“Unless Entergy Louisiana is held accountable for this disaster, it could cost Vermonters millions of dollars and put the health and safety of thousands at risk,’’ he said. “Entergy Louisiana needs to take immediate steps to ensure that this crisis does not worsen.’’
Shumlin, the president pro tem of the Vermont Senate and a longtime critic of the state’s lone reactor, also stepped up his criticism of his Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, whom he called too friendly to Vermont Yankee and Entergy.
“Brian will stand up for the stockholders of Entergy Louisiana instead of protecting the pocketbooks and health and safety of the people of the state of Vermont,’’ Shumlin said.
Vermont Yankee is seeking a 20-year extension of its license, scheduled to expire in 2012. Vermont is the only state with a law saying the Legislature must approve the extension of a power plant’s license. Vermont Yankee’s extension request failed to get out of the Senate in February.
The vote was taken a month after tritium leaks were first announced and after revelations that top plant personnel had misled state officials by saying Vermont Yankee did not have underground piping that carried, and could leak, radioactive substances like tritium.
Dubie has said he believes the decision on the plant’s future should be left to the state Public Service Board, which would issue a new state license for the plant, and to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“Brian has been very clear from the beginning that the NRC is going to be the one who will determine whether the plant is safe,’’ Kate Duffy, a Dubie spokeswoman, said yesterday. “This is a conversation that has to be driven by science and evidence, not politics and emotion.’’
