On
Tuesday, at least 45 towns will consider the future of the Vermont Yankee
nuclear power plant. The
Town Meeting resolution urges the legislature to vote against Yankee’s request
to operate after its license expires in 2012.
Entergy
Vermont Yankee has so far declined to offer utilities a power contract for
electricity sold after 2012. That’s when the plant’s license expires. Yankee needs
approval from the Legislature to operate for another 20 years.
Vermont Yankee
nuclear plant remains at only 25 percent power today in the wake of discovery
of problems in cooling towers and continued low flow of its water source —
the Connecticut River.
Vermont
Yankee’s first attempt to move radioactive spent fuel ended in a mishap last
week.
An
electrical relay on a crane failed and the fuel container slipped about four
inches to the floor.
State
and federal regulators said no radiation was released, and that the public was
not in danger.