Vermont Yankee Decommissioning

The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel held its fourth meeting of the year this week. Conducted virtually, it attracted a number of comments due to the meeting’s focus on the plant’s spent fuel and where it can be stored.

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear power plant shut down on December 29, 2014.  The plant and surrounding grounds must now be decommissioned.  NorthStar is a company that specializes in decommissioning and has pending applications before the Vermont Public Utility Commission to purchase the plant from Entergy Nuclear.  NorthStar CEO Scott State says his company can decommission, clean up and complete site restoration of the plant decades sooner than Entergy had planned.

Vermont's attorney general is asking to intervene in the state Public Service Board's review of the sale of the closed Vermont Yankee power plant, saying significant environmental and financial issues are at stake.

Entergy Nuclear announced this morning it has reached a deal to sell the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, which closed in 2014, to a company that specializes in decommissioning industrial and nuclear plants.

Photos obtained from a whistleblower and published in a Vermont newspaper have renewed calls for stricter oversight of Entergy and its management of the fund dedicated to decommissioning the closed Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it has no objections to the decommissioning plans developed by the owners of the closed Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Entergy Vermont Yankee has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of Vermont that it plans to withdraw $6.6 million from the power plant's decommissioning fund. State officials are concerned about how the money will be spent.

Vermont Congressman Peter Welch has written a letter to the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission demanding more public participation in the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning process.

The owner of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant has withdrawn its request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license amendment that would have allowed the company to stop notifying officials of withdrawals from the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has agreed with Vermont that a hearing is needed over the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's use of money from its decommissioning fund for management of radioactive waste at the plant site.

A southwestern New Hampshire organization is getting a $350,000 economic development grant from the parent company of Vermont Yankee to benefit communities affected by the closure of the nuclear power plant.

An official with Vermont Yankee nuclear plant owner Entergy Corp. says it's offering no guarantees that the company will pay to decommission the retired reactor if the job's still not done at the end of a 60-year period.

Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave an overview of the decommissioning process this week and what Vermonters can expect now that the Vermont Yankee reactor has shut down.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has released a new estimate of what it will cost to decommission the reactor, manage high-level radioactive waste and restore the plant site.

The Texas facility where the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant ships its low-level radioactive waste may be poised to grow.