Re: Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

To give me some prespective, how radioactive would

these rods be since they were put into the storage

pool in 1979?  



--- Gerry Blackwood <gpblackwood@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> 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.

> 

. . .





=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"Those who have not known the joy of standing up for a great cause of justice have not known what makes living worthwhile."

Paul Painleve, regarding the Dreyfus Affair, 1895



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com





	

		

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