Re: Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods

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

On average and to the best of my knowledge the spent fuel ponds have about 

10 times more radioactivity than a reactor core and normally retain a large 

amount cesium 137 isotope, which contain somewhere from 15 to 40 million 

curies with a half life of about 30 years. Anyone please correct me if I am 

wrong. But hopefully this was lousy record keeping......











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













>From: John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>

>Reply-To: John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>

>To: Gerry Blackwood <gpblackwood@HOTMAIL.COM>, radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

>Subject: Re: Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods Date: 

>Thu, 22 Apr 2004 07:39:12 -0700 (PDT)

>

>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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