In a Friday filing, the department that’s supposed to represent Vermonters’ interests against the purely commercial concerns of Entergy Nuclear told state regulators that a full cleanup of the Vernon reactor site is unnecessary.
The Department recommends that site restoration include removal of all above ground structures and all below ground structures to a depth of at least three feet below grade, followed by regrading and reseeding where necessary or appropriate.
Don’t worry, say our state protectors:
the vast majority of contaminated materials will need to be removed
Entergy needn’t bother with the rest. That’s headed down the river to Mass. and Ct.
No point in looking for what’s been swept under the rug. There’s not enough money in the cleanup fund to deal with it anyway.
The full filing isn’t on line yet, but a pdf is making the rounds.
One of the consequences of Douglas budgeting seems to be failure to keep Public Service Board and Dept of Public Service websites updated.
Case in point- Docket 7530, in which Entergy asks to extend its boundary fence, because the increased radiation from the 2005 power boost puts them over the state limit.
A Public Hearing was held July 13, but the PSB website still doesn’t make the filing documents available to the press and public.
the state’s recommendation square with what was done in Maine when that facility was decommissioned?
As long as, say, there’s no extra rain eroding the banks of the river.
Nothing like the threat of a slurry of radioactive mud racing down a flooding Connecticut River to give those who live downstream a warm, fuzzy feeling. Luckily, there have been no floods in Vermont in the entirety of history.
[image source: Burlington Free Press, 2008]