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Shut It Down Affinity Group members Priscilla Lynch, Ellen Graves, Paki Wieland, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, Hattie Nestel, Frances Crowe, Susan Lantz, Jean Grossholtz, and Linda Pon Owen.
(Submitted photo)
NORTHAMPTON -- A local anti-nuke group is requesting that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission force Entergy Corp. into an expeditious clean-up of "Strontium-90 contaminated soil" at its now-shuttered Vermont Yankee reactor, and take steps to "prevent a nuclear disaster."
The Shut It Down Affinity Coalition says it has advised the NRC that the Commission could "provide no-interest loans to Entergy to accomplish the dismantling and decommissioning of (Vermont Yankee) in a timely manner and not wait fifty years to begin the process of removing contaminated soil."
The news comes as Entergy seeks approval for a plan to decommission the dormant power plant located on the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vermont. The NRC held a public hearing on the topic last month in Brattleboro.
The coalition, in a lengthy press statement, accuses the NRC of being lenient with Vermont Yankee, and implores the federal regulators to "protect the environment and the people, not the industry." The statement says that spent fuel rods at Vermont Yankee, currently in temporary wet storage, should be quickly moved to dry cask storage.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently closed a formal public comment period on a draft decommissioning plan by the Louisiana-based Entergy Corp. Entergy bought Vermont Yankee in 2002; the plant shut down in Dec. 2014 after more than four decades of operation.
Questions remain about the degree of radiological contamination at the site and the extent to which Entergy will be held accountable for remediation.
At a the NRC hearing in Brattleboro, residents and Vermont state officials expressed concern that Vermont Yankee's decommissioning trust fund won't be adequate for the job. There is currently $650 million in the fund, which is supposed to pay for a clean-up process estimated to cost $1.2 billion.
In a 2014 site assessment study (pdf), Entergy identified SAFSTOR as its preferred decommissioning process. Under this plan, Vermont Yankee would be "mothballed" until the fund reaches the level necessary to clean up the entire site.
Entergy and the state are at odds over the proper use of the trust fund.
The group invokes the name of Arnie Gunderson, who can be seen on video here:
Decommissioning Stakeholders' Fund-amental Rights from Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo.