Decommissioning of former Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant ahead of schedule - WPTZ
Decommissioning of former Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant ahead of schedule
Vermont Yankee once generated one-third of all of the state's electricity, but was shut down over rising economic and environmental concerns in 2014.
The decommissioning work at the former Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant continues in Southern Vermont, with the CEO of the company in charge of the cleanup saying that they are within budget and ahead of schedule.
This week, heavy equipment steadily dismantled huge pieces of metal and concrete from the turbine building.
The reactor building will follow in the months ahead.
Vermont Yankee once generated one-third of all of the state's electricity, but was shut down over rising economic and environmental concerns in 2014.
“It’s been actually a very clean facility, really no surprises,” said Scott Slate, CEO of NorthStar. "Radioactive material is easy to find, so we didn’t find anything that we didn’t expect to find."
Fifty-eight steel containers holding spent nuclear fuel will remain under guard in Vernon indefinitely, but NorthStar says the rest of the 125-acre site will revert to a grassy field ready for unrestricted redevelopment as soon as 2026.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.