Entergy Corporation sues to keep VT yankee open

[bismuth-210]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110418/ap_on_re_us/us_vermont_yankee_2

from the article:

"Vermont Yankee announced in January of 2010 that test wells had turned up evidence that radioactive tritium had leaked from underground pipes at the plant into surrounding soil and groundwater. Within days it was revealed that plant executives had misled state lawmakers and regulators — the latter under oath — by saying the plant did not have the type of underground pipes that carried radioactive substances."

nothing to worry about right ?  these species pose no harm to human health correct ?

and last i checked lying under oath is called perjury, a felony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony

:puts on flame retardant suit:

[namlive]

I loved working at VY. Loved the people and area. I didn't understand why they had the elementary school so close with the large high tension lines overhead. That didn't make any sense. 

Tritium? What tritium? That's not our tritium. The hospital must have dumped that. Our tritium doesn't go into the ground water.  Oh those radioactive pipes? They weren't on the prints, we don't know how they got there.

I see in the article they HAD to compare the type of reactor to Fukishima, Mark 1. Nope, don't see Japan influencing nuclear power over here. Nuclear Power: Still safer than skiing off Mt. Everest while smoking a menthol cigarette.

[bismuth-210]

i found it odd that the school was directly beneath the high power lines. 

i also don't like how the plant was built on what appears to be a flood plain. 

but have no fear, when they designed the plant in the 50s or 60s, they took into account a 10,000 year flood. 

at least they don't jam pack their SFP with lots and lots of .... eh, spent fuel (they do have dry cask storage on site, or so it appears to be).  or do they ship it to that national repository ? oh yeah that doesn't exist.

The decommissioned plant on the deerfield river (i think it's called mass yankee)has most of their spent fuel stored on site in dry storage if i am not mistaken.

[Mounder]

Have the cents per kW/h always been this bad in New England?

https://hop-electric.com/electric/residential-electric/rates/

I see California is raving about only being the 7th worst in electrical costs.  How can Massachusetts have double the rates of Virginia?  What am I missing?

[nowhereman]

I believe it's a long term issue, all the"Yankees" have shutdown, Shoreham on Long Island shutdown , federal courts have forced Connecticut to accept underwater cables to 'feed' Long Island electricity.  With Oyster Creek s/d and Indian Point?  And there hasn't been much infrastructure being built for large base load units. Maybe the northeast is at the end of the line so to speak. No Marcellus gas shale to frack, no oil refineries,  so we are being stuck with the cost /lack of pipelines for gas. Oh yeah, if there is a cold snap up here, the state can step in and have the large gas consumers(gas turbine energy ) to cut back, so that consumers can use the gas for home heating, which in turns the electric companies to go to 'spot'  market.

[GLW]

I believe it's a long term issue,....

it's a short sighted issue,..

5 and 10 years ago New England as a region fiercely resisted new gas line construction, you can google it I'm not inclined to dive the archives today,...

much of that resistance was fomented by the "green energy will save us" movement,...

after nearly 2 decades of skyrocketing utility bills and nil to mediocre returns on the green energy investments New Englanders have finally got over the religious fervor of the green energy/climate change church of new morality and have allowed the construction of new gas lines and distribution systems to begin,...

but there's a lag, and during that lag, energy prices continue to climb,...

on the plus side, the power plants to use the gas are comparitively easy to build,...

[Mounder]

Interesting. Thanks for info guys.   

On the flip-side, in shear desperation, Puerto Rico builds the Eco-Electrica plant in 2004 to burn LNG when gas was nationally around $5/gallon.  They were heavily mocked for choosing such an expensive option. 
Then fracking kicks in, prices nose-dive and they look like geniuses.  Had to be shear luck. 
Then the plant is rocked by the 500/week earthquakes for the past 6 weeks.  Only ~6 miles from the most common epicenter point and zero earthquake design.  Totally crippled. Offline for the next year at minimum...