The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled its first meeting with the company that wants to purchase and decommission Vermont Yankee.
The industrial demolition company NorthStar Group Services wants to purchase the Vernon nuclear reactor, and NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan says a meeting will be held on Jan. 24 to let NorthStar and Entergy Vermont Yankee discuss the proposed deal.
NorthStar wants to complete the cleanup of the Vernon site with three subcontractors, and Sheehan says federal regulators have a lot of questions about the plan.
"This is certainly unique and it raises some new and interesting questions," says Sheehan. "The NRC staff involved with decommissioning activities will certainly have a number of questions about how this would proceed."
NorthStar says it can restore the site using VY's decommissioning trust fund.
Sheehan says the meeting is not a formal hearing, but rather a public meeting that will bring the two companies before federal regulators to talk about the deal.
"This is somewhat new territory and it's an opportunity to discuss this proposed sale," says Sheehan. "There will be [a] license transfer application, and when that occurs there will be an opportunity, we will allow the public to weigh in and anyone who wants to seek a hearing to do so."
NorthStar needs federal and state regulatory approval for the sale.
