This is evidence of the NRC witholding information from the public.
June 9th- Entergy is full steam ahead preparing for its anticipated 20% power output increase. The NRC wrote to VT's congressional delegation today saying they would not even begin doing their lost fuel investigation until August the postponed date after which Entergy believes they will complete their investigation into the lost fuel.
The message here - full steam ahead uprate while the lost fuel issue can be postponed...
Meanwhile no one holds the NRC accountable for not telling the truth, for poor regulation, for witholding data from the public.
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background data
Me Yankee had a small uprate around 1990.
Prior to 1990 a Maine Yankee employee had written to NRC inspector Sears in Maine with some bogus information about the Emergency Core Cooling Code.
Mr. Sears bought the bait and took the licensee at their word.
Years later the cover of the Maine papers ran the headline by then retired NRC inspector Sears
"Sears says Maine Yankee- They lied to me"
By the way, Me Yankee had an uprate of approximately 5% or less. Me Yankee shut down 6 years after its uprate even though it had undergone rigorous testing and studies to be able to handle the increased output.
VY as we know seeks to have the largest uprate permissible by law.