Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods

["Gerry Blackwood" <gpblackwood@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods

WILSON RING, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

©2004 Associated Press



URL: 

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/21/national1844EDT0802.DTL





(04-21) 17:50 PDT MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) --



Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are missing from a Vermont 

nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search onsite for the nuclear 

material, officials said Wednesday.



The fuel rod was removed in 1979 from the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is 

currently shut down for refueling and maintenance. Remote-control cameras 

will be used to search a spent fuel pool on the property, officials said.



"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.



But Sheehan said it was possible the spent fuel was mixed in with a shipment 

of low-level nuclear waste and ended up at a repository in South Carolina, 

or a facility in Washington state. He said it was also possible it was taken 

to a nuclear testing facility run by General Electric, which designed the 

plant.



The material would be fatal to anyone who came in contact with it without 

being properly shielded, Sheehan said. Spent nuclear fuel also could be used 

by terrorists to construct so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly 

radiation with conventional explosives.



The NRC is helping plant officials in the search. The rod was part of the 

fuel assembly used to power the reactor. One of the missing pieces is about 

the size of a pencil. The other piece is about the thickness of a pencil and 

17 inches long.



"It would be very difficult to remove this material from the site without 

somebody knowing about it," Sheehan said. "It would set off radiation 

monitors."



Sheehan cited the heightened awareness of the need to control nuclear 

material that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "We don't want this 

falling into the wrong hands," he said. "This is something we would never 

take lightly."



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.



The state's Public Safety Department and Homeland Security Unit also were 

notified of the missing fuel.



©2004 Associated Press











Gerry Blackwood

New York, New York



"Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over, but continually 

expecting a different result."  -- Sigmund Freud



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