BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to review whether the Vermont Yankee plant is in compliance with its design and therefore operating safely.

The commission made the decision by agreeing to a petition submitted by nuclear industry whistleblowers Paul Blanch and Arnie Gundersen.

The two engineers allege that NRC staff does not know what regulations the 33-year-old plant complies with or deviates from. Because the NRC does not know, the safety of the plant cannot be assured, they contend.

They also allege that without this information, the recent engineering inspection done at Vermont Yankee is meaningless.

The inspection was the first to be done in a pilot program started by the federal regulators to ratchet up its level of oversight.

It was also done to satisfy the Vermont Public Service Board’s order of March 15, which made final approval of Entergy’s request to boost the power produced at Yankee dependent on an engineering inspection.

Blanch and Gundersen’s petition was initially rejected by the NRC shortly after it was filed on the grounds that the petition process was for citizen concerns that could not be addressed in any other forum.

Because the New England Coalition was going to address these concerns as interveners in the power boost case, the NRC believed that it would be unnecessary to address them in a petition.

Though Blanch and Gundersen have worked closely with the coalition, neither is a member and their petition was filed independently of the nuclear power watchdog group.

In August, a teleconference was held, giving Blanch and Gundersen the opportunity to clarify their request. The NRC agreed to reconsider the matter.

According to NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan, the fact that the coalition’s contentions relating to design basis were rejected by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board helped tip the scales in Blanch and Gundersen’s favor.

Now that the petition is under review, the NRC will issue a final decision within 120 days on whether it will be accepted.

In addition to filing the petition, Blanch and Gundersen wrote a letter on Dec. 8 to Nils Diaz, chairman of the NRC, requesting that he intervene in the Vermont Yankee power boost case and insure that the plant complies with the necessary regulations.

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Information from: Brattleboro Reformer

AP-ES-12-18-04 1423EST