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| Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station |
The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station is located just five miles south of Brattleboro, Vermont. She will turn forty on this Wednesday, March 21, 2012. She's fit as a fiddle having gotten her original operating license dated 3/21/1972 renewed last year for another twenty years - so she's good to go until March 21, 2032 when we can all gather around her Boiling Water Reactor and wish her a Happy 60th Birthday!
I'm assuming that Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. will be serving up the usual and obligatory ice cream and cake BUT are we all invited? And if I do make the event, what does one get a forty year old lady these days? I'm mean given her illustrious reactor type - she's a General Electric Type 4 BWR with a Mark 1 containment. (See Note 1)
Maybe just some pretty flowers and a box of candy to cheer her up. I'm sure she has taken a peek at what's been written about her lately. I mean if you look at her historical documents you can see clearly she was build to operate forty years and not sixty. So we can't even get away with a "wink" and a humorous Hallmark card telling her she'd reached MIDDLE AGE.
I hear she has mentioned she would like a new condenser ($200 million) and some safety back-fits ($100 million) - nips and tucks on this girlfriend doesn't come cheap. I'm sticking with giving her flowers and candy and if she doesn't like it, well.................she can just have a tizzy-fit and melt down.
Note 1 - This plant is very similar to Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1, which at the time of its explosion was operating only one month past its 40th birthday.
For a full story see Arnie Gundersen: 40 years is not middle age for nuke plants
Entergy runs the Indian Point nuclear plant, too -- it's the one closest to me (37 miles). They seem like really shady characters. I see them on TV when the plant has problems. They're far from inspiring. Dog help us all.
ReplyDeleteNuclear reactors in the U.S. are now entering their old age, sadly it will only be a matter of time. But as our Ameren official like to say, "No one has died yet." Maybe I will put that on my tombstone.
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