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Don’t let Entergy off the hook on nuclear waste cleanup

SAFSTOR “would let Entergy off the hook” for cleanup and waste disposal for years or even decades, wrote the delegation.

“While Entergy may prefer leaving the plant to sit like an abandoned factory because it has not saved the necessary funds to fully decommission the plant, this is not the safest option for Vermonters,” Leahy, Sanders and Welch wrote..

Leahy, Sanders, Welch say no to SAFSTOR, Brattleboro Reformer By BOB AUDETTE / Reformer Staff March 2, 2011 BRATTLEBORO — Vermont’s congressional delegation is urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure it will force Entergy to clean up the site of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant as soon as it closes down.

Senators Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to Gregory B. Jaczko, the chairman of the three-member commission of the NRC that it was “unacceptable” that Entergy could engage in “decades of delay” before cleaning up the site by relying on the SAFSTOR method.

The letter was drafted by Sanders, who is a member of the Senate panel that oversees the NRC.

“Immediate decommissioning will assure Vermonters that the plant is being disassembled safely,” the delegation wrote. An immediate cleanup and shutdown of the site also would allow the plant operator to take advantage of the skills of many long-term Yankee employees who otherwise would lose their jobs. …

If the plant closes in 2012, when the current license expires, Entergy has indicated it will place Yankee into SAFSTOR to allow the decommissioning fund to accrue the necessary funds for converting the site to a greenfield as agreed to with the state of Vermont when Entergy bought the plant in 2002.

NRC standards call for conversion to a brownfield, which leaves it safe for industrial use. Cleaning it up to greenfield status will make it safe for any use.

SAFSTOR is an NRC-approved “mothballing” of a nuclear power plant. While some staffers would remain on site to monitor the plant, most employees there after closure would be security.

SAFSTOR “would let Entergy off the hook” for cleanup and waste disposal for years or even decades, wrote the delegation.

“While Entergy may prefer leaving the plant to sit like an abandoned factory because it has not saved the necessary funds to fully decommission the plant, this is not the safest option for Vermonters,” Leahy, Sanders and Welch wrote……

Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear safety advocate and consultant to the state of Vermont, said security at deactivated power plants is meant to keep people out, but not pests such as rodents, birds, insects and even rabbits.

Those pests can become radioactively contaminated and scatter radioactive feces wherever they travel, contaminating surface water, runoff and ground water.

But those most in danger, said Gundersen, are rabbit hunters who might shoot and consume radioactive meat.

There is also the possibility that a leak of radioactive materials could go undetected until actual cleanup begins, he said.

“If you have a leak, such as at Connecticut Yankee, it’s better to catch it in the first 10 years,” said Gundersen.

The remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater at the power plant, located in Haddam Neck, added nearly $300 million to the decommissioning costs, which cost $871 million in total…..

Leahy, Sanders, Welch say no to SAFSTOR – Brattleboro Reformer

March 3, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | decommission reactor, USA, wastes