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Shumlin says state should consider moving radioactive waste out of Vernon .Shumlin . News December 29, 2008 Bob Kinzel Montpelier, VT Senate President Peter Shumlin says he wants lawmakers to consider moving high level radioactive waste from southern Vermont to somewhere else in the state……………Shumlin says it’s critical for the Legislature to look at this issue because the owners of Vermont Yankee want to extend its license for another 20 years.

Shumlin argues that when Vermont Yankee went on line in 1972, it was assumed that the federal government would build a national waste repository. But the debate over a national site has dragged on for years and the development of a location in Nevada is now the subject of numerous lawsuits.

Originally, Vermont Yankee stored their spent fuel rods in a pool at the facility in Vernon. When the pool became full, it received permission to put the rods in steel and concrete casks next to the plant………………………….Shumlin -`Any reasonable person, I believe, would agree that Vermont is now stuck with high level nuclear waste for the next 80 to 100 years, that the feds will never take it. So if that’s the case, it seems reasonable to have the discussion, when we talk about running the plant for another 20 years, where is the best-worst place in Vermont to store high level nuclear waste in the safest way possible?”………………Shumlin – “No one’s ever asked, `Is a floodplain on the banks of the Connecticut River the best place to store high level nuclear waste?’ And we need to have that question answered by experts who have actually thought it out. And I’m going to ask geologists to give us those answer – scientists, not politicians.”

VPR Regional News: Shumlin says state should consider moving radioactive waste out of Vernon

Tags: nuclear

January 2, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized