The Brattleboro Reformer
December 14, 2004
Letter to the Editor from Wayne Lanning

In early August, a team of eight highly qualified U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors put a variety of safety systems at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant under the microscope. They donned hard-hats and performed hands-on inspections of pumps, valves and other components. They interviewed plant managers and employees and reviewed company calculations and analyses. And they pored over countless documents. .

All told, our team, which included three contractors, spent more than 900 hours at the plant. The goal: carry out a pilot inspection to verify compliance with the plant's design, with a focus on key safety systems. The engineering inspection also targeted some of the systems important for a 20 percent power increase proposed for Vermont Yankee. The state's nuclear engineer observed much of the inspection.

This letter to the editor of the Brattleboro Reformer was written by Wayne Lanning, the director of the Division of Reactor Safety for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and one of the eight independent, qualified team members that spent more than 900 hours inspecting the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant this past August.