The Vermont Public Utility Commission on Monday issued a new schedule for its review of the planned sale of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station from owner Entergy to decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services.
The schedule updates dates for document filings and hearings through the week of Jan. 29, 2018. However, some activities by parties to the sale are not yet scheduled, and the plan does not say when the commission would issue its ruling on the deal.
Entergy and NorthStar are the joint petitioners to the sale, which they hope to wrap up next year. NorthStar would then be responsible for decommissioning Vermont Yankee and management of its spent fuel until the Department of Energy finally meets its legal obligation to build a permanent repository for U.S. nuclear waste.
The majority of the outside intervenors in the sale did not object to the revised schedule, the Public Utility Commission said in a July 24 procedural order. These include the state Attorney General’s Office and Agency of Natural Resources, the nongovernmental New England Coalition and Conservation Law Foundation, and the Elnu Abenaki Tribe. A handful of others did not reply or were still considering the update.
The next scheduled milestone is the Aug. 3 deadline for the petitioners to file their responses to certain requests in the discovery process, followed by initial testimony from non-party petitioners on Aug. 30. Depositions are scheduled from Oct. 2 to 13 and Jan. 8 to 18. The commission has scheduled its second public hearing on the proposed sale for Jan 4 in the town of Vernon, followed by a pre-technical hearing conference in Montpelier on Jan. 19. Technical hearing will be held during the week of Jan. 22, along with the following week if needed.
Both the PUC and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission must approve the transfer of Vermont Yankee to a new owner.
