VERNON — The discovery of elevated levels of tritium at the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee power plant in early January has created a chain reaction of revelations that have shaken even some of the plant's most stalwart defenders and has delayed indefinitely the plant's efforts to get permission to operate beyond 2012.
With Entergy under fire for providing false information to state legislators, which the company has admitted and for which it has publicly apologized, officials say that denying the existence of underground pipes that carry radioactive materials at the plant compromised reliability audits and reports required by state law.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency entrusted with monitoring the plant's safety issues, said that in light of the revelations, it would be “looking at the information the company provided for license renewal,” said NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci, noting the agency would revisit only the parts of the application that deals with the underground pipes.
The elevated levels of tritium (a radioactive isotope of hydrogen; see sidebar) from a sample taken in December was confirmed in a second test in early January and publicized Jan. 7, when the company alerted state health inspectors as part of a voluntary program to report such leaks.
But as employees and state health agents searched the plant for the tritium source, facts emerged that contradicted the sworn testimony of Entergy officials in front of the state Public Service Board last May.
From zero to one to 40 pipes
As a result of the investigation into the source of the tritium, Entergy informed the state Department of Public Service of one pressurized, 2-inch pipe that carries radionuclides and admitted the existence of other such active piping systems.
Entergy Vice President for Operations Jay Thayer and Site Vice President Mike Columb each told the board under oath that no underground piping at the plant carried material containing radionuclides.
On Jan. 14, DPS Commissioner David O'Brien wrote Entergy President and CEO Rick Smith, ordering a comprehensive list of pipes, and soon the company supplied a new affidavit from its director of engineering that enumerated an estimated 40 pipes within the scope of the company's Buried Piping and Tanks Inspection and Monitoring Program.
All operational piping and tanks listed have come into “direct contact with concrete or soil,” and they qualify as carrying the radioactive material, according to the affidavit.
In a letter to the media, spokesman Rob Williams attributed the conflicting information to “miscommunication” and affirmed the company's commitment to a full internal investigation.
Neither Williams nor Entergy Director of Communications Larry Smith responded to multiple interview requests.
Consultant says he tried to warn DPS
With the controversy well under way, Arnold Gunderson, of Burlington, a nuclear engineer and consultant who served as one of three members of the Public Oversight Panel, said that the recent revelations of the underground pipes were not that recent at all.
“In fact,” he said, “this has gone on for 18 months.”
Noting that the reliability study and audit performed in late 2008 and early 2009 at the behest of the legislature presumed the absence of any such pipes, consistent with Thayer and Columb's testimony, that information was not evaluated or presented to lawmakers.
When Gunderson found a NRC filing from Entergy that made him suspicious, he began engaging in a months-long quest to get to the bottom of whether the pipes did or did not exist. “In August of '09, it was crystal clear there were [buried pipes],” Gunderson said.
On Aug. 13, 2009, Entergy Legislative Liaison Dave McElwee flatly denied the existence of the underground pipes and wrote Gunderson that “we consider this issue closed.”
“This is a case of corporate misrepresentation,” Gunderson said. “Either they were dumb or they were devious. And the NRC? They're just rubber stamps. They didn't go in and look.”
'Absolutely unacceptable'
The discrepancies took on a deeper meaning to state regulators, legislative leaders, and Governor Jim Douglas.
The revelations prompted the Public Service Board to issue a blistering rebuke to the Louisiana-based company, indefinitely delaying the board's process of issuing the plant a Certificate of Public Good, which the plant needs for it to continue operating beyond 2012.
At a Jan. 27 status conference requested by the Department of Public Service, PSB Chairman James Volz, noting the board's dependence on “timely, complete, and accurate information,” called Entergy's conduct “absolutely unacceptable.”
“Obviously, one area of concern is the particular statements made under oath before the board,” Volz said. “But it appears the issue is broader and that Entergy may have provided false information for an extended period of time, not only to us under oath here in the hearing room but also to the department, to the state's contractors conducting the comprehensive vertical audit, to the Public Oversight Panel, to the legislature, and to the public.”
The board ordered Entergy to identify statements in its testimony that need to be stricken or revised, as well as provide a full accounting for how and why the inaccurate information was conveyed, details on the tritium leak and its environmental implications, and a revised estimate of decommissioning costs.
State Nuclear Engineer Uldis Vanags had testified to the PSB that decommissioning costs for Vermont Yankee would be lower than those for Maine Yankee because of the lack of underground pipes.
The PSB “acknowledged that these guys have been dishonest,” said Clay Turnbull, spokesman for the antinuclear New England Coalition, who attended the conference. “They took it as a given that Entergy presented false information, that they omitted information, that their actions, deeds, and words tainted the proceedings.”
“That in a way blew the roof off the house,” Turnbull said.
Governor calls 'time out'
The revelations, and the PSB's rebuke, caused Douglas to call for an Entergy management shakeup in a Jan. 27 press conference, where he disclosed that “the Attorney General has launched an investigation to ascertain whether there is any criminal behavior by Entergy officials.”
Pointing out the state investigations of Energy's conduct at every level, from environmental to legal, the governor also called for a “time out” until the company “reestablishes its credibility.”
The governor announced he had lost confidence in the company's management.
“Until questions regarding the current circumstances are answered, decisions about the long-term future of the plant should not be made,” Douglas said.
In a prepared statement, the company expressed disappointment in the governor's announcement, “but we remain committed to cooperate in every way possible with the state's own inquiries,” Entergy spokesman Rob Williams said.
“We remain convinced that it is in the best interest of Vermonters and the state's economic and energy future that this plant keep operating and have its license renewed,” Williams said, noting the plant was undergoing a “thorough, ongoing, comprehensive internal investigation - led by an independent, outside counsel's review - to get to the bottom of how and why the company provided conflicting information to state officials.”
According to a Jan. 27 statement from Williams, J. Wayne Leonard, Entergy's chairman and chief executive officer, acknowledged the conflicting information in a Jan. 21 phone call to the governor, “and he made a personal commitment to resolve the inconsistencies.”
Leonard, Williams wrote, “also assured the governor that this was not how Entergy operates, and that it is not acceptable.”
The tritium search continues
As The Commons went to press Feb. 1, Williams sent a general media e-mail describing the tritium leak investigation as “on the right track.”
Williams said two of three new monitoring wells showed elevated levels of tritium, an increase that can help investigators narrow in on the source of the leak.
“Engineers are planning six more wells around the plant buildings to gather further data on the location of the highest tritium concentration and to focus the investigation on the possible source,” Williams added.