So-called experts

Why is it, it takes days if not weeks to find out Vermont Yankee has been running at reduced power “due to a problem with a key component of the reactor” but Letters to the Editor are printed espousing the safety of the plant with no reference to the current failure?

Entergy’s solution, to a part that has been replaced after thirty years in other plants and has been running for forty years in this one, is to have plant workers apply a protective coating (epoxy or plastic) to the tubing in the condenser to reduce wear and tear and control leaks and now claim the material must be removed because it may be causing the 50 percent reduction in the condenser’s efficiency? So much for the maintenance and repair the supporters brag about.

We hear all the time that these people are experts. Apparently not! I never considered trial and error as a skill attributed to an expert.

Worse yet, Entergy does not really know what is causing the reduced efficiency in the condenser. “It could be any number of things that is causing the issue.”

My concern … is the PSB listening to this? Is the NRC paying attention to this? Is Judge Murtha listening to this? Entergy can not be trusted to run this plant. How many more incidents like this will it take before it isn’t caught in time?

Shut down Vermont Yankee and mandate Entergy pay the decommissioning and radioactive waste cleanup costs.

Alfred S. Blakey

Barre