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Vermont nuclear plant might herald the end of nuclear industry’s resuscitation

Obama’s nuclear vision suffers setback as Vermont plant faces shutdown Vermont would be the first state to close a nuclear reactor after 38-year-old Yankee’s history of leaking cancer-causing tritium guardian.co.uk 23 February 2010
Barack Obama’s new dream of a nuclear renaissance faces a major reality check tomorrow when the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an ageing nuclear reactor with a history of leaks.

It would be the first time a state has moved to shut down such a reactor, and follows Obama’s announcement last week of $8.3bn (£5.4bn) in loan guarantees for the construction of two new reactors in Georgia………..The state senate is set to deny a request to extend its 40-year life span by an additional 20 years condemning the plant to close in 2012, said Peter Shumlin, the highest ranking member of the Vermont senate……The battle over the so-called Vermont Yankee reactor has attracted an increasingly national audience amid growing disaffection among liberals and environmentalists with Obama’s support for the nuclear industry.

Shumlin and other opponents of the plant argue that America has yet to plan for the safe retirement of its existing 104 reactors, which are beginning to approach the end of their original life spans. Some 27 of those reactors have had leaks of tritium, according to the nuclear regulatory commission……….James Moore of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said he detected signs of a backlash against both the ageing reactors and Obama’s plans for the birth of a third generation of nuclear plants. “A lot of folks on the left and right are waking up to the reality that it is a bad idea to give hard earned tax dollars to a new generation of reactors when we can’t manage the old reactors,” he said.

Obama’s nuclear vision suffers setback as Vermont plant faces shutdown | Environment | guardian.co.uk

February 24, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, reactor