Free Republic

When Vermont Yankee was set to close, activists such as Bill McKibben claimed that Vermont “is completely capable of replacing (and far more) its power output with renewables, which is why my roof is covered with solar panels.”[i] This isn’t what happened. Instead, natural gas generation expanded in New England. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions increased 7 percent in 2015. Vermont Yankee Closed in 2014 Vermont Yankee, a 604-megawatt nuclear plant, provided New England with 42 years of reliable, carbon dioxide-free power before its closure at the end of 2014. The plant’s capacity factor exceeded 80 percent over its...

ore than 1,000 people turned out Saturday on the Brattleboro town green for a rally to show support for decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, one of the oldest nuclear power plants in the country. The event included speeches by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin, both of whom are calling for the state's wishes to be honored and for the 40-year-old Vernon reactor to be shut down. New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. owns the plant, whose state permit expired in March. The Vermont Senate voted to decommission the plant. But the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the plant...

Trace amounts of a radioactive element found in fish near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have now been found in bass in an opposite corner of the state, apparently clearing the plant of any tie to the contamination, a state health official said. Initial testing took place after Entergy Corp.'s Vermont Yankee, located in the southeastern town of Vernon, reported in 2010 that radioactive material had leaked into nearby groundwater. Low levels of Strontium-90, an isotope produced by nuclear reactions, were found in fish caught in August where groundwater from the plant runs into the Connecticut River, state authorities...

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Attorneys and witnesses have wrapped up the first day of a two-day hearing before a federal judge in Vermont over whether the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant can continue to operate while a protracted legal fight plays out over its future. Entergy witnesses told lawyers that if the plant is forced to shut temporarily, it will lose about $20 million a month in revenue and may shut down permanently rather than wait for the legal fight to be resolved. Entergy lawyer Kathleen Sullivan said Vermont lawmakers tried to hide that they had nuclear safety in mind when they...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The owners of Vermont's troubled nuclear plant sued state officials Monday to stop them from closing the plant down next year, setting up a court fight about who has jurisdiction — the state or federal nuclear regulators. Entergy Corp. has a new federal license in hand for the Vermont Yankee power plant, but state officials are vowing to shut it down next year. The company's federal lawsuit says Vermont's law giving it the power to block relicensing violates the Atomic Energy Act and the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. Vermont contends it has the power...

Radioactive fish near Vt. nuke plant deemed common MONTPELIER, Vt. — When a fish taken from the Connecticut River recently tested positive for radioactive strontium-90, suspicion focused on the nearby Vermont Yankee nuclear plant as the likely source. Operators of the troubled 38-year-old nuclear plant on the banks of the river, where work is under way to clean up leaking radioactive tritium, revealed this month that it also found soil contaminated with strontium-90, an isotope linked to bone cancer and leukemia. Three days later, officials said a fish caught four miles upstream from the reactor in February had tested positive...

.... Shutting down the two reactors would mean immediate, substantial increases in the emissions, because it would increase reliance on fossil fuel plants, probably tripling emissions in Vermont and doubling them in New Jersey.....Some environmentalists say the goals can be met even without the two nuclear plants, Vermont Yankee and Oyster Creek, and without other nuclear plants whose licenses will expire in the next few years....."We just have to bust the myth that we need to be using more energy," said Rob Sargent, senior energy policy analyst for the State Public Interest Research Groups, a nonprofit consumer organization.....The debate has...

VERNON, Vt. -- Two highly radioactive pieces of spent nuclear fuel reported missing three months ago appear to have been where they were supposed to be all along. A spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Vermont Yankee has told the NRC it found the fuel rods in the spent fuel pool at the plant. Vermont Yankee officials said last week they had found records at a General Electric laboratory in California that appeared to provide a key clue as to the fuel pieces' whereabouts. Workers found the spent rods inside a cylinder that was sent to Vermont Yankee...

VERNON, Vt. -- The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant has declared what it calls an "unusual event." That is the plant's lowest level of an emergency. The alert follows a transformer fire outside of the plant, near the non-nuclear side of the grounds. Vermont Emergency Management says the fire is out and there is no fear of a radioactive release. NewsNine is told that the "unusual event" declaration is simply a precaution. Emergency Management says that some smoke from the fire did make its way into the plant through a duct system. Nobody was hurt and the plant was not...

Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are missing from a Vermont nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search onsite for the nuclear material, officials said Wednesday. The fuel rod was removed in 1979 from the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is currently shut down for refueling and maintenance. Remote-control cameras will be used to search a spent fuel pool on the property, officials said. "We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan. But Sheehan...

MONTPELIER, Vt. April 21 — Two highly radioactive fuel rods from a Vermont nuclear plant are missing, plant officials said Wednesday. Engineers were searching the spent fuel pool at the Vermont Yankee plant for the small rods, which were removed from the reactor in 1979. "We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan. One of the missing rods is about the size of a pencil. The other is about the thickness of a pencil and...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — Safety experts are questioning an effort by the nation's nuclear industry that has expanded its output by the equivalent of three large reactors without adding a single new plant. In the last two decades, nuclear plants have won permits to uprate, meaning add capacity to reactors, with almost no opposition. With these upgrades, plus expanded working hours and 20-year extensions on operating licenses, the nuclear industry has expanded its electrical output to a point that safety experts say could be dangerous. For their part, plant owners say...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says former Gov. Howard Dean and other Vermont officials violated federal law by releasing secret protection plans for its nuclear power plant in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The NRC's charge had Vermont officials scrambling to impoundtop-secret nuclear documents the Democratic presidential front-runner wrongly made public. Some of the documents regarding the Vermont Yankee nuke plant include so-called ``safeguards information,'' which is to be released under ``need to know requirements and . . . not publicly releasable,'' said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. The documents are included in files Dean made public - even...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says former Gov. Howard Dean and other Vermont officials violated federal law by releasing secret protection plans for its nuclear power plant in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The NRC's charge had Vermont officials scrambling to impoundtop-secret nuclear documents the Democratic presidential front-runner wrongly made public. Some of the documents regarding the Vermont Yankee nuke plant include so-called ``safeguards information,'' which is to be released under ``need to know requirements and . . . not publicly releasable,'' said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. The documents are included in files Dean made public - even...

Presidential hopeful Howard Dean (news - web sites), who accuses President Bush (news - web sites) of being weak on homeland security, was warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target. ?The warnings, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press, began in 1991 when a group of students were brought into a secure area of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant without proper screening. On at least two occasions, a gun or mock terrorists passed undetected into the...

By JOHN SOLOMON and DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Writers Presidential hopeful Howard Dean (news - web sites), who accuses President Bush (news - web sites) of being weak on homeland security, was warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target. The warnings, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press, began in 1991 when a group of students were brought into a secure area of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant without proper screening. On at least two occasions,...

Presidential hopeful Howard Dean (search), who accuses President Bush of being weak on homeland security, was warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target. The warnings, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press, began in 1991 when a group of students were brought into a secure area of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant (search) without proper screening. On at least two occasions, a gun or mock terrorists passed undetected into the plant during security tests.

<p>Presidential hopeful Howard Dean, who accuses President Bush of being weak on homeland security, was warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target.</p>