The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is missing two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod: Vermont nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods.

The fuel rod was removed in 1979 from the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is currently shut down for refueling and maintenance. Remote-control cameras will be used to search a spent fuel pool on the property, officials said.

“We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool,” said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan. …

The material would be fatal to anyone who came in contact with it without being properly shielded, Sheehan said. Spent nuclear fuel also could be used by terrorists to construct so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly radiation with conventional explosives.

The NRC is helping plant officials in the search. The rod was part of the fuel assembly used to power the reactor. One of the missing pieces is about the size of a pencil. The other piece is about the thickness of a pencil and 17 inches long.