Vt. bill requires Yankee cleanup
MONTPELIER - House lawmakers introduced a bill this week requiring the owner of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to put aside enough money to clean up its Vernon site if it shuts the plant down in March 2012.
The bill, which will be the focus of testimony before the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee this week, requires Entergy to create special funds to return the land to a green field and to ensure the long-term care of radioactive spent fuel.
This is the third time the Vermont Legislature has tackled the thorny issue of financing the shutdown and cleanup of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The first two bills focused on decommissioning costs and were vetoed by Gov. James Douglas.
"This is what Vermonters expect to happen when the plant closes down," said Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, the chairman of the House committee.
This latest bill comes at a time when Vermont Yankee's popularity could be at its lowest point ever and when the company had hoped to win lawmakers' favor for approval for 20 more years of operation after 2012, when the plant's current license expires.
Instead, the company admitted that it gave incorrect information about the existence of underground radioactive pipes at Vermont Yankee to state officials and lawmakers - testimony that is now under review by state and federal officials. These pipes may be the source of a major tritium leak at the plant. Tritium, a known carcinogen, is a radioactive isotope, a byproduct of the fission process.
The bill, H.589, requires any owner or controller of a nuclear power plant in Vermont to establish two financial trust funds for spent fuel management and green field restoration - essentially turning the site of the reactor into a green field.
Those requirements would kick in on March 22, 2012, one day after Vermont Yankee's license to operate expires. The Vermont Public Service Board, the quasi-judicial body that handles electrical and telecommunications cases for the state, would be charged with determining exactly how much money those funds should have.
A call to the Vermont Department of Public Service, which opposed the two decommissioning bills, was not returned Tuesday.
Klein said Entergy's contract with Vermont when it purchased the reactor in 2002 requires the company to return the site to a green field. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - the arm of the federal government that oversees nuclear power plants - only requires them to decommission the site.
"If the feds have their way, that waste is going to be stored on the shore of the Connecticut River for 100 years," Klein said.
The text of the bill requires Entergy to have sufficient funding to supervise the spent fuel at Vermont Yankee until a time when the federal government creates a long-term depository for the radioactive waste - a move that has been delayed for decades.
Bob Stannard, a lobbyist for the anti-nuclear group Citizens Action Network, said his organization did not support the two previous decommissioning bills and it is unlikely that they will support this "green fields" bill.
He said he worries that such a bill "will lull lawmakers into a false sense of security" that Vermont Yankee can operate for another 20 years.
"We can't even trust this company for 20 days, let alone another 20 years," Stannard said.
An e-mail to Vermont Yankee's spokesperson was not returned Tuesday.
Entergy Corp., the Louisiana parent company of Entergy Nuclear Vermont, which owns Vermont Yankee, posted fourth quarter 2009 earnings of $313.8 million on Tuesday. That's an 84 percent increase over the same quarter from 2008.
By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - RUTLAND HERALD- FEB. 3, 2010
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