Cracked steam dryer continues to cloud VY uprate plan

By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

posted November 29, 2005

ROCKVILLE, MD — Entergy officials told a panel of nuclear experts Tuesday that they still don’t know exactly how Vermont Yankee will react to increased stress from a 20 percent power increase.

However, a cracked part of the reactor has been repaired and a system of monitors was over-designed in anticipation of the additional stress from the proposed uprate, they said.

“We are not here to tell you that we are perfectly exact in our measurements and predictions,” Entergy Engineering Analysis Supervisor Brian Hobbs said of the Vermont Yankee steam dryer, which developed more than 60 surface cracks discovered in 2004 and 2005.

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