What? Government Re-licenses Fukushima Type Reactor in Vermont?

Something doesn’t quite seem right in Vermont these days. You see, in the town of Vernon Vermont, there is a nuclear power plant that is of the same design as the problematic nuclear power plants in Japan. This plant is known as the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and is a General Electric boiling water reactor (BWR).

In February of 2010, the Vermont Senate voted to close this plant after 2012. The plant had a history of many problems including the detection of radioactive tritium in the water around it and a partial tower collapse. After witnessing the further impressive safety performance of the GE (BWR) design in Japan, one would think this would seal the deal on shutting the plant down right?

Think again, the NRC renewed the license of this plant for another 20 years on March 21st 2011, just ten days after the tsunami hit Japan. The timing of this seems a little strange doesn’t it? It would appear as if someone wanted to jam this though before the public made the logical connection between the two plants. Who’s really running your government?