Schmillium

Thank God,

….it was "trillium" and not "tritium" that Gary Sachs whispered to the WRC Comissioner shortly after John Shaddis tried to bribe the whole lot of them at the March 27 meeting of the Windham Regional Commission. Because last night, just after I prayed my "Trillium" prayer, Vermont Yankee reduced power to about 35% (update: oops! typo! that's 45%) to perform emergency repairs on a leaking steam condenser.

I got to write up the press release all by myself and I was able to assure the public that it is river water leaking into a condenser and not tritium leaking into the river. Which is good, because tritium is bad. It's a radioactive byproduct of nuclear generation, and when it leaked at Entergy's Indian Point plant, it was a very big deal. Quoting Public Citizen:

In August 2005, high tritium levels were detected when workers dug a new foundation for a crane at the Indian Point site, which is operated by Entergy. The level in one well was thirty times the EPA standard. The source of the leak has not yet been pinpointed, although a leak in a spent fuel pool near one of the reactors is suspected. Local groups are concerned about contaminated water moving toward the Hudson River. In February 2006, strontium-90 was also detected at the site, and there was increased evidence that both radionuclides have reached the Hudson River.

So all seems safe here, considering that we're dealing with trillium (whatever that is) and not tritium (which represents a profound health risk) and certainly not strontium-90 because Gary Sachs never said anything even rhyming with that.

Still, with last night's discovery of a leak, I do have a growing list of "Must Remember To"s:

• Always spell "Sachs" with an "h" not a "k."
  
• Water plants.
  
• Learn what "tritium" might have to do with Vermont Yankee.
  
• Sing a song of praise to my Lord in thanks for his helping us catch last night's leak problem before anything like a wall or condenser collapsed entirely. Because those awful photos of the catastrophically collapsed cooling tower still scare people. And, after all, Entergy itself once said that the condenser is so old it's lucky to withstand gravity, so it would be embarrassing if the condenser were to go photogenic on us, as well.
  

"Trillium, schmillium, cock-a-doodle-do...."

I'm thinking my song could start out gloriously like that, in a throaty sort of way that extols the benign. Then it could resolve into something appropriately respectful of the enormous burden that we here at Entergy willingly carry on behalf of the not terribly grateful rate payers of Vermont.

Amen,

Fake-Rob