Yankee suffers more setbacks

[bananas]

There comes a point, as with an old car, that it gets too expensive to keep it running.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS02/809180366/1003/NEWS02

Yankee suffers more setbacks
Cooling tower leakage forces power reduction
September 18, 2008

By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff

BRATTLEBORO — There are more problems with the cooling towers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Entergy Nuclear officials announced Wednesday they had been forced to cut power production at the Vernon reactor to about 55 percent because of new problems with one of the plant's two cooling towers.

The company said a packing material used in the expansion joints in the piping in the east tower had sprung a leak in three different locations, leaking a total of 60 gallons a minute.

And late Wednesday afternoon Entergy announced that inspectors had again discovered structural problems in the east tower, and said that some structural beams would have to be replaced immediately. The company said that power production, which was originally cut to 55 percent Tuesday night when the problem was first discovered, was at 60 percent.

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[AndyTiedye]

1. Too Expensive and Too Dangerous

The reactor vessel eventually becomes embrittled by all that radiation, making the likelihood of a breach far greater.