(Source: Bennington Banner)
By Neal Goswami, Bennington Banner, Vt.
Feb. 13--FRIDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2010
Bennington -- The Republican vice chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee says the Legislature should vote against an additional 20-year life span for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Rep. Joseph L. Krawczyk Jr., R-Bennington, said Friday following a telephone hearing with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials that he has little confidence in regulatory oversight of the nuclear power plant in Vernon. "I'm not comfortable with the NRC and never have been," he said.
Allowing plants like Vermont Yankee in Vernon to conduct their own testing, Krawczyk said, is suspect. "I just don't know if I've got much confidence in what they're telling me," he said. "That's like having the rabbit carry the lettuce. They'll get what they want to get."
Recently disclosed leaks of tritium on the plant's grounds are a serious concern for Vermonters, Krawczyk said. Despite the leak, an NRC official told three legislative committees Friday that Vermont Yankee is not in violation of any federal rules or regulations.
"We need to think about this. Is it a real threat? Maybe not at the doses they're finding," Krawczyk said. "But they're talking now about it maybe going into the Connecticut River, which would not be a healthy situation."
The Legislature likely cannot shut down the plant before its current operating license expires in 2012, Krawczyk said,
but the Legislature should rule out the 20-year extension the plant's owner is seeking.
"I've been a supporter of them and nuclear power in the past, but if I were to vote today, I would not support them past 2012," he said. "I don't want to sit down ten years from now after I've renewed this thing and have an accident happen. I don't want to say to myself that I could have prevented that."
Krawczyk said voting now would let Vermont Yankee employees "know that at some point in time they've got to get their resumes out." And it will allow utilities that now rely on Vermont Yankee for power, like Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and Green Mountain Power, to seek new power-purchase agreements with power suppliers.
Krawczyk said the position he is taking is not widespread among Republicans in the Legislature, nor is it the position of Republican Gov. James Douglas. But his colleagues are beginning to change course, he said.
"I wouldn't say that's the consensus, but I'm seeing an awful lot of them changing their mind since last year," Krawczyk said.
Meanwhile, House Natural Resources and Energy Committee Chairman Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, said he and Krawczyk and crafting a bipartisan decommissioning bill that would force Vermont Yankee to set up two trusts: one to restore the site to greenfield status by 2022; and the other to cover the cost of waste management at the site.
Krawczyk said he's pushing the legislation to prevent Vermont taxpayers from having to pay for cleaning up the plant when it shuts down. "I don't want to see one Vermont penny go into that thing. It's up to Entergy to get the money into the decommissioning fund," he said.
Contact Neal P. Goswami at ngoswami@benningtonbanner.com
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