Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a chorus of state stakeholders criticizing the lack of state and local input into the decisions behind a utility’s decommissioning plan for commercial reactors during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on nuclear reactor decommissioning held yesterday. Sanders, whose home state of Vermont went through negotiations with Entergy late last year on the decommissioning strategy for Vermont Yankee, said the state’s part in the decommissioning process was nothing more than a token role. “At best, currently, states have a token opportunity to provide public comments after the plan is already finalized, but this is not good enough,” Sanders said during the hearing. “In our case, the Vermont Yankee licensee could adopt a decommissioning plan that ignores the needs and interests of Vermonters and the state would have no recourse. That to my mind is unfair and unreasonable.” Sander’s critiques were echoed by Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) who said, “The people who live and work nearby need to have a voice in the decommissioning process.” Sanders and Boxer introduced legislation this week that would expand the state’s voice in the decision-making behind the decommissioning process.
Others during the hearing, though, felt that allowing a larger state impact in the process could undermine the safety requirements the process currently operates under. “It’s a proven process,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said. “Federal law is supreme law. This process of nuclear regulations is pre-empted by the federal government, and I think there are real problems arising if you give legal power to the states to alter reactor decommissioning and other changes to the reactor after it was established differently in the beginning.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is responsible for over-seeing that the decommissioning is done in a safe manner. The NRC’s regulations offer the chance for a public comment session once the licensee submits the Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, and it will take into consideration the concerns raised during that session. Mark Weber, NRC Deputy Executive Director for Operations, Materials, Waste, Research, State, tribal, and Compliance Programs, said that the Commission considered an increased state role after the last wave of reactor decommissioning, but decided “it lacked the safety requirements,” he said.
