Attorney General Weighs in on Spent Fuel
From The Rutland Herald
MONTPELIER - The Vermont Attorney General’s office has added its voice to six other states asking federal regulators to take into account the safety of on-site storage for high-level radioactive waste when they consider a license extension at Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, among other reactors.
Monday was the deadline for public comment on the petition originally filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, according to Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman.
Rep. Richard Marek, D-Newfane, said he had been told by Attorney General William Sorrell that the state had joined Massachusetts, asking that the NRC change its own rules on the issue. Marek had written a letter on behalf of fellow House members seeking the state’s involvement.
The Massachusetts petition seeks an assessment of the vulnerability of the spent fuel pool, and whether it is a natural target of terrorists, and it also wants the NRC to change its rules about whether the regulators can consider this issue in relicensing dockets.
Sorrell, and a deputy attorney general also working on the case, didn’t return telephone calls Monday.
Marek said that he had received the letter from Sorrell last week, alerting him and other Windham County legislators that the state had already joined the debate. Windham County legislators and anti-nuclear activists had asked for the state to join Massachusetts on the issue.
The Pilgrim nuclear plant in Massachusetts, which is also owned by Entergy Nuclear, is also seeking a 20-year extension of its original 40-year license. In the case of Vermont Yankee, that license to operate expires in 2012.
Sheehan said that his office hadn’t tallied all the public comments that had been submitted on the issue, but he said the state of California had submitted a very similar petition to the Massachusetts argument. The other states already on record with Massachusetts are New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, Kentucky and Louisiana.
At issue is the safety of the highly-radioactive spent fuel, which in Vermont’s case is still kept in a deep water pool on the fifth floor of the reactor building. Entergy Nuclear is in the process of building an on-site storage facility next to the Vernon reactor, where the oldest and coolest of the old fuel will be transferred into steel and concrete casks.
Sen. Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, president pro tempore of the state Senate, said the news that Sorrell’s office had joined the debate was welcome.
Shumlin said when NRC officials met with legislators in Montpelier a couple of weeks ago, legislators were “astounded” to learn that the NRC was not considering the issue of storage of high-level radioactive waste when making a decision about extending Vermont Yankee’s license.
Shumlin said he would consider approving a 20-year extension, but only if there was an independent safety assessment of the aging reactor, as well as the issue of disposal of high-level radioactive fuel.
“Vermont would never have taken that plant if they knew that high-level waste would be stored on the banks of the Connecticut River,” Shumlin said.
If Vermont Yankee does get a license extension, he said, it should be conditioned on different areas of the state hosting some of the high-level waste since it will be mobile in the concrete and steel casks.
“We’ve had it all in Windham County now for almost 40 years,” Shumlin said, noting the entire state benefited from Yankee and should share in its liabilities.
“If we’re going to create the waste, we should share in its storage and Windham County has done its share,” he said, adding that storage should start in the state’s most populous areas.
“It is appropriate that the issue be addressed at the commission level. We believe that the plant is protected by its very strong design and also by a comprehensive security program on site, but also by the resources of the federal government,” said Robert Williams, Entergy spokesman.
Sheehan said the Massachusetts attorney general’s office has been rebuffed by the NRC and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on several related issues regarding the relicensing of Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee, which is only a few miles from the Massachusetts border.
Marek said federal regulators told the Vermont legislators a federal waste site would be available to nuclear plant operators by 2025, but Marek said that was unlikely, given the problems encountered at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.