A Vermont judge on July 19 ruled against a preliminary injunction that would allow Vermont’s controversial Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station to continue operating past its March 2012 deadline.
Entergy Corp. has been involved in a lawsuit against the state of Vermont over the state’s refusal to renew the corporation’s operation license, which is due to expire in March 2012.
The Yankee Nuclear Station represents over half of Vermont’s total electricity generating capacity, producing nearly 80 percent of Vermont’s energy. The plant also generates some $100 million in tax revenues for the state of Vermont.
In 2006, Entergy Corp. applied to renew its operation license for Vermont Yankee Station, effectively attempting to continue the plant’s operations for another 20 years.
State lawmakers and public interest advocates have expressed concerned over the plant’s safety and integrity practices and have opposed continuing the plant’s operations.
Based on legislation passed in 2006 by the state of Vermont, the state’s General Assembly holds ultimate approval powers regarding the state’s nuclear generating operations—a power that rests with the federal government in all other states.
While the United States Regulatory Commission (NRC) acted to grant an extension of the plant’s license, Vermont lawmakers voted to turn it down.
Since 2009, there have been nine documented radioactive leaks at the Yankee Station, according to Vermont’s Public Oversight Panel. Moreover, despite these repeated safety mishaps, Yankee Station officials have not taken the appropriate measures to prevent recurrences, the panel said.
Even those initially in support of the renewal of the Yankee Station operating license turned their backs on the corporation in 2008 when underground pipes, said not to exist by Yankee Nuclear Station officials under oath, started leaking tritium into the state’s water supply, at levels 100 times the national safety standard.
Now, the company has claimed that the state of Vermont is overstepping its jurisdiction in matters where the federal government holds final authority.
However, Entergy Corp. has run into problems elsewhere in the country, and this time with the federal government.
Last week, the NRC ruled that it required further assessment and analysis of the safety conditions and environmental impact of another Entergy Corp. power plant, Indian Point, about 35 miles north of Manhattan.
In the case of Indian Point, the state of New York had also expressed concern over the safety and operations of Entergy Corp., acting to challenge the NRC’s initial move to grant renewal to the operation of the plant.
Safety concerns over the plant’s operations peaked when in 2009, Joseph Mangano, of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), published a study showing the rates of thyroid cancer surrounding Indian Point to be 66 percent higher than the national average. A sharp spike occurred in the early 1970s when the plant opened. Airborne radioactive iodine from nuclear plants is the only known major cause of the disease, reported Mangano.
