Vermont Yankee decision could come this week

[garybeck]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120103/NEWS07/120103006/Vermont-Yankee-decision-awaited-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Both sides in the lawsuit by the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's owners against the state say a federal judge's decision is expected soon — possibly this week.

At issue is the future of Vermont's lone nuclear plant, a 40-year-old boiling-water reactor in Vernon in the state's southeast corner. Plagued during the past two years with leaks of radioactivity and questions about the truthfulness of plant managers' statements to state officials, the plant has been given a green light to continue operating by the federal government but a red one by the state.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted plant owner Entergy Corp. a 20-year extension on its license in March. But the state had a law saying Vermont lawmakers also must approve for the plant to keep operating. A bill to grant legislative approval was defeated 26-4 in the state Senate in 2010 and the House has never acted.

The Senate vote came at what may have been the Vernon reactor's political nadir in the state. Just a month earlier, it was revealed that tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, had been leaking from under the plant, and that plant officials had made misleading statements to state lawmakers and regulators indicating that Vermont Yankee did not have the sort of underground pipes that carried tritium — pipes it was later shown to have.

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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120103/NEWS07/120103006/Vermont-Yankee-decision-awaited-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE