This past week the House Natural Resources and Energy committee passed H.589, a bill that creates a trust fund for greenfield restoration of the Vermont Yankee site and a spent nuclear fuel management fund, neither of which is covered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in their accounting of decommissioning costs.
As of now, because of the Senate vote and the effective House concurrence in this bill, the plant is scheduled to close March 21, 2012. Decommissioning can't begin until the spent fuel has cooled down for at least five years (2017). After that, it takes about 8 years (2025) to decommission the plant before greenfielding can begin.
What greenfielding will do is get the site to a condition that allows future beneficial use of the land, whether for other energy production, industrial use, or commercial use.
Up to now, greenfielding was only covered in a memorandum of understanding. If this bill passes both bodies and escapes a veto by the Governor, both greenfielding and spent fuel management funding will be put into law.
The issue of Safstore, Entergy’s plan for a 60 year extended time delay for decommissioning, is unresolved. Safstore is an NRC-approved method and timeframe for decommissioning, but it does not have to be Entergy’s choice. Under Safstore decommissioning would not commence until 2072. Greenfielding would not take place until 2080.
A 60 year delay of greenfielding will cause many lost opportunities for economic benefits from productive use, including jobs, taxes, and economic multiplier effects.
Because there might be another legislative vote on continued operation next year, we must continue to keep big pressure on the legislature and this company. We must work to end operations on March 21, 2012 and to begin decommissioning as soon as possible after that date.
