Yankee closer to license extension
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By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer - Published: July 10, 2009
BRATTLEBORO – The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has knocked down one of the last hurdles to final federal approval for another 20 years of operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
The quasi-judicial board held hearings last summer in Newfane on environmental and safety concerns raised by environmental groups. It ruled Wednesday it had dismissed the final challenge by the New England Coalition, an anti-nuclear group.
The group has focused on the effects of aging on the reactor, which was built 40 years ago and started operating in 1972.
In its recent challenge to the proposed license, the group said Entergy Nuclear's recent re-calculations on the effects of metal fatigue in core spray and reactor recirculation nozzles were flawed. The licensing board rejected that challenge.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has recommended that Entergy Nuclear get permission to operate for another 20 years.
The group has 15 days to file a challenge, and it has launched an effort to raise $50,000 to pursue its concerns about inadequate safety controls on aging components and metal fatigue at the 37-year-old Vernon reactor.
The board, in a ruling dated Wednesday, said the New England Coalition had failed to make its case on its last challenge or "contention," and dismissed it.
Raymond Shadis of the New England Coalition said his group could file a petition for review. He said any challenge depends on fundraising, since the group is already $100,000 in debt over the Vermont Yankee re-licensing case before the Vermont Public Service Board.
"We have big bills outstanding on our two cases," said Shadis, who said the group had to drop its law firm earlier in the year and that he had taken on the case pro se, or without a lawyer.
Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said another challenge also still exists – that of the NRC staff.
The staff filed an appeal last fall to a decision by the quasi-judicial panel over a jurisdictional issue.
Shadis said the New England Coalition had worked hard to raise substantive issues that the state or other groups hadn't raised.
If the challenge doesn't go forward, Shadis said he was proud that the coalition had worked hard to make Vermont Yankee a safer plant.
"The company and the NRC were forced to take a harder look at the two metal wear issues — pipe thinning and metal fatigue. They had to take a harder look and do more inspection. In the end we can hope it makes for a less dangerous plant," Shadis said.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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