Senate votes 26-4 not to relicense Yankee
5:05 p.m.
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DAVE GRAM,Associated Press Writer - Published: February 24, 2010
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate voted Wednesday to block the state's only nuclear plant from operating after its license expires in 2012.
Vermont is the only state in the country with a law giving its legislature a say over a nuclear plant's relicensing. The Senate's 26-4 vote against a 20-year extension of Vermont Yankee's license marks the first time lawmakers have formally weighed in on the question.
With the Vernon reactor leaking radioactive tritium into groundwater and its owners accused of misleading state regulators about underground piping at the plant, even senators who might have supported the license extension said they would have a difficult time doing so now.
"If the board of directors and management were infiltrated by anti-nuclear activists, I do not believe they could have done a better job destroying their own case," said Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, who had supported an amendment calling for building a new reactor in Vernon before he voted against the extension.
Wednesday's vote came after 3½ hours of debate in a Senate chamber whose edges and galleries — along with two large hearing rooms equipped with live links — were jammed mostly with anti-nuclear activists hungry for a victory at a time when President Barack Obama has called for a resurgence of fission reactors as a source of electric power for the country.
It brought complaints from the administration of Gov. James Douglas, Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. and its supporters that senators were engaged in a rush to judgment and a political attack on an operation weakened by news of its tritium leaks and misstatements.
The Senate vote may not be the final word on Vermont Yankee, however. If the state end up with a more nuclear-friendly legislature after the November elections, lawmakers next year could reverse Wednesday's action.
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