No. I-08-055 

Contact: Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331 

 

Oct. 7, 2008 

NRC TO SPONSOR PUBLIC MEETING ON OCT. 14 IN BRATTLEBORO, VT., 

REGARDING VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT COOLING TOWERS 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Tuesday, Oct. 14, will sponsor a meeting with 

the public to provide information regarding the cooling towers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear 

power plant. 

The meeting is scheduled for 4 to 6:15 p.m. at the Latchis Theater, at 50 Main St. in 

Brattleboro, Vt. (Directions are available on the theater’s web site at: 

http://www.latchis.com/location.html.) 

During the meeting, the NRC staff will discuss its oversight of the safety-related aspects 

of the cooling towers and the results of a Special Inspection it conducted with respect to tower 

leakage. Vermont Yankee’s owner and operator, Entergy, will present information on its 

evaluations and maintenance of the towers, as well as its plans for assuring future tower 

reliability. Members of the public in attendance will have an opportunity to ask questions of 

NRC staff regarding the inspection and the towers prior to the meeting’s adjournment. Entergy 

representatives will also be available to answer questions. 

The NRC Special Inspection was initiated after tower leakage was identified in July at the 

plant, which is located in Vernon, Vt. On July 11, leakage was found in one of two mechanicaldraft cooling towers at the site. Each tower stands about 50 feet tall and is equipped with 11 

cooling cells. The towers, which have a wooden support structure, are routinely used to ensure 

that water drawn from the adjacent Connecticut River and used for cooling purposes in the plant 

is within temperature limits spelled out in a state-issued discharge permit before being returned 

to the waterway. The towers are normally only used during warmer months of the year, from 

mid-May through mid-October. Water already used in the plant for cooling purposes is piped 

into a basin contained inside each tower, with fans atop each cell assisting in the removal of heat. 

At no point does the water come into contact with radioactivity. 

Only one of the 22 cells is considered safety-related. That cell, known as cell 2-1 and 

found in the west cooling tower, would, under an extremely low-probability scenario, be used as 

an alternate means to cool and shut down the plant. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region I 

475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 

E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov
An estimated 60 gallons per minute was found to be leaking in a non-safety-related cell 

in the east cooling tower on July 11. The leak occurred when a large pipe, which carries about 

90,000 gallons of water per minute, sagged after the underlying horizontal support beam broke 

away from the vertical column to which it was bolted. Minor cracks were also found on 

supporting members on two non-safety-related cells in the west cooling tower, including one that 

sustained a pipe break and partial collapse in August 2007. The safety-related cell was not 

affected. 

The NRC began the Special Inspection into the leakage on July 13, with the inspectors 

assigned to the review tasked with examining the circumstances surrounding the leakage and any 

possible impacts on the safety-related cell and an adjacent seismically designed buffer cell. In 

addition, Bill Borchardt, the NRC’s Executive Director for Operations, was sent to the plant 

around the same time to consult with the inspectors and plant officials on the situation and report 

back to the agency’s Chairman and Commissioners. 

A view of one of the cooling towers at 

Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. 

Additional leakage that was identified last month in one of the cooling towers was also 

evaluated by the Special Inspection team and will also be discussed during the Oct. 14th meeting. 

This leakage differs from the July 11th leakage in that the cause was packing material dislodged 

from a joint in the main water piping for the cooling tower. That led to a small amount of 

leakage. However, there was no structural damage associated with last month’s leak. As was the 

case with the July leakage, the more recent leakage did not impact the safety-related or 

seismically designed buffer cells. 

The report for the Special Inspection will be available prior to the meeting in the NRC’s 

electronic documents system, which is known as ADAMS (Agencywide Documents Access and 

Management System). ADAMS is accessible via the NRC’s web site at: 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. 

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