Ex-Maine Yankee expert joins Vt. N-power efforts

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Critics of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant routinely call for an “independent safety assessment” of the sort that led to the closing of the Maine Yankee plant in 1997. But Vermont’s new point man on nuclear power, a veteran of the Maine Yankee wars, is cool to the idea.

“Without a doubt, if I compare Vermont Yankee to when Maine Yankee was running into trouble, there’s no comparison. Vermont Yankee is not experiencing the mechanical difficulties that Maine Yankee was,” said Uldis Vanags. Vanags joined the Department of Public Service in August, replacing William Sherman, who retired earlier this year.

But he doesn’t mind critics like the New England Coalition and Citizens Action Network staying on the case.

“They bring up issues that you may not have looked at,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with people bringing up issues, even opposing the plant. If you had it the other way, if nobody opposed, that would not be good. You’ve got to have this check and balance.”

Vanags, pronounced “vah-NAHGS,” 53, was born of Latvian immigrant parents in New York’s Hudson Valley, graduated high school there and played bass in a rock band for three years before following his parents when they moved to Maine. He enrolled at the University of Maine in Orono, where he majored in physics.

He later got a master’s degree in health physics, specializing in radiation protection, at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

He has spent the bulk of his career working for the state of Maine, for 12 years as nuclear safety adviser to the governor and Legislature, for a shorter period for Maine Yankee as it was being decommissioned and later back in government as a senior policy analyst on a broad range of energy issues.

Vanags said he decided to apply for the $84,000-a-year job in Vermont after hearing of Sherman’s retirement because he wanted to narrow his focus to nuclear energy again. “I really wanted to get back to the nuclear field,” he said. “It’s what I enjoy most.”

His first weeks on the new job have been busy ones. He started Aug. 20. The next day, a cooling tower collapsed at Vermont Yankee, with critics immediately seizing on the pile of rubble as evidence the plant’s license should not get the 20-year extension owner Entergy Nuclear is seeking.

Just nine days later, on Aug. 30, technicians working to repair a stuck steam valve triggered an automatic shutdown at the plant.

Vanags said the twin problems put the plant under a cloud.

“They need to communicate more about what they’re doing at the plant, to assure people that they’re operating safely, that they’re operating correctly. … They need to instill confidence in people,” he said.

As he represents the state on Vermont Yankee matters, Vanags will be dealing with an old adversary. The New England Coalition’s technical adviser, Raymond Shadis, lives in Maine and was a leader in the effort to shut down that state’s lone reactor.

“I consider Ray a friend of mine. He’s a great guy and I really like him,” Vanags said.

The often acerbic Shadis returned the compliment, but not without a fishing tackle box full of barbs thrown in. He criticized Vanags for saying shortly after the cooling tower collapse that it did not appear related to the 20 percent increase in power output Vermont Yankee implemented last year.

Noting that Vanags’ degrees are in physics and health physics, and not in engineering, Shadis said, “Uldis is a nice guy, but he is no one to make any pronouncements about the structural integrity of the cooling tower. … My sense of it is, on his first day on the job, he was essentially acting as an apologist for VY.”

For his part, Vanags said he would be vigorous in representing the public’s interest – including safety – as he keeps tabs on Vermont Yankee. “I will be out there looking at everything.”