2008
VERNON — March 3: Entergy formally applies to the state Public Service Board for a Certificate of Public Good, “for authority to continue after March 21, 2012, operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, including the storage of spent nuclear fuel.”
June 6: Act 189 signed into law. Among its provisions: requiring a comprehensive vertical audit, a safety inspection, and the establishment of the Public Oversight Panel (POP) consisting of “three to five members who have demonstrated expertise in nuclear technology or nuclear regulation technology or nuclear regulation” to report their recommendations for or against the plant's continued operation to the General Assembly. Among the aspects of the plant to evaluate: “An underground piping system that contains radionuclides.”
October–December: Multiple sources tell former State Nuclear Engineer William Sherman that no underground piping at the plant carries radionuclides. POP substitutes evaluation of plant's buried pipe and tank inspection program to satisfy letter of the law.
Dec. 22: Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA) submits comprehensive reliability assessment to the state Department of Public Service. The report similarly substitutes evaluation of plant's buried pipe and tank inspection program to satisfy letter of the law.
2009
Feb. 11: In prefiled testimony with Public Service Board, Vermont Yankee Site President Michael Columb evaluates and responds to the NSA report, but lets the presumption of the Entergy's piping systems go unchallenged.
May 14: Colomb files the plant's 2008 annual radiological environmental operating report with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The report notes that “The presence of plant-related radionuclides in the onsite storm drain system has been identified in previous years at Vermont Yankee,” leading Public Oversight Panel member Arnie Gunderson to question Entergy's assertions.
May 20–21: Entergy Vice President for Operations Jay Thayer testifies under oath to the Public Service Board, asserting that other than one since-discontinued pipe, no underground pipes contain radionuclides.
May 26: Colomb, under oath to the Public Service Board, echoes Thayer's assertion.
July 24: Gunderson e-mails DPS Commissioner O'Brien to inform him of the inconsistencies.
Aug. 12: Entergy Legislative Liaison Dave McElwee e-mails Gunderson: “Act 189 requested that an underground piping system carrying radionuclides be part of the inspection. Other than piping carrying gaseous material (with very low amounts of contamination and no median to contaminate the ground water, which was the intent of this item from the legislature), we have none. Since this is not an item active in the review of [Comprehensive Vertical Audit and Reliability Assessment] recommendations, we consider the issue closed.”
December: Sample taken from test well GZ3 during routine testing.
2010
Jan. 6: Independent lab measures elevated levels of tritium in a sample from testing well GZ3.
Jan. 7: Entergy notifies Vermont Department of Public Health of the tritium. The public is first made aware of the problem.
Jan. 7–13: The tritium investigation brings into light the existence of a pressurized 2-inch pipe that carries radionuclides, directly contradicting Entergy testimony to the Public Service Board that affected the comprehensive reliability audit by Nuclear Safety Associates, commissioned by the PSB under state law. Entergy discloses this, and the possibility of other such pipes, to the Department of Public Service.
Jan. 13: Tritiated water is found in a radioactive waste (“radwaste”) pipe trench, plus trace amounts of other radioactive materials as expected.
Jan. 14: Vermont Department of Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien sends letter to Entergy CEO and President Rick Smith demanding an affadavit “by a company representative with personal knowledge,” a list of all pipes and systems that meet the description of the piping systems the law ordered assessed, and an independent inspection of these systems. O'Brien warned of further, broader investigations based on the result, and also ordered Entergy to perform a “root cause analysis” about the inaccurate information for DPS review. DPS considers fining Entergy for the disclosure failure and “if sanctions appear legally supportable will be making an additional recommendation in this regard.”
DPS Director for Public Advocacy Sarah Hoffman and Special Counsel John J. Cotter seek status conference with the Public Service Board to determine how the events will affect the VY relicensing case.
Entergy, through spokesman Rob Williams, attributes the inconsistency of Thayer's testimony as “miscommunication.”
Jan. 15: Vermont's congressional delegation - Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch - requests “immediate and thorough” investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Senate Pro Tem President Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith reconstitute the Act 189 oversight panel to reexamine its 2009 report and the panel's conclusions to the legislature in light of the recent revelations.
Jan. 17: A second well shows elevated tritium levels, but within a day “multiple confirmatory sources” indicate a false positive for tritium “above minimum detectable levels” on the original test, Williams writes.
Entergy says seven new test wells will help find the source of the leak.
New England Coalition files a response to the Jan. 14 letter from the Public Service Board, seeking to reopen the board's hearings on the relicensing docket in light of the disclosures.
Highly radioactive standing water - 150 gallons - is found in a storage room, prompting Shumlin and Smith to rebuke Entergy.
Jan. 21: Governor Jim Douglas renews support for Vermont Yankee but says that the “safety of the operation of that plant is my highest priority.” Douglas indicates in a press conference that the state attorney general is investigating the case.
J. Wayne Leonard, Entergy's chairman and chief executive officer, calls governor and, according to Williams, acknowledged that “the company had provided some conflicting information to state authorities about the piping.” Leonard makes “a personal commitment to resolve the inconsistencies.”
Entergy President and Chief Operating Officer Richard J. Smith assures cooperation with DPS in a reply to O'Brien's Jan. 14 letter. Entergy files the affidavit of Norm Rademacher, director of engineering, and a list of some 40 underground pipes that carry radionuclides.
Entergy inspects advanced off-gas (AOG) drain line and radwaste pipe trench. Trace amounts of cobalt-60 and other isotopes are found in standing water in the trench.
Jan. 22: Entergy gives the Department of Public Health a document that calculates the amount of tritium entering the Connecticut River as 1 microrem per person, or 20 percent of the DPH's annual dose limit of 5 microrems.
Entergy says soil samples have been sent for radiochemical analysis.
The plant's investigating teams determine that independent spent fuel storage installation and the spent fuel pool do not appear to be the source of the tritum. Workers contruct a barrier to seal the connection between the radwaste pipe trench and the evaporator tank, closing off a source of condensation.
Vermont Natural Resources Council calls the events “a major breach of trust.”
Jan. 23: Work begins on the additional monitoring wells.
Jan. 25: The Conservation Law Foundation asks the Public Service Board to shut down VY and throw out previous testimony.
Shumlin and Smith call for the Douglas administration to withdraw support for Entergy's plan to transfer ownership of VY and the company's other nuclear power plants into a new holding company, Enexus. The legislators call for “transparent, independent process for information about the tritium leak.”
Jan. 26: Legislative delegation meets with NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko.
Digging completed for test well GZ-6 near the radwaste trench.
Company plans to excavate near AOG drain line.
Jan. 27: In status conference, Public Service Board excoriates Entergy on the issue of providing inaccurate information about the underground pipes.
Gunderson briefs House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
Two new tritium monitoring wells installed, and a third one nears completion.
Douglas calls Entergy response “not good enough,” calling on company to “make immediate, necessary changes in management as well.” The governor halts action on the Enexus issue and asks legislature not to vote on relicensing this year.
Jan. 28: Samples taken from new testing well, GZ-6.
Two new test wells, GZ-4 and GZ-14, completed.
Jan. 29: Drilling begins for another new well, GZ-11, “of particular interest because it will allow assessment of radiological conditions near the 78-inch diameter plant ventilation duct to the plant stack. There is a low point in this duct that is capable of supporting a large amount of condensed tritiated water vapor from the air that flows from the AOG and most of the other buildings on site,” according to the state health department.
Jan. 31: According to Entergy, a regulatory reporting limit was reached as engineers received confirmed results from that well with levels up slightly to 32,000 picocuries per liter.