Oct. 23--BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont Yankee has made "only slight incremental progress" toward addressing items found during a recently conducted reliability audit, according to a report submitted by a former member of the Public Oversight Panel appointed to review the audit.

"Eighty-two percent of the 80 action items still require plans to address their remediation," stated nuclear safety advocate Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, which was hired by the Legislature's Joint Fiscal Committee and the state's Joint Fiscal Office to track the recommendations made in the report documenting the results of the vertical audit.

"(Yankee) has gotten off to a slow start addressing these problems," he wrote.

It's been six months since the oversight panel submitted its report to the Legislature and Yankee has only addressed 14 of the 80 items identified, wrote Gundersen.

"(Yankee's) poor start on this critical effort is hampering results," he wrote.

Entergy, which owns and operates Yankee, has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the operating license of Yankee for another 20 years, from 2012 to 2032. In addition to NRC approval, Entergy must also receive a certificate of public good from the Public Service Board and the OK from the Vermont Legislature.

The Legislature requested an audit of systems, piping and components of the plant to help it determine if the plant was reliable enough to run for another 20

years.

Entergy hopes the Legislature and the PSB will make their decisions sometime early next year.

A spokesman for Vermont Yankee said Gundersen's conclusions aren't supported by the facts.

"There is no basis for his accusations regarding our progress on the recommendations from the oversight panel," stated Rob Williams in an e-mail to the media. "Our aim is to have all recommendations methodically addressed, that is each item either implemented or with a plan in place by the end of this year for closing out the issue.

Williams wrote that Yankee has already addressed 25 of the recommendations to the satisfaction of the state regulators.

"In short," he wrote, "we're on it, we're on track and we're taking the time necessary to ensure it's done right.

Gundersen was also concerned about several events in 2009 that call into question whether the plant will operate reliably for another 20 years. Those events included leaks in the feedwater system, in the reactor water clean-up system, the plant's condenser tubes and in a service water pipe.