The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will issue a 20-year license extension for the Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear power station near Brattleboro, US.
The decision to renew the license comes following the NRC’s safety and environmental reviews of the application, submitted on 27 January 2006 by the plant’s operator, Entergy Nuclear Operations.
The NRC expects to issue the renewed license soon that will expire on 21 March 2032.
The application and the staff reviews were also examined by the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) and was the subject of an adjudicatory hearing by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), a quasi-judicial arm of the NRC that handles licensing matters.
The NRC staff issued its Safety Evaluation Report (SER) on the Vermont Yankee license renewal application, NUREG-1907, in May 2008, and issued a supplement to the SER in September 2009.
The nuclear agency said that the staff is in the process of issuing a second SER supplement, which will be available soon.
The staff issued its Vermont Yankee-specific supplement to the generic license renewal Environmental Impact Statement (NUREG-1437, Supplement 30) in August 2007.