Entergy company argues that nuclear safety less important than Atomic Energy Act rules

Local resistance to the plant hardened after leaky pipes seeped radioactive material into the groundwater in 2010. If Vermont succeeds, it would be the first U.S. state to shut a nuclear power plant that had received an extended operating permit from the NRC….

“The Atomic Energy Act preempts any effort to shutdown Vermont Yankee for reasons of nuclear safety,” Entergy lawyer Kathleen Sullivan said.

Entergy, Vermont battle over nuclear plant’s fate, Sep 12, 2011, Trial to decide fate of 39-yr-old plant By Zach Howard BRATTLEBORO, Vt., Sept 12 (Reuters) – Power company Entergy faced off against the state of Vermont in U.S. court on Monday to fight a landmark effort to force the closure of its aging nuclear power plant.

In the first day of a three-day trial to determine the fate of the Vermont Yankee plant, Entergy’s lawyers said Vermont politicians had infringed on the role of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which monitors the nation’s 104 commercial power reactors.

New Orleans-based Entergy in April sued the state and Gov. Peter Shumlin in U.S. District Court, saying Vermont violated terms of Entergy’s deal to buy the reactor in 2002 by giving politicians the power to shut it.

At issue is a law passed by the Vermont General Assembly in 2006 that New Orleans-based Entergy said put Vermont Yankee’s fate in the hands of elected officials rather than the state utility regulator, the Public Service Board.

The 620-megawatt (MW) Vermont Yankee plant produces almost enough electricity to power the entire state. For years, Gov. Shumlin has spearheaded opposition to the reactor, saying the 39-year-old facility in Vernon, Vermont about 110 miles northwest of Boston is no longer safe.

“The Atomic Energy Act preempts any effort to shutdown Vermont Yankee for reasons of nuclear safety,” Entergy lawyer Kathleen Sullivan said.

The trial started on the day an explosion at a French nuclear waste site killed a worker, and six months after an earthquake in Japan triggered the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years and raised new doubts about the safety of the technology,

While the trial is set to last three days, a ruling is not expected until the late September or early October…….

Last year, Vermont’s state Senate voted in favor of shutting the plant when its license runs out….

The NRC has never denied an application to extend a license, having already renewed licenses for 71 of the nation’s 104 reactors

which provide about a fifth of the country’s power.

Most of the more than two dozen reactors that have already retired in the United States were decommissioned primarily because upgrades and repairs were too expensive to keep them running. The last U.S. power reactor to exit service was Millstone 1 in Connecticut in 1998….

http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFN1E78717W20110912

September 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA

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