The state’s environmental agency has agreed to review an expired permit that has allowed the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to pour heated water into the Connecticut River.
The Connecticut River Watershed Council complained last month that the plant was continuing a practice under a permit that expired five years ago. Now the Agency of Natural Resources has agreed to subject the permit to a new review.
The Watershed Council says the heated water poured into the river by the nuclear plant raises the temperature of river water five degrees for an unknown distance downstream.
It says that’s bad for fish in the river, and that the nuclear plant could avoid the problem by using its cooling towers more.