Top Vermont Yankee official 'relieved of duties'

Associated Press Via Yahoo News ^ | 2/2/2010 | Dave Gram

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

A top official at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant was permanently relieved of his duties and placed on leave, the plant owner's CEO said Tuesday, less than a week after Gov. Jim Douglas demanded management changes over misstatements made to state officials.

Entergy Nuclear chief executive J. Wayne Leonard did not identify the official by name. But he described the executive relieved of his duties in a way that could only apply to Vice President Jay Thayer.

Douglas' urging for management shake-up followed revelations that plant officials misled state regulators and lawmakers by saying last year the plant did not have the sort of underground pipes that could carry radioactive tritium.

"In May 2009, an Entergy executive testified in a hearing on the state's report that he didn't think we had any such pipes, but he would get back to them," Leonard said. "He did not get back to them. He has issued a public apology and made clear that he failed to provide full and complete information, either on the witness stand or by failing to get back to them.

"He has been permanently relieved of his duties in Vermont, and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the full investigation," Leonard added.

Calls to Thayer's home were not immediately returned Tuesday.

On Jan. 7, it was announced that tritium, an isotope said to cause cancer if ingested in high amounts, had been found in elevated levels in a groundwater monitoring well at Vermont Yankee. Plant and federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have maintained tritium has not appeared in groundwater at concentrations that pose any threat to public health or safety.