Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant Terminology Over Outage Causes Concern

By Pat Bradley

Vernon, VT – The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant automatically shut down last Monday afternoon after an electrical insulator in the plant's switchyard failed. Surrounding communities, states and their emergency personnel were notified of the plant's shut-down. Two days later, New Hampshire's governor became irate after reading press reports of a catastrophic failure at the plant, since his notification had been about a routine incident. The key problem appears to be in the semantics used in reporting the incident.
WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley has more.