Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Vermont is appealing a US judge's decision last month blocking efforts to close Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Attorney General William Sorrell said his office filed an appeal with the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over nuclear safety matters. Lawmakers are worried about the plant's future reliability and environmental and economic impacts - issues on which the state can rule.

Town Meeting voters have approved a resolution opposing the continued operation of the Pilgrim nuclear power plan in Plymouth until all safety improvements recommended by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in response to the failures of similarly designed reactors in Japan last year have been fully implemented. The resolution was approved after a speech in its favor by the town's fire chief, who serves as its emergency management director. The resolution also asks the NRC to suspend its license-renewal process for a 20-year extension of the plant's operating license until those safety improvements have been...

CONCORD, N.H. -- Two Massachusetts congressmen are again questioning security at New Hampshire's Seabrook nuclear plant. Democrats Edward Markey and John Tierney said Wednesday in a second letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the agency should "take immediate action to protect public safety. " Last week, Tierney and Markey said an intruder detection system wasn't installed correctly and the plant forced security guards to work overtime to compensate. On Wednesday, they said additional safety issues were raised by a Seabrook employee regarding defective security cameras and the...

Selectmen have voted to ask the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make the town an official participant in any future hearings on two issues under review in the license renewal process for Pilgrim nuclear power plant. The issues are the reliability of the plant's hardened contaminant vent and the safety of its spent nuclear-fuel storage system. Selectmen agreed with arguments presented recently by the town's Nuclear Advisory Committee that the rules devised by federal regulators to guarantee the safety of these components are "insufficient to protect the health, safety and property of our community.

Officials from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be on hand for a public hearing this week on the agency’s annual review of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The NRC gave the Vernon reactors good marks in a review issued in March, and now is inviting public comment at a session set for this Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Brattleboro Union High School. The session will feature presentations by officials from the NRC, followed by a period devoted to comments from the public.

The legal arguments over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant continue, with parties to file this coming week on how the state Public Service Board should handle its review of a new state permit for the plant. Meanwhile, the clock ticks toward March 21, when the company's permission to store more high-radioactive nuclear waste on its plant site in Vernon may expire. The plant has won approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate for 20 years beyond its originally scheduled shutdown date, which is less than three weeks away.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) says he is blocking Senate confirmation of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission nominee because the agency asked the Department of Justice to intervene in a lawsuit between the state of Vermont and the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which the state wants closed. Sanders says he has placed a hold on the nomination of NRC nominee William Ostendorff. He said the NRC “voted secretly’’ two weeks ago to recommend that the Justice Department become involved in a lawsuit between Vermont and Entergy, Vermont Yankee’s owner.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Federal regulators have approved plans to build two new nuclear reactors to generate electricity in South Carolina. The project is only the second to receive federal approval in a generation. Last month, the NRC voted to issue a permit to Atlanta-based Southern Co. to build and operate two new reactors at its Plant Vogtle site south of Augusta, Ga., the first such approval since 1978. During a brief meeting in Washington on Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to allow South Carolina Electric & Gas to build two 1,100-megawatt reactors at the V.C. Summer...

Massachusetts is backing Vermont in its efforts to prevent the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from operating beyond next March. Massachusetts intends to file a friend of the court brief supporting Vermont in a federal case brought by plant owner, Entergy Corp. A spokeswoman says Massachusetts’ attorney general, Martha Coakley, filed a motion this week seeking to submit the full brief by June 13 in US District Court in Brattleboro. In its suit, Entergy asserts Vermont overstepped its authority by trying to deny the plant in Vernon, on the Massachusetts border, permission to operate beyond next...

Massachusetts is backing Vermont in its efforts to prevent the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from operating beyond next March. Massachusetts intends to file a “friend of the court’’ brief supporting Vermont in a federal case brought by plant owner, Entergy Corp. A spokeswoman says Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a motion this week seeking to file the full brief by June 13 in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro. In its suit, Entergy claims Vermont overstepped its authority by trying to deny the plant in Vernon, on the Massachusetts border, permission to operate...

After a lengthy discussion, selectmen came to a split decision on sending a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding the relicensing of the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant. The board voted, 2-1 - with chairman Bert Knowles and Tom Atwood in favor, and Dick Cushing against - to draft a letter to the commission stating the position that they "insist that relicensing not be completed if safety issues are outstanding. " The letter also will ask the commission to provide transparent lines of communication with the community.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Federal regulators have approved plans to build two new nuclear reactors to generate electricity in South Carolina. The project is only the second to receive federal approval in a generation. Last month, the NRC voted to issue a permit to Atlanta-based Southern Co. to build and operate two new reactors at its Plant Vogtle site south of Augusta, Ga., the first such approval since 1978. During a brief meeting in Washington on Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to allow South Carolina Electric & Gas to build two 1,100-megawatt reactors at the V.C. Summer...

YOUR STORY "Duxbury resident still fighting Pilgrim" (Metro, March 11) reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspected all US reactors after the Fukushima accident and concluded that they are safe. "At the same time, we are pursuing multiple changes that could make plants safer," adds NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. Isn't there a big contradiction here? On the one hand, we're reassured that nuclear plants are safe, while on the other we're told the agency is working to make them safer.

The legal arguments over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant continue, with parties to file this coming week on how the state Public Service Board should handle its review of a new state permit for the plant. Meanwhile, the clock ticks toward March 21, when the company's permission to store more high-radioactive nuclear waste on its plant site in Vernon may expire. The plant has won approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate for 20 years beyond its originally scheduled shutdown date, which is less than three weeks away.

IN HIS column, John E. Sununu suggests the need for a new term, the opposite of "regulator capture" where a regulated industry controls their regulators, to describe the phenomenon of the regulator hating the regulated industry, an accusation he hurls at the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko, for having had the nerve to regard the meltdown and explosion of four reactors a year ago in Japan as an event worth studying and...

JOHN E. SUNUNU slams Gregory B. Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for standing up to the nuclear industry. I for one am happy that the NRC chairman is not a nuclear industry toadie. There is a need for balance on a commission that has long been a revolving door for industry executives. Why should Sununu's column bother Bostonians? Because Plymouth's Pilgrim nuclear plant is only 40 miles from Boston, and we should remember that the United States recommended that its nationals stay 50 miles away from Fukushima.

Town Meeting voters have approved a resolution opposing the continued operation of the Pilgrim nuclear power plan in Plymouth until all safety improvements recommended by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in response to the failures of similarly designed reactors in Japan last year have been fully implemented. The resolution was approved after a speech in its favor by the town's fire chief, who serves as its emergency management director. The resolution also asks the NRC to suspend its license-renewal process for a 20-year extension of the plant's operating license until those safety improvements have been...

Vermont's only nuclear plant can remain open beyond its originally scheduled shutdown date this year, despite the state's efforts to close the 40-year-old reactor, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The ruling by US District Judge J. Garvan Murtha in Brattleboro is a win for the Vermont Yankee plant's owner, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., which had argued during a trial in September that the state's efforts to close the plant were preempted by federal law. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a 20-year extension on Vermont Yankee's license in March 2011.

Vermont is appealing a US judge's decision last month blocking efforts to close Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Attorney General William Sorrell said his office filed an appeal with the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over nuclear safety matters. Lawmakers are worried about the plant's future reliability and environmental and economic impacts - issues on which the state can rule.

Vermont's only nuclear plant can remain open beyond its originally scheduled shutdown date this year, despite the state's efforts to close the 40-year-old reactor, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The ruling by US District Judge J. Garvan Murtha in Brattleboro is a win for the Vermont Yankee plant's owner, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., which had argued during a trial in September that the state's efforts to close the plant were preempted by federal law. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a 20-year extension on Vermont Yankee's license in March 2011.