Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant Owner Entergy Sues State To Stay Open

[Zephie]

Source: The Huffington Post

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The owners of Vermont's only nuclear power plant filed suit Monday to stop the state from closing the plant, which recently won a 20-year license extension from federal regulators but still needs a state permit.

<snip>

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington, New Orleans-based Entergy contends that the U.S. Supreme Court has found that states have no authority over nuclear plant licensing. It also says Vermont might be interfering with federal authority to regulate the wholesale power market.

Built in 1972, the Vermont Yankee power plant has been plagued by leaks of radioactive tritium and strained relations with Vermont authorities.

<snip>

Located on the banks of the Connecticut River in Vernon, within sight of New Hampshire and about three miles from the Massachusetts line, the plant is a General Electric Mark 1 boiling water reactor, as are the Fukushima reactors damaged in last month's tsunami in Japan.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/vermont-yankee-nuclear-sues-state_n_850437.html

[Cirque du So-What]

1. What do ya wanna bet...

...that the same reactionaries who blather on about "states' rights" in an attempt to circumvent federal laws will be all up-in-arms over a state taking control of a corporate entity operating within its borders? I predict that the pretzel logic employed will be quite a thing of hypocrisy.

[jpak]

2. Free Staters will be chasing their teabaggin' tails

yup

[AndyTiedye]

6. Maybe Not if They are in Texas

There is some joint venture with TEPCO (yes, THAT TEPCO) that wants to build some nukes in Texas.
I wonder what the teabaggers there think of the idea.

[Althaia]

3. Maine Yankee shut down in 1997...

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=14280250

I hope Vermont follows suit. I don't want any nuclear power plants anywhere near where I live.
There is another one in Seabrook, N.H., built with 1970's technology. That needs to go soon, too.
http://www.fpl.com/environment/nuclear/about_seabrook_station.shtml

I quite understand the problems with fossil fuels, but I think we have to be extremely careful with using nuclear power. I also think that we need to develop solar/wind/hydro power sources.

[flamingdem]

4. Another GE plant that has to be decomissioned immediately nt

[AndyTiedye]

5. Shut It Down!

Those plants were built to last 25 years. They weren't all that safe when they were new.
Now the containment (such as it is) has been made brittle by all that radiation.
They don't even have the modest safeguards that newer plants do.

They will keep running these plants until they blow up.