VERNON, Vt. — There may no longer be a federally designated emergency planning zone around the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which shut down in December 2014, but plant owner Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee agreed Wednesday to provide funding for Vermont and Massachusetts for emergency planning for the four years remaining until all of its waste fuel has been moved from the spent fuel pool to dry casks for storage.
Under terms of the agreement, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency will receive $229,000 for emergency planning through June 30, 2020.
The money, which ENVY spokesman Martin Cohn said was not required on the part of the company, will be distributed to Mass. Emergency Management Agency and Bernardston, Colrain, Gill, Greenfield, Leyden, Northfield and Warwick — the Franklin County towns that had been within the plant’s emergency zone until April.
The Massachusetts Department of Health also signed an agreement for $50,000 over the four years.
When the plant was operating, Cohn said, Entergy contributed about $1 million annually to MEMA for state and local emergency planning. The agreement recognizes that if there were an emergency during the period in which the spent fuel is being moved to the storage casks, the company might need to call on local communities to respond.
The same amount was agreed to in New Hampshire last year.
For Vermont, a two-year, $600,000 agreement was reached.
You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, Ext. 269