I've been reviewing the status of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant relicensing. This nuclear plant is the same vintage and design as the older reactor units at Fukushima-1 nuclear complex in Japan. Vermont Yankee's license is scheduled to expire in 2012 but the company operating the plant applied to the NRC for a 20-year extension (Politico 3/25/2011):

"Monday, the same day the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it would conduct a 90-day "snapshot" regulatory review of the U.S. nuclear reactor fleet, the agency finalized the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant — which has the same design as the stricken Japanese plant — for another 20 years."

"Vermont Yankee is actually scheduled to close next year anyway, but the NRC's action leads to questions about the comprehensive nuclear review President Barack Obama called for."

"It is stunning that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would rubber stamp the use of this aging reactor for another two decades, and it's outrageous that it would do so just days after announcing a 90-day review in response to the crisis in Japan," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth.

"Aside from being one of the 23 U.S. nuclear plants sharing a design and containment system similar to the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, Vermont Yankee has had its own series of problems including the collapse of a cooling tower and leaks of radioactive tritium."

Unlike most states Vermont has reserved the right for the final word on such license extensions and its State Senate has already voted the extension down by an overwhelming margin. The NRC claims that it's authority would pre-empt the State's on issues dealing with nuclear power but given what's been happening in Japan they may be politically check-mated.

Charley Noble