News

By BOB AUDETTE  Brattleboro Reformer

BRATTLEBORO -- If no federal repository for spent nuclear fuel is opened in the next 100 years, the nation’s taxpayers could be on the hook to pay for on-site storage, such as the dry casks at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.

That cost could run anywhere between $10 billion and $26 billion.

The following is the full content of a report that an "event" at

the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant's Unit 1 reactor had been retracted.

In this case, the "event" refers to three safety relief valves not opening as

they were set to do. "Retraction" does not mean the situation described did not

occur, it means that it will no longer be categorized as an "event."

!!!!! THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RETRACTED. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RETRACTED !!!!!

Power Reactor Event Number: 45464

Facility: THREE MILE ISLAND

Thomas M. Gerusky, age 74 of Allendale in Lower Allen Twp., died 

Sunday in Select Specialty Hospital, East Pennsboro Twp. 

Mr. Gerusky was born on June 18, 1935 in Fort Edward, near Lake 

George, New York, a son of the late Michael and Marie Varney Gerusky.

December 7, 2009

By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress passed a law instructing the federal government to help states build bigger stocks of a simple, cheap drug to protect people near nuclear power plants in the event of an accident or terrorist attack.

But the 2002 law left a legal loophole allowing the White House to forgo distribution if officials found that there was a better way to prevent cancer than administering the thyroid drug, potassium iodide. And after years of delays, the Bush administration dropped the plan in 2007, saying evacuations would be a better alternative.

As another company pledges to compete in PPL's market, activists ask the Legislature to delay the expiration of electricity rate caps.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

BY DANIEL VICTOR dvictor@patriot-news.com

The middle of an ugly economic climate when people are already struggling to pay their bills is the wrong time to jolt PPL customers with a 30 percent bill increase, a group of activists argued at the Capitol on Tuesday.

"The increases will be significant, the suffering will be significant," said Eric Epstein of Rock the Capital. "People will be making choices they shouldn't have to make between food, warmth and medicine."

Epstein and others argued that legislators should quickly act to extend rate caps that have kept prices at 1996 levels.

Two former spokesmen for the nuclear plant say they're surprised Exelon waited more than 5 hours to announce a radiation leak.

By Jan Murphy 

The Three Mile Island nuclear station's former operators learned from the 1979 partial reactor meltdown that there's no such thing as overcommunication about TMI.

Two former spokesmen for GPU Nuclear Corp., which operated the facility after the 1979 accident, said that based on lessons learned from that incident, they subsequently alerted local officials about every minor event at the plant, such as when an ambulance was called or a steam release was loud.

They issued so many notifications that officials receiving them complained.

"The operation of a nuclear power plant is based on trust, and communication is an exercise in trust," said Douglas Bedell of Cornwall, who was a communication manager for GPU Nuclear.

Fallout focuses on Exelon’s decision to wait 5 hours before calling local and state officials.

EFMR downloaded data from its real-time gamma monitors around 

Three Mile Island on Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009.

There were no unusual off-site readings for Saturday, Nov. 21 through 4 p.m.  

EFMR Monitoring, Inc. (efmr.org) is  a nonpartisan community based 

organization established in 1992. EFMR monitors radiation levels at 

Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island nuclear generating stations, 

invests in community development, and  sponsors remote robotics

research.