Closed-door meeting on Yankee canceled
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By JOHN CURRAN The Associated Press - Published: April 1, 2010
MONTPELIER — Buffeted by criticism over plans to host a closed-door meeting with elected officials about the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission canceled it Wednesday.
The meeting, which was organized to give elected officials the chance to meet with federal regulators without the press and public listening, was to be held at Keene Country Club in Keene, N.H., on April 14.
But the idea of an invitation-only meeting about Vermont's troubled nuclear power plant didn't sit well with many, including the state's congressional delegation.
U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch said the private meeting would fuel public skepticism about oversight of the plant, which recently plugged a leak of radioactive tritium only to announce Tuesday the discovery of Cesium-137, a more dangerous radioactive substance in soil at the plant.
They said any discussion having to do with Vermont Yankee should be in public.
On Wednesday, the NRC agreed, calling off the meeting in favor of folding it into a "public open house" already scheduled April 12 in Brattleboro. The open house will be held from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Brattleboro Ramada Inn.
In an interview, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the idea behind the meeting originally was to allow elected officials to seek information without the glare of cameras.
"The goal was not to prevent 'the press,"' he said. "The goal was for there to be this free flow of communications where officials who might not feel comfortable asking technical questions at a public meeting can do so at a more informal meeting."
Raymond Shadis, technical adviser to the New England Coalition, an anti-nukes group based in Brattleboro, said the NRC may have had a legitimate concern about "antics" by members of the public but that it went about it the wrong way.
"NRC is always publishing 'lessons learned' reports, and I think this is material for one," he said. "The proposition of a closed meeting just does not go over well in New England. It's alien to our traditions."
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