Entergy said recently it has shipped 782,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater from its shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to a disposal facility in Tennessee.
Another shipment was scheduled for today, the power company said in a June 28 update to Vermont’s Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.
Groundwater has been seeping into the turbine room at the facility at least since 2016, topping out at about 3,000 gallons per day, according to Joseph Lynch, Entergy senior government affairs manager for decommissioning. That was down to about 300 gallons per day in late June.
“Entergy has sealed areas of water infiltration in the turbine building, greatly reducing the inflow. Future reduction plans are evaluated and implemented if cost effective,” Lynch told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing by email last week.
The company hopes to more effectively seal the building, Lynch said, but he acknowledged the turbine building likely will never be fully sealed against water infiltration.
Entergy has spent roughly $6 million dealing with the problem, including shipping the water to the EnergySolutions site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Shipments generally carry 5,000 gallons of water and occur every one to two weeks, Lynch said.
Entergy would be relieved of responsibility for managing the water intrusion if it completes the sale of the Vermont Yankee plant to New York City-based NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning. The companies hope to complete the deal by the end of 2018. They must first secure federal and state regulatory approval: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to rule on the site license transfer of the third quarter of this year; the Vermont Public Utility Commission said last week it would issue its own decision following the NRC ruling.