Aging nuclear plant raises questions about life without it

November 4, 2007

MONTPELIER — A cooling tower that collapsed suddenly, leaving a pipe pouring thousands of gallons of water on a pile of rubble. An unplanned shutdown caused by a stuck valve nine days later. A scheduled retirement looming.

Taken together, the recent problems at Vermont Yankee nuclear plant have some wondering: Where would Vermont be without Vermont Yankee?

"For the average Vermonter, little to nothing would change," said James Moore, energy advocate with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. "It shuts down on a regular basis, both planned and unplanned outages, and our lights don't go out."

Moore and other Vermont Yankee critics point to this month's report from the Governor's Commission on Climate Change, which said that aggressive deployment of renewable generation could save almost as much in carbon emissions as Vermont Yankee does.

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