VERNON, Vt. (AP) — Vermont’s now-closed nuclear power plant will no longer notify surrounding communities of emergencies.
Vermont Public Radio reports Vermont Yankee will reduce its emergency planning zone beginning Tuesday to include only the plant’s boundary.
The zone covers communities in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts within 10 miles of the reactor. In Massachusetts those towns are Northfield, Bernardston, Warwick, Leyden, Colrain and Greenfield.
A plant spokesman says the reactor isn’t operational and the odds of an accident are greatly reduced.
An official with the state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security says numerous risks still remain.
Vermont Yankee permanently closed last year after operating for more than four decades. Entergy officials have said the plant wasn’t economically viable with New England’s energy market becoming dominated by generators using cheap natural gas.