It's been reported that the Vermont Health Department just released a consultant's report on 2007 radiation emissions from Vermont Yankee and that they have adopted a new way of counting the dose of radiation. What I don't think has been reported, before today, is that the Health Department is violating its own rules in doing so.

The Vermont Health Department rules say that annual gamma radiation doses at the plant boundary may not exceed 20 millirem per year. A millirem is 0.001 rem, a measure of ionizing radiation's effect on human health.

The Health Department's consultants, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, reported that 8 radiation dosimeters at the edge of Vermont Yankee's boundary measured radiation last year in excess of the 20-millirem limit. However, the consultants also recommended reducing the amount of radiation measured by what critics have called a fudge factor. The new way of measuring radiation reduces the measurements by 40%, and suddenly Vermont Yankee is in compliance with the radiation rules.

The catch is, the Health Department's own rules don't seem to allow the fudge factor. The Health Department has taken the stance that 1 Röntgen now equals 0.6 rem. The Röntgen is the unit measured by the dosimeters. The Health Department's rules say, however, that 1 rem is defined as 1 Röntgen.

One equals one. Simple enough. But the Health Department now says that 1 equals 0.6.

Thomas Weiss broke the news that the Health Department's own regulations rule out changing the dose calculation on WGDR, Plainfield this morning, and I've followed up on it by calling the Health Department for comments.

Bill Irwin, responsible for radiological health at the Vermont Department of Health, disagrees that definition in the rules means what it says it means. He cites another section of the rules, which allows the Department to use "applicable recommendations
contained in the reports of the National Council on Radiation Protection and
Measurements and the National Bureau of Standards handbooks as standards and bases
for calculations."

In other words, when the rules define a rem, it's not a legally binding definition, but rather guidance to the reader. According to Irwin, it just "provides something approximate for the purpose of reading this regulation."

That's not the way I've seen definitions used in law before.

It's possible that the rules are internally inconsistent, but it looks to me as though Vermont Yankee is subject to the definition that 1 rem is 1 Röntgen. If you want to get down in the weeds and judge for yourself, click "Read more."

The Health Department rules on radiological health can be downloaded (PDF) from its web site.

Under section 5-503 "Definitions," part (K) says:

For the purpose of this regulation any of the following is considered to be equivalent to a dose of one rem:
1. A dose of 1 R[öntgen] due to X- or gamma radiation.

Irwin says that the definition doesn't apply to Vermont Yankee because the Health Department uses the language referencing the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRPM) and the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) handbooks in section 5-505. This allows the state to take advantage of the latest advances in scientific understanding without re-writing the regulations each time the science is revised.

It makes sense to me that Vermont might write regulations that would have some key standards subject to revision elsewhere. I've seen similar things when state regulations have referenced national building or septic codes, for example.

The problem, as I see it, is that section 5-503 seems to specifically exclude regulating Vermont Yankee using the NCRPM and NBS. Part (B) of 5-503 is about regulating Vermont Yankee. Part (A) refers to the NCRPM and NBS. Part B, on Vermont Yankee, begins, "Notwithstanding part (A) of this section, exposure of individuals in unrestricted areas to radiation and radioactive materials from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station shall be kept as low as is reasonably achievable." It's this section that goes on to establish 20 millirem as the annual limit for radiation at the perimeter of the facility.

The final part of section 5-503, (C), says in its entirety,

Persons within the scope of this regulation, other than as described in Section 5-305 (A) and (B), shall control all sources of radiation by using the applicable recommendations contained in the reports of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and the National Bureau of Standards handbooks as standards and bases for calculations

In short, (A) and (C) refer to the NCRPM and NBS, but (B), regulating Vermont Yankee, stands on its own and contains no references to anyone else's standards. And therefore Yankee must be bound by the rule's own definition of a rem, 1 rem = 1 Röntgen. And 1 millirem = 1 milliRöntgen.

I checked in with a friend who has a thousand times more experience than I do in reading regulations, and who is unconnected with the Health Department or Vermont Yankee or its opponents. He agreed with my reading.

Maybe the consultants are right and it does make more scientific sense to use the new conversion. Maybe the rules should be changed. I don't know. But the Health Department is obligated to follow its own rules until the rules are changed, and the Douglas administration can't just change the rules by ignoring them. It looks to me like they are just ignoring the rules.