For Immediate Release
October 12, 2018
Contact: Raymond Shadis 207-380-5994
New England Coalition Responds to NRC Approval of NorthStar’s application for license transfer of Vermont Yankee
NorthStar, would-be purchaser of Entergy Vermont Yankee, filed NRC license transfer approval documents with the Vermont Public Utility Commission late this afternoon. If the PUC, which has been withholding its decision pending the NRC approval, now in turn, approves the deal, NorthStar and Entergy, the present owner, intend to complete the sale by year’s end. Still pending is the intervention of Conservation Law Foundation, which questions the financial security of NorthStar’s proposed decommissioning project.
If the PUC makes no substantial changes to the multi-party settlement agreement, the conditions of the MOU will kick in. “We are rolling up our sleeves to work on decommissioning issues” said Raymond Shadis, Technical Advisor to the New England Coalition. “We are particularly interested in encouraging NorthStar to abide by the environmental conditions of the MOU, including those things for which NEC advocated from the beginning of the Public Utility Commission process.”
NorthStar has agreed to a ban on averaging the radiation dose on buried large-bore piping and tank interior walls and added fill. It has agreed to no “rubblization” of any concrete that contains detectable reactor-derived radionuclides. And it has agreed to perform near off-site radiation surveys in sensitive areas. “We are thinking these might include the schoolyard across the street and the Connecticut River bottom and shoreline, which will be subjected to potentially contaminated dust from demolition of the site in addition to residual contamination from four decades of operations” said Shadis.
Also, NorthStar has agreed to try to meet the same stringent residual radiation standard achieved at the other three decommissioned “Yankee” nuclear plants.
In anticipation of PUC approval of the MOU, New England Coalition is engaged with NorthStar in forming a stakeholder’s advisory group with direct input to the decommissioning in order to assure that community and stakeholder values are considered throughout the process.
END