For 25 days, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was staffed round the clock by 850 craft workers in addition to its usual staff as they replaced about a third of the plant’s fuel assemblies.
Entergy was refueling the plant for the twenty-ninth time since it was built in 1972, a process that was completed on November 3. Meanwhile, a court case brought by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin against the plant remains pending in court. If the state wind the case, the nuclear plant will be shut down again by March 2012.
“The governor has said repeatedly that Entergy Louisiana just doesn’t do business the way we do business in Vermont,” a spokesperson for the office, Sue Allen told Breaking Energy in mid-August.
At the time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which had initially approved Entergy’s request to keep Vermont Yankee operating for another 20 years, decided to hold the company to financial standards of a plant set to close by 2012.
But when Entergy initially announced its decision to refuel in late July, the NRC told Breaking Energy that Entergy’s application was evaluated for safety and environmental standards and was also reviewed by an independent body, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
He said he is confident the plant would operate safely and that the NRC–under the Atomic Energy Act–has full jurisdiction to make that decision, but said the state has raised different concerns, on reliability grounds. Read more: Entergy Takes A Risk On Yankee Refueling Despite State’s Warning.
“The general assembly finds that Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee has had one of the highest percentage power increases of any plant in the country and now is applying for a 20-year life extension beyond its 40-year design. It is therefore the intent of the general assembly to determine on behalf of the people of the state of Vermont the reliability issues associated with operating ENVY for an additional 20 years after its scheduled closure in 2012,” reads the June 5, 2008 Vermont Act 189.
Politics aside, the plant’s refueling could have widespread impacts on electricity reliability, at least in the coming weeks. A series of natural disasters this fall have caused widespread outages throughout the northeast, disrupting grid operations. As Entergy slowly ramps power back up from Vermont Yankee, the region could see a resurgence in power availability to serve areas being reconnected to the grid.
Photo Caption: The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on the Connecticut River as seen from the New Hampshire side of the river on January 5, 2004 in Vernon, Vermont.
