Asked by a member of the public -
yet a member of VSNAP then said that she wanted
answers to that person's questions...
12 questions
The Vt State Nuclear Advisory Panel ( not a regulatory board- an advisory board governed by the Commissioner of the department of public service as chair) met on 10-4 in Vernon.
Literally they met two days after the J. Wayne Leonard, CEO and Chairman of Entergy Corp in Louisiana letter in response to the VT congressional delegation which stated how Entergy would be “open and transparent to the public” at the bottom of the first paragraph.
After hearing Entergy engineers Dreyfuss and McElwee along with a third man explain as best they could such things as their inadequate inspection plans, their inadequate preventive maintenance plans, iron salts accumulation on their cooling tower screws, I asked about 12 direct questions. Yes these Entergy engineers admitted that at Prairie Island nuclear station in Minnesota a similar cooling tower collapse had occurred approximately 10 years ago. I had hoped that Entergy would respond openly to me, as their Chairman and CEO from Louisiana wrote two days earlier. Like usual, my questions would have gone off to the ethers of transcript/minute land had not my state representative thought my questions were apropos of legitimate responses- thus they were asked by a VSNAP member and answers should be forthcoming.
Question 1 – How many pieces of deferred maintenance does VY have today 10/4/07 at 21:10 hour? This is unacceptable to me.
2- Regarding the fact that members of the public have been requesting an Independent Safety Assessment such as Maine Yankee had in 1996, with a deep vertical slice of 2 safety related systems and two maintenance rule ( non safety related systems) performed by a team of engineers who have no VY allegiance for at least the previous 2 years…
What is Entergy hiding ?
3-Today the towers do not need extra oversight- it is the rest of the reactor that requires the oversight. If the carpentry is breaking apart what more significant components of the reactor are degrading?
4-Earlier in the evening Dr Irwin of the state Dept of health had asked if there are employees walking on the roof of the cooling towers now even though the repairs are not yet complete to the cooling towers. Mr Dreyfuss gave an obfuscated response to a less than direct question. I said directly Are there Entergy employees walking on top of the cooling towers now? The answer is Yes Isn’t that true?
Mr McElwee nodded his head yes
5- After the Prairie Island cooling tower collapse that preceded the VT yankee event did the report for the industry not include the value of a “hands on inspection” to inspect the fill, screws etc. to determine what had failed as better than the remote camera allegedly used by VY technicians.
( as an aside – I am a nurse, the 2nd most highly regulated industry in the US. Nuclear energy is the #1 – Is there not a record of the remote camera having been used and failing to detect the extent of the damage in the cooling towers?- If they did not chart it- they didn’t do it)
6-Re the SCRAM 10 days after the cooling tower collapse –
When the stop valve did not act as planned what is protocol for opening it. Engineer Dreyfus had previously been quoted as having said “ we tapped on it with a mallet.” Aka you know what that means. Is that common practice?
7-Who was President of the United States when that stop valve was constructed?
I asked this question due to the difference between now and in the seventies. Today the supply chain for the parts for reactors is international.
Back when ( 30-50 years ago) it was domestic only. Back in the seventies the US had 400 suppliers and 900 sub suppliers licensed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This is for N stamp rating. Today those #s are 80 and 200 respectively.
8- When Entergy attempted to release the stop valve – the engineers admitted to knowing it could cause a SCRAM – autmomatic shutdown – were there other options without the risk of a scram?
8.5-And why did Entergy not attempt an approach that would not lead to a SCRAM 10 days after the catastrophic cooling tower failure?
9 – Directly to Entergy – Were you three men coached by Burson Marsteller , Entergy’s PR team prior to tonight’s meeting?
10 Iron salt attack- is that another name for rust?
11- Have the two towers now yet been entirely checked for increased stress due to overtightened screws/ bolts etc. There are approximately 20,000 screws/bolts to change from the galvanized steel to the carbon steel or vice versa and to date only approximately 10% or 2000 have been changed.
12- finally did anyone at VSNAP relate any concerns of what transpires now between Entergy’s Pilgrim reactor and Vermont Yankee where VY workers are less satisfied now as Entergy employees than when VY was a “mom and pop shop”. Massachusetts Entergy employees are concerned with the safety culture /morale / management etc and events of the Vermont Yankee reactor.