Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
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Active reactors ( gross ):
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is a nuclear power plant with a boiling water reactor, which was built by General Electric. It is located in Vernon, Vermont on the west bank of the Connecticut River.
History
The construction of the nuclear power plant in late 1967 was started and in 1972 took it upon commercial operation. It is cooled with two wooden cooling towers and water from the Connecticut River. The power plant was acquired by Entergy in 2002.
In 2005, a 20 % increase in power has been applied for and approved in 2006. In order to achieve the higher cooling demand, larger and heavier propellers are installed in the two cooling towers. August 21, 2007 one of the two cooling towers collapsed because of rotting wood structures partially, then had the reactor power will be reduced to 50 %. On 11 July 2008 there was a leak in the other cooling tower, then had to be reduced performance due to the low river water volume to 23%.
The approval granted operating license expires in 2012, so you should the operator applied in 2006 for an extension to 20 years. This application was rejected by the Senate from Vermont, so that the nuclear power plant was supposed to be switched off in 2012.
In March 2011, nor during the series of accidents in the identical reactors of Fukushima, but the U.S. nuclear authority granted despite the poor overall condition of the plant a license for another 20 years. On August 27, 2013, the owner Entergy announced despite the extended license that the nuclear power plant in 2014 will shut down because of continued operation is no longer economically worthwhile.
Reason for the Senate decision was a tritium leak into the ground of the work, the NRC had asserted that there was no immediate threat to the groundwater and to oversee the development of probes. However, Annex Vermont Yankee is already longer and for other reasons in the region in the political crossfire. The 2006 meetings, performance increase was problematic than had been calculated that a greater loss of cooling water from the reactor system ( and not just for a leak, but also with a pressure relief operation due to a transient, which happens more frequently than a leak), the pump which need to supplement the loss of water from the proposed power increase are dependent on the built-up by the incident in the containment pressure to suck water can (so-called problem NPSH ). This is very problematic in cases where the containment (such as a faulty valve remained open ) is leaking and thus has no pressure. Nevertheless, the NRC approved this increase performance without requiring about as compensation retrofitting stronger pumps. This met with strong opposition in the region, even by officials.
September 1, 2013: The operators are known to initiate the decommissioning of the reactor after the consumption of the current fuel. The decision is seen as a direct response to the Fukushima disaster, where the same type of reactor was used.
End of February 2010 were found on the grounds of the nuclear power plant traces of 137Cs, the concentration of which lay three to twelve times higher, according to the government of Vermont, as would be expected from the entry of nuclear weapons tests and the Chernobyl disaster. The operator Entergy subsequently announced that the soil erode and need to dispose of as radioactive waste.