The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Entergy permission Monday to eliminate off-site emergency planning activities around the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The Vernon reactor went permanently offline on Dec. 19. Entergy, the Louisiana-based company that owns the plant, will no longer need to maintain the emergency planning zone that encompasses a 10-mile radius around the plant. That zone includes 18 towns in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The planning activities include sirens, radios, stockpiling potassium iodide used to protect against radiation and other radioactive contaminants, and other regular emergency activities, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC.
These requirements will end in April, he said, but the company must still maintain an emergency plan for the plant compound.
The state opposed Entergy’s exemption request, arguing that offsite emergency planning is needed for safety reasons. Throughout the next five years, Entergy will be moving spent nuclear fuel from a cooling pool and placing it into dry cask storage.
Entergy plans to reduce staffing levels at the plant from 316 to 127 workers by June 2016. The company says the employee drawdown will hasten the decommissioning process. Maintaining staffing levels for emergency response through 2020 would cost an additional $120 million, Entergy says.
