Vermont Public is independent, community-supported media, serving Vermont with trusted, relevant and essential information. We share stories that bring people together, from every corner of our region. New to Vermont Public? Start here.

© 2024 Vermont Public | 365 Troy Ave. Colchester, VT 05446

Public Files:
WVTI · WOXM · WVBA · WVNK · WVTQ · WVTX
WVPR · WRVT · WOXR · WNCH · WVPA
WVPS · WVXR · WETK · WVTB · WVER
WVER-FM · WVLR-FM · WBTN-FM

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@vermontpublic.org or call 802-655-9451.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Explore our latest coverage of environmental issues, climate change and more.

NRC Schedules Hearing On VY Decommissioning Plan

Entergy
Until the Department of Energy can provide a permanent nuclear waste repository, VY's spent fuel will remain in dry cask storage onsite.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants comments on Entergy Nuclear’s plan for decommissioning Vermont Yankee. The agency will hold a public meeting on the plan in Brattleboro on Feb. 19.

Entergy filed theplanwith the NRC shortly before the plant shut down permanently in December. It includes both a cost estimate for decommissioning and a schedule that shows the site’s final cleanup in the mid 2070s.

NRC Spokesman Neil Sheehan says his agency hasn’t received any comments yet. But state agencies and citizens filed many comments and questions on an earlier draft version of the report provided by Entergy.

The state wants to know, among other things, why Entergy’s calculations assume the Department of Energy will start removing stored spent fuel from the site in 2026 and finish by 2052. The NRC’s Neil Sheehan says no federal waste repository is currently on the horizon.  

"So they’re making some educated guesses about when the DOE will be ready to accept this fuel," Sheehan says.

Another area of dispute is Entergy’s petition to end emergency planning services around the plant. The NRC has extended the public comment period on that issue.

Susan Keese was VPR's southern Vermont reporter, based at the VPR studio in Manchester at Burr & Burton Academy. After many years as a print journalist and magazine writer, Susan started producing stories for VPR in 2002. From 2007-2009, she worked as a producer, helping to launch the noontime show Vermont Edition. Susan has won numerous journalism awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for her reporting on VPR. She wrote a column for the Sunday Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Her work has appeared in Vermont Life, the Boston Globe Magazine, The New York Times and other publications, as well as on NPR.
Latest Stories