A Vermont House committee plans to take up the question of decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
It will be the third time the costs of dismantling the state’s lone reactor have been the subject of legislation. Governor Jim Douglas has vetoed two previous bills.
Representative Tony Klein is chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Klein says the new bill would require Vermont Yankee and its owner, Entergy, to set aside $50 million to pay the cost difference between the nuclear cleanup required under federal law and more stringent state requirements.
Vermont Yankee has opposed new state requirements to set aside money for decommissioning in the past.