US nuclear regulator under fire for extending new license

Mar 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Chris Cermak dpa, Berlin

The United States' top nuclear regulator came under fire Tuesday for extending a 20-year license to an ageing power plant in the US state of Vermont, even as a nuclear crisis at a Japanese power plant continued.

Lawmakers from Vermont and private nuclear watchdogs questioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decision on Monday to give the four-decade-old Yankee nuclear plant in Vermont an extension.

President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the safety of US nuclear plants in light of the crisis in Japan, where authorities are still working to bring under control a partial meltdown at the Fukushima power plant in the country's north-east.

The Japanese crisis also prompted another nuclear company to halt its expansion of a power plant in Texas. Nuclear Innovation North America said it would wait until regulators "assess the lessons that can be learned from the events in Japan."

The Yankee plant in Vermont, run by Entergy, has a similar design to the compromised nuclear reactor in Japan and would have been slated for closure in 2012 without the new license. Vermont lawmakers may still look to block the extension.

"The accident is not even over in Japan and the NRC chose this week to relicense the reactor that is a dead ringer for the Fukushima reactors that they are still struggling to save," Paul Gunter of the activist group Beyond Nuclear said in a statement Tuesday.

The Vermont plant has faced a number of problems in recent years that have turned most state residents against the project, including the collapse of a water cooling tower and the leak of small amounts of the radioactive substance tritium into the nearby groundwater.

The NRC has been evaluating the plant and its safety for the last five years. The regulator last week delayed extending the license in light of Japan's crisis, but had apparently changed its mind by Monday.