Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. In response, Greenpeace Nuclear Policy Analyst Jim Riccio said:
It is outrageous that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rubber stamped this old and leaking nuclear reactor for another 20 years of operation even as reactors of the same design have failed and are emitting dangerous levels of radiation in Japan.
In truth, relicensing Vermont Yankee says more about the NRC’s process and its deference to the nuclear industry than it does about the battle over Vermont’s energy future. NRC’s standards for renewal are so low that even this decrepit reactor has received approval.
The people of Vermont have spoken, and Vermont Yankee is not welcome to operate in the state after March 2012. Greenpeace will stand with Vermonters to oppose Entergy’s plans to continue operating this dangerous and unnecessary nuclear reactor for another twenty years.
