MONTPELIER, Vt. — A nuclear watchdog group is pushing for the closed Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to use a more robust storage system for highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel than has been envisioned so far.
Vermont Yankee owner Entergy has been using large concrete-and-steel casks on a concrete pad to store waste from the reactor, which closed 15 months ago. The company is asking to expand that waste storage.
With legal papers due at the Public Service Board Tuesday, the New England Coalitions seeks a review of whether the plant should be required to use storage casks embedded in the ground.
New England Coalition technical adviser Raymond Shadis says the group is asking for the type of cask and other issues to be more thoroughly investigated.
With “the very real possibility” that nuclear waste from the plant will remain on the Vernon site long after the plant’s decommissioning, now scheduled for 2072, Shadis said, the new underground cask storage system available from Entergy’s supplier, Holtec, is designed to be waterproof, protected by the earth, cheaper to decommission, and reduce emanated radiation more than 100-fold as well as being inaccessible to threats and hazards including flammability.
Entergy spent fuel storage project manager, George Thomas testified that the company has had conversations with Holtec about its 100U system, but that it was unsuitable for the site because groundwater there is relatively close to the surface, according to Shadis. He said the system is advertised as having “zero risk of ground water incursion.”