Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accused members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of asking the Department of Justice to side with Entergy in its case against the state of Vermont over continued operation of Vermont Yankee, the state’s sole nuclear power plant. Sanders told a Senate panel today that the NRC held a secret vote on the matter.
“In my view, the federal government should not intervene in the lawsuit that Entergy has filed against the state of Vermont,” Sanders said. “Federal law is very clear that states have the authority to reject nuclear power for economic reasons and that is what the Vermont state Senate did last year by a strong 26-to-4 bipartisan vote.”
Vermont passed a law in 2006 that gave lawmakers the authority to decide whether Vermont Yankee should continue to operate 20 years beyond its scheduled expiration date of March 2012.
In March, the NRC granted a license to Entergy to continue operating the 38-year-old Vermont Yankee plant, a Mark 1 General Electric reactor identical to those that melted down during the earthquake and tsunami crisis in Japan.
The accompanying video from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was made available by Sanders’ staff.
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Finally someone besides me is pissed at the NRC for NOT doing their job ! The NRC is advocating for the very industry they are supposed to regulate for safety!
Go Bernie!
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Entergy is a national company with plants in many states engaged in interstate commerce. The steady, low-cost, CO2-free energy from Vermont Yankee is sold all over New England, i.e., interstate commerce.
Vermont, nor any other state, cannot make laws restricting interstate commerce. Chaos would be the result. The elites of the US would not stand for it, including the Supreme Court.
Bernie, a washington insider, is smart enough to know about interstate commerce, etc., but he is engaging in some political grandstanding that goes over well in Vermont.
Ann Galloway,
Please ease up the difficulty of guessing at letters, including upside down words. It is getting silly and serves little useful purpose.
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Hi Willem,
Thanks for writing.
I assume you’re talking about our Captcha system. I’m afraid we don’t have much control over this system. Captcha, however, does serve a useful purpose: It keeps Spam at bay.
Anne
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Bernie is spot on! The NRC and the nuclear industry are partners. The NRC promotes and advocates for the industry that it is supposed to regulate. The NRC is the sole safety supervisor for the nuclear industry and is NOT doing the job and should be held accountable !
The NRC has changed their job description from regulator to promoter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/nrc-nuclear-industry-ap-investigation_n_885862.html
The article above shows what I am talking about. VY was built with a finite lifespan in mind. We have witnessed fatigue in the cooling tower collapse without the aid of an earthquake or tsunami. The pipes whether underground or buried are subject to corrosion, rust, and decay. They do not last forever. They are leaking.
The NRC re-licensed VY days after the nuclear plants in Japan started melting down, without looking into the similarities between the plants in Japan and VY.
I am disappointed in the NRC and do NOT trust them.
The NRC is NOT doing the important job assigned to them.
They should never have re-licensed VY without scrutinizing the SAFETY of the plant.