The state of Vermont wants Vermont Yankee's longtime emergency planning zone (EPZ) and emergency response organization (ERO) to remain in force and unchanged until 2020. The state cites safety concerns, but as a retired nuclear power engineer, I don't make sense of that reason.
It's really simple: once the spent fuel is in the fuel pool, the potential for serious accident is greatly reduced and the current high level of emergency preparedness is no longer necessary.
It's like the end of winter: it's safe to remove your expensive snow tires. All-seasons will work just fine.
The cynic might say, “So what? It's not our money anyway,” but that's not quite how it works.
Vermont Yankee won't start the decommissioning work until the trust fund has grown enough to pay for all of it. Right now, the fund is worth about $650 million, just over half of what's needed. Spending about $100 million to support the current emergency plan unnecessarily will set back the necessary work of decommissioning for years, even decades.
The state of Vermont's efforts won't make us any safer, but they will make our region poorer - by delaying the very-welcome economic activity of decommissioning and the eventual redevelopment of the site.
I still have hopes for a prompt, smooth decommissioning. Vermont Yankee went the extra mile by taking out a multi-million dollar line of credit to help pay for the near-term cost of spent-fuel management, easing the burden on the trust fund. But the state must be more practical in its demands.