Is a nuclear power plant a green way to provide energy?  There seems to be quite a division in thinking on this one.  President Obama thinks that nuclear power is a good thing and his administration is promising $8+ billion of federal loan guarantees to build two new plants.  But the 800 pound gorilla continues to lurk in the foreground.  The problem with nuclear waste plagues the industry.  After all these years, and billions of dollars, there still isn’t a good solution.  In spite of a good solution to the nuclear waste problem, our European counterparts are on-board with nuclear power.  France now generates 80% of its power that way.  We produce about 20% of our power.

I read recently that Vermont has voted to block the license renewal for the Vermont Yankee (VTY) plant in Vernon, Vermont.  That has some nostalgic significance to me because I worked for the “project managers” (utility engineers) during construction of the plant in 1970.  Commissioned in August 1966 and given its operating license in March 1972, Vermont Yankee is one of the older plants in the American inventory of 104 power reactors. The oldest still running is Oyster Creek, near Toms River, N.J., which is of a similar design and opened in December 1969.  I happened to have investigated a fish kill the Oyster River plant site in the mid-‘70’s when I was doing some reporting for a local paper.  They shut down the plant for maintenance in mid-winter without giving the fish life around the plant ample time to acclimate, a no-no, but that’s another story.

A couple of things stand out about my time at VTY.  Working in what amounted to a big freezer (a concrete enclosure) during one of the coldest Vermont winters is hard to forget.  But even harder to forget were the people I met during the construction.  We were basically the quality control group for the construction, X-raying welds, checking welder qualifications, inspecting critical welds, checking installation against design blueprints, etc.   The inspectors as well as the welders were top notch and realized, even then, the potential for disaster if things weren’t done well.  The protection of the environment, especially the water quality of the mighty Connecticut River, was considered very important by the regulators and the plant designers.

As of a couple of years ago, when I had some contact with plant engineers, the VTY plant is continually being upgraded with the latest safety measures and operating well and efficiently.  As a matter of fact, VTY sells power to Vermont utilities for about 4 cents/kWh, half the national average, making it one of the least expensive power alternatives.   I know, there is the little issue of tritium.  Recently, test wells around the VTY property showed unusually high quantities of tritium.  To find all the facts about tritium, see http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/tritium.html .  The plant is located on the banks of the Connecticut River, so not only area wells could be affected, but also the river itself.  Whether or not they can find the leak, and whether or not finding and correcting the issue will placate the detractors is another story.  But I know that whether tritium is fuel (excuse the pun) for the fire, or the fire to abandon nuclear power is just too out of control; nuclear energy may be one of our best “green” alternatives.  You think?