The seller and buyer for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station should not be allowed to change certain commitments for decommissioning and site restoration at the shuttered plant, the nongovernmental New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution said in a motion filed Friday with a state regulator.
The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) must approve the sale of Vermont Yankee, closed since December 2014, from current owner Entergy to NorthStar Group Services, a New York environmental services company that would decommission and restore the site.
The New England Coalition said language in the two companies’ joint petition for the sale, filed last November with the PSB, would reverse obligations laid out for Vermont Yankee in orders dating to 2002: that Entergy not bury rubble from demolished structures on-site; that there be separate trust funds for decommissioning and site restoration of Vermont Yankee; that site restoration (covering demolition and removal of structures) begin “promptly” after completion of radiological decommissioning; and that subsidiary Entergy Vermont Yankee provide a “parent guarantee” from Entergy to cover site restoration costs.
All of those obligations should be generally sustained if the deal goes through, the New England Coalition said in its motion for summary judgment with the Public Service Board.
Entergy is evaluating the motion and will file its response within the 30 days allowed by the board, Joseph Lynch, senior government affairs manager for decommissioning, said by email.
