Vernon looks ahead to post-decommissioning plans for Vermont Yankee

NorthStar has been dismantling and cleaning up Vermont Yankee since 2018, before it acquired the facility from Entergy in 2019.

Town officials said Monday night they came away with greater confidence that Vernon will play a central role in deciding what becomes of the Vermont Yankee property after decommissioning is finished.

The discussion came as NorthStar Group Services outlined parts of a 2018 Memorandum of Understanding involving the state, NorthStar and former owner Entergy Nuclear. Corey Daniels, NorthStar’s senior manager for the nuclear waste storage facility at the plant, said those terms give Vernon substantial influence over future decisions tied to the site. He also described NorthStar’s arrangement with PowerTransitions, the Texas-based development group that has leased the property and is evaluating possible next steps.

Jim Pinkerton, who serves on the Vernon Select Board and chairs the Vernon Planning and Economic Development Commission, said the explanation clarified that the town will have the deciding role and that any developer will need to come before local officials.

Shelli Harvey, another Select Board member, supported the general message but said she wanted the town to secure legal advice so Vernon is fully protected in any later negotiations over the property. The board did not vote on that idea.

NorthStar has been dismantling and cleaning up Vermont Yankee since 2018, before it acquired the facility from Entergy in 2019. Company officials say the work is moving faster than expected and that active site work could wrap up by the end of the year.

Even so, the land cannot be cleared for redevelopment until the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews NorthStar’s cleanup and the condition of the property. NorthStar has previously said that reduced staffing at the NRC could stretch that process out by as much as a couple of years.

Public discussion about the future of the land will continue next Tuesday, Aug. 25, when the Vernon Select Board holds a listening session at the Gov. Hunt House, the Vernon Community Center. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.

Before Vermont Yankee was built in the 1960s, the 140-acre site on the banks of the Connecticut River was a dairy farm surrounded by other farms. Daniels also described several items NorthStar plans to leave in place, in some cases at the town’s request, including wells, some underground lines and an office building.

Possible future uses mentioned for the property include battery storage, a data center and a modular nuclear reactor. Town officials have said they believe PowerTransitions is most interested in a battery storage facility.