ML060480385

Comment (32) of Allison Page and Alejandro Levins, Regarding Increase of Operations at Vermont Yankee

ML060480385
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png
Issue date:	02/05/2006
From:	Levins A, Page A - No Known Affiliation
To:	NRC/ADM/DAS/RDB
References
%dam200606, 71FR1774 00032
Download: ML060480385 (1)

Text

RULES APJSECTIVES

.I , }.

Allison Page &Alejandro Levins 40 Center Street 29m FEB~14 INI I. 13 Montague, MA 01351 ///,/i 4

, ,/ -K{/ 7 7-4e February 5, 2006 RF?m'\1 /-.

To: Chief, Rules and Directives Branch Division of Administrative Services Office of Administration U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001 Re: -Page 1774 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 7 / Wednesday, January 11, 2006.

We live approximately 13 miles from the Yankee Nuclear Plant in Vernon, VT. We're writing to express concern over the process undertaken to allow the plant to increase operations. The risk assessments in the draft Safety Evaluation released by the NRC are based on the assumption that the reactor is brand new. The plant is not brand new, so the design basis safety margins no longer apply.

The NRC says that "significant uncertainty exists regarding the licensee's method for calculating stress on the (cracked) steam dryer" so it plans an "experimental power ascension test." Experimenting with stressing out plant systems while the reactor is on-line is by definition a reduced safety margin. When I heard that U.S. Representative John Olver, who is also a PhD in Chemistry, calls this experimental testing "irresponsible" and that it is "risking the lives of all who live in the vicinity", we felt compelled to write. It's not just the testing, it's making sure that Ihe plant is safe now and in the future.

We have a four-year-old boy and want to be sure that the agency that is responsible for regulating the safety of nuclear plants is doing everything they can to protect us from the potential harm that these sensitive operations can cause. That is your job, we can't do it.

You need to act as if you live here. Please do what you can to protect us.

/ e-,- 6L-6 / ,&5(). 0r~1- -7

- 1bA4_Z)13