Nuclear advisors appear divided on Vermont Yankee uprate

By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

Posted December 8, 2005

ROCKVILLE, MD — A key advisory panel of experts may be unusually divided on the proposed 20 percent power increase at Vermont Yankee, nuclear experts hinted briefly Thursday.

In a meeting with the five commissioners of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Graham Wallis, chairman of the high-level Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, said “it will be clear tomorrow if we agree” on a recommendation about the 20 percent uprate.

Wallis was responding to a question from NRC Commissioner Jeffrey Merryfield, a New Hampshire resident, who expressed an interest in the experts’ opinion on the proposed uprate at VY, a 530-megawatt reactor at the southeastern corner of Vermont, a stone’s throw across the Connecticut River from his home state. Merryfield raised the question outside the agenda of the two-hour meeting of the NRC and their advisory panel.

Click here for the full text of this story in our subscriber's area.