Vermont to decide future of Vermont Yankee

The debate over renewing a 20-year license for nuclear plant Vermont Yankee has come to UVM, with the environmental impact and overall efficiency of Vermont’s largest producer of electricity coming. in to question    

Both sides of the debate have recently been present on campus, from joint presentations by Vermont Yankee and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) to the Student Government Association (SGA), to a visit from Greenpeace’s “Nuclear-Free Vermont Tour.”

“We don’t think [Vermont Yankee] should’ve ever been built,” VPIRG Representative James Moore said. “We have to pay for all of this nuclear waste, and there is a lot of risk that we, the tax payers, have to pay for if there is a problem.”

The recent increase in controversy over Vermont Yankee stems from the need for Vermont legislative approval to continue operating in Vermont after their operating license expires in March 2012.

On March 26, the Vermont House of Representatives backed a bill requiring the owners of Vermont Yankee, Entergy Corp., to contribute millions of dollars toward a faster decommissioning if the plant’s license is not renewed.

“[Entergy] does not have the means to [decommission] in 2012 because they don’t have the money, because they kept their prices low,” Jay Thayer, vice president of Entergy, said.

“One alterative is to keep the plant running and then they will have enough money to decommission it.”

This piece of legislation, headed for the desk of Vermont Governor James Douglas, is intended to make sure that Vermont is not left to pay the bill for the cost of decommissioning the plant.

“Protect Vermonters or protect the business plan of a $33 billion out-of-state corporation. Your choice should be easy,” D-East Montpelier Rep. Tony Klein said at the start of the bill’s hearing.

While concerns about the cost of decommissioning the power plant are being aired in Montpelier, a solar-equipped, biodiesel-fueled truck from Greenpeace parked on UVM’s main campus on April 2.

“Right now the people of Vermont have the unique opportunity to close down Entergy’s aging nuclear reactor, Vermont Yankee, and choose safe, clean renewable energy for their community instead,” a blog on Greenpeace’s Web site said.

After asking UVM students for photo signatures on their petition, the Greenpeace group held a “Retire VT Yankee” campaign party in UVM’s Davis Center.

The environmental impact of a leak of radioactive water that Yankee reported this past January is still on the minds of the plant’s opposition.

“When it comes to the plant being old and falling apart— the leak they are experiencing, they can’t seem to stop it,” Moore said. “That leak has radiation in it.”

Thayer did not deny the leak.

“We had a failure there. It shouldn’t have happened,” Thayer said. “The best thing to do is be transparent.”

Moore, along with many other Vermont Yankee dissenters, is still not convinced.

“They’re very good at downplaying the significance of these things,” Moore said. “Even a minor accident on that facility would have devastating impacts on the Vermont economy.”