Vermont could close nuclear plant

Feb 26, 2010, 5:15 GMT

Washington - State senators in the north-eastern state of Vermont became the first state legislators in the United States Thursday to weigh in on the future of a nuclear plant.

The Vermont Senate voted 26-4 against extending the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant beyond 2012, media reports said. Their approval was needed for the extension.

For the plant to keep operating, the Senate would have to reverse its vote, and the state legislature's lower chamber, the House of Representatives, would also have to approve the extension.

The move comes just a week after President Barack Obama announced 8.3 billion dollars in US federal loan guarantees for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Augusta, Georgia.

Vermont's action defies the normal regulatory control exercised by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which had been prepared to give the plant another 20 years of operation.

The plant opened in 1972.

Members of the Vermont Senate expressed growing concern about recent leaks of radioactive tritium, the collapse of a cooling tower three years ago and conflicting information from the plant's operator, Entergy Corp, The New York Times reported.

The vote was greeted by Beyond Nuclear, a Washington-based group committed to ridding the world of nuclear power plants and weapons.

'Vermont is at the forefront of a fight to rein in an undemocratic technology and a promotionally biased licensing process,' group spokesman Paul Gunter said.