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Fuel Rods Missing at Vt. Nuclear Plant
abc ^
| 4/21/04
Posted on 04/21/2004 4:11:03 PM PDT by knak
MONTPELIER, Vt. April 21 Two highly radioactive fuel rods from a Vermont nuclear plant are missing, plant officials said Wednesday. Engineers were searching the spent fuel pool at the Vermont Yankee plant for the small rods, which were removed from the reactor in 1979.
"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.
One of the missing rods is about the size of a pencil. The other is about the thickness of a pencil and 17 inches long.
Gov. James Douglas, after speaking Wednesday afternoon with the head of the NRC, said he was "very concerned" about the missing fuel at the plant, run by Entergy Nuclear.
"This situation is intolerable," he said in a statement.
In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.
Vermont Yankee is located in the southeastern town of Vernon, on the border with Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: nuclearplant; vermontyankee
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1
posted on
04/21/2004 4:11:04 PM PDT
by
knak
To: knak
Calling Homer Simpson.
2
posted on
04/21/2004 4:14:17 PM PDT
by
boomop1
To: knak; hchutch
OK, check between the couch cushions...
3
posted on
04/21/2004 4:15:34 PM PDT
by
Poohbah
(Darkdrake Lives!)
To: boomop1
4
posted on
04/21/2004 4:15:52 PM PDT
by
FierceDraka
(Service and Glory!)
To: knak
I bought this cool pencil in New England last week that glows green. I doubt it's related.
5
posted on
04/21/2004 4:16:36 PM PDT
by
Dog Gone
To: knak
Vermont Yankee was not anywhere near the top of Howard Dean's 'todo' list.
There have been any number of problems there dating well back into his multiple terms as governor
6
posted on
04/21/2004 4:16:45 PM PDT
by
Vermonter
To: knak
"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point...."
Whew! I sure do feel more comforted. Can we go back to sleep now?
[end sarcasm]
7
posted on
04/21/2004 4:17:50 PM PDT
by
TomGuy
(Clintonites have such good hind-sight because they had their heads up their hind-ends 8 years.)
To: knak
"Engineers were searching the spent fuel pool at the Vermont Yankee plant for the small rods, which were removed from the reactor in 1979."Removed from the reactor in 1979. When is the last time they knew where these rods were? 1979.
8
posted on
04/21/2004 4:18:00 PM PDT
by
Spunky
("Everyone has a freedom of choice, but not of consequences.")
To: knak
Crap, this will be all over that Fish Wrap Brattleboro Reformer tomorrow with all the crunchies screaming bloody murder on the editorial page.
There are more whacked out hippies around here than any place I've ever seen...except maybe Putney.
Take a ride thru town and all of them, I mean ALL of them are wearing curtains!
To: FierceDraka
Perhaps it was one of these inanimate carbonnuclear rods that saved the space capsule Homer was in?
To: Spunky
Watch..it'll turn out that the "pool" boys were illegal immigrants..
11
posted on
04/21/2004 4:38:27 PM PDT
by
ken5050
(Ann Coulter needs to have children ASAP to propagate her genes.....any volunteers?)
To: knak
Heeyawoow Uranium
12
posted on
04/21/2004 4:42:21 PM PDT
by
VRWC For Truth
(3% votes Nader vs 1% purity on the right. Purity is the losing strategy right from the get-go.)
To: Vermonter
"
Vermont Yankee was not anywhere near the top of Howard Dean's 'todo' list. There have been any number of problems there dating well back into his multiple terms as governor"
I remember hearing he didn't care or do anything about security. So, what did he know and when did he know it?
To: VRWC For Truth
LOL.....knew it was going to appear
???...wait is that really a microphone, or a ..a...a
Doogle
14
posted on
04/21/2004 4:45:54 PM PDT
by
Doogle
(....and the truth will set you free....depends on what you mean by truth)
To: knak
My mom was right, idiots DO run the world.
15
posted on
04/21/2004 4:55:32 PM PDT
by
ChocChipCookie
(If we had some eggs, we could have bacon and eggs if we had some bacon. --unknown Freeper)
To: knak
One thing to consider:
It would be very difficult for someone to steal a spent fuel rod. Why? The radiation level is very high, even as much as 100,000 REM per hour next to the rod.
Remember the LD-50/30 for humans is about 500 REM. The LD-50/7 (days) is about 1000 REM. For effective doses over 5000 REM, the mean survival time is in the matter of hours, and the survival time decreases with increasing dose. In fact, for doses over 5000 REM, the individual is almost instantly incapacitated.
Without shielded remote handling equipment and a heavily shielded cask, the thief would not survive the attempt to steal the fuel rod.
16
posted on
04/21/2004 5:12:41 PM PDT
by
punster
(q)
To: knak
Hmm...we were in Brattleboro last month, at the Motel 6 just across the road from Vermont Yankee, and the hotel was FULL of out of staters there to do maintenance work on the plant during it's shutdown phase...
17
posted on
04/21/2004 5:21:59 PM PDT
by
Preech1
(Eliminate all possibilities...whatever is left must be the answer, no matter how improbable.)
To: sirchtruth
Crap, this will be all over that Fish Wrap Brattleboro Reformer tomorrow My inlaws live in Brattleboro and Hinsdale and when I visit I get to read that paper. The editorials are very informative---its like reading DU only worse. For a town that had independent roots they certainly have been invaded by socialists over the past dozen so years. It seems almost orchestrated.
To: knak
Vermont Yankee is located in the southeastern town of Vernon, on the border with Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Senator Kerry, what did you know and when did you know about this quagmire?
To: punster
Yeah, I was about to post that anyone that stole the rods in 1979 has long been dead.
20
posted on
04/21/2004 6:32:17 PM PDT
by
Vinnie
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