Okay... so this is quickie, but it's good. First, Paul Hodes (yay! We worked on his campaign) is joining the chorus of members of congress from neighboring states who are weighing in on Vermont Yankee:
Hodes wants a description of how the NRC will notify New Hampshire federal and state officials of future incidents, documents on the latest incident and information on what is being done to ensure the water cooling system is safe.
Might I humbly suggest that Representative Hodes read Green Mountain Daily? We seem to be breaking a lot of this news before the print media.
On other, awesome news, the NRC has told Vermont Yankee "no" when it comes to the decommissioning fund:
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has shot down plans by Entergy Nuclear to tap into Vermont Yankee's decommissioning savings account to pay for the handling of spent fuel.
The federal regulators also criticized the company's projected rate of return on the $440 million fund.
The NRC said that if Entergy was allowed to use the fund for spent fuel management, there would not be enough money to fully dismantle and decontaminate the plant.
Entergy had submitted the plan to the NRC this winter, and the NRC ordered the company to submit a new plan within 90 days. The plan must be submitted five years before any nuclear reactor might shut down. Vermont Yankee's 40-year license expires in 2012.
This is great news. I blogged about this January. Entergy's been playing their own shell game, trying to use funds reserved for decommissioning to do other work, and the NRC actually said no.
It's good to see that sometimes they get it right. |
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