VERNON, Vt. — The Vermont Public Service Board has approved a second nuclear waste storage pad at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant site, nearly two years after it was applied for by the company.
In its order Friday, which becomes final pending a 10-day appeal period, the board said plant owner Entergy had “reasonably examined alternatives” to the project, where 22 casks of nuclear waste will be stored from the plant’s spent storage pool, and that it will not delay decommissioning of the plant, which ceased operation at the end of 2014.
The board determined that the storage pad, to which Entergy hopes to move all remaining fuel from the pool by 2020, would also not increase decommissioning costs, and it rejected arguments made by the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution that alternatives to a second dry-cask pad were not adequately considered and that plant officials have not demonstrated that a second waste storage pad will not have an undue adverse aesthetic impact.
“We understand NEC’s desire for a broader assessment of alternatives, but we also recognize that requiring such an assessment is unlikely to produce material benefits,” said the 43-page order.
Clay Turnbull, a lawyer for the anti-nuclear organization, said it is weighing a motion for reconsideration.
“That’s definitely an option we are considering,” he said. “I cannot imagine that we’re not going to put something together.”
Michael Twomey, Entergy’s vice president of external affairs, said, “We are very pleased with the board’s order. The order grants all of the relief requested by Vermont Yankee, rejects the unfounded positions of the coalition, and allows us to move forward with the transfer of spent nuclear fuel to dry cask storage.”
There remains room on Vermont Yankee’s existing 132-by-76-foot storage pad for 23 additional casks beyond the 13 that are already there, but the remaining 2,996 spent fuel assemblies in the plant’s spent fuel pool will require the additional 22 casks. Entergy hopes to complete its second pad, 93-by-76 feet, in 2017, with six months of construction time required.
Although the coalition had called for further studies on underground storage or alternate locations for the waste, the state ruled that underground storage would cost an additional $30 million and would still have to be partially above ground because of groundwater levels. It suggested that the additional cost would be better spent on decommissioning.
“We are not persuaded by NEC’s assertions,” said the order. “Even if we agreed with these observations, which we do not, the basic fact remains that the second (storage facility) will be a relatively small component of a well-established industrial site. Due to existing screening, it will at most introduce a minor change to the characteristics of the site, but it will not alter the nature of the views that the public are likely to have.”
Turnbull said the coalition was not advocating for an underground system for storing the waste, but rather arguing that alternatives should have been considered.
Entergy Vermont Yankee spokesman Martin Cohen said construction of the new pad, estimated to cost $143 million including casks, would be covered by loans to be repaid when the company is repaid by the U.S. Department of Energy for its failure to take possession of the high-level waste. An additional $225 million is estimated for monitoring of the waste for 48 years, until 2068.
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