Vermont Yankee is a nuclear reactor, built several decades ago in near Brattleboro, in southern VT, on the Connecticut River, between VT and NH. It came online in 1972,and has provided electric power to VT and other parts of New England for years.
For the last couple of years VY has been in the news because it applied to have its license renewed for 20 years. This reopened the arguments over the benefits and dangers of nuclear power, but the arguments had some new urgency because this is an old plant; the expected life of nuclear plants is apparently 40 years, and 2012 is the Big 4-Oh. So there’s been considerable debate on the merits of extending the license of an aging plant which is not scheduled for upgrade or improvement.
But Entergy, the Louisiana company who owns VY, has done a fine job of shooting itself in the foot. In the last few years there has been a cooling tower collapse and evidence of inadequate inspections and shoddy maintenance. Then Entergy decided to spin off all its aging plants into another company whose financial foundation is no better than junk bond status. Given the recent history of financially failing companies, this was not a move that bolstered public confidence in the plant’s future.
The icing on the cake, however, was the January discovery of a tritium leak into the groundwater wells, a leak that steadily increased and still has not been found. Entergy and VY management claimed under oath that there were no underground pipes that could possibly leak, and then other sources proved that a) they were wrong and b) they knew that they were wrong. No one knows the extent to which tritium is in the Connecticut River. To Vermonters, this development meant that the company lied to the legislature and by extension to the public. Whether Entergy could be trusted in its public dealings became the topic of debate.
In VT the legislature decides whether a nuclear power license application should be forwarded to the Public Service Board, and today the Vermont Senate voted NO.
The consequences are many, and most are not good. One, upwards of 600 people in VT, NH and MA will lose their jobs. They will undoubtedly move to other parts of the country where their skills are needed, thus depriving the local economies of high-wage jobs and economic benefit. Two, thanks to the economy, the plant decommissioning fund is far from what is necessary to shut the plant down properly, store the materials, etc. Decommissioning will be a burden that VT taxpayers will shoulder for years and years to come. Three, the cost of power in Vermont will surely rise. Power costs would’ve risen anyway, but VY was a source of many megawatts of power that will not be easily replaced at the same cost.
The big downside to nuclear power is the possibility of a plant accident. The operational shortcomings at VY never reached a crisis stage, and I think far too many at the NRC and at Entergy thought that not reaching a crisis meant everything was OK. I’m not rabidly anti-nuclear but I can’t stomach the notion of keeping this plant operating under the ownership of and management by a company that clearly does not care first and foremost about public safety and the public good. Entergy's financial dealings, the increasing VY safety issues, and (as one Senator said) Entergy's “duplicity and prevarication” prove it.
Entergy’s management philosophy is itself a clear and present danger to the public. Can Vermont (or any state) allow an aging and possibly unreliable plant to be operated by a company that cannot be trusted? The consequences of lost jobs and increased costs following plant closure pale by comparison.
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