Vermont Senate wants Entergy reactor shut in 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Vermont Senate on Wednesday voted to close an Entergy Corp nuclear power plant in 2012, citing discovery last month of a leak releasing radioactive tritium into the groundwater.

If the Vermont Senate's 26-4 vote stands, the power plant in Vernon, Vermont, 140 miles from Boston, will close when its license expires. Vermont will be the first state in over 20 years to shut down a nuclear plant; California voters took similar action in 1989.

Vermont is the only state with laws that allow its legislature to grant or deny nuclear reactor license applications.

The vote shows potential roadblocks to the U.S. nuclear industry's planned expansion, after the Obama administration last week approved $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build a new nuclear plant in Georgia.

While the Obama administration advocates a nuclear revival to reduce dependency on foreign oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions, opponents of Vermont Yankee have used the leak to show Entergy is not operating the reactor safely.

Entergy, of New Orleans, applied with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2006 to renew the 40-year operating license for the plant, which began operations in 1972. The renewal would be for an additional 20 years.

"The effort to win a 20-year renewal of Vermont Yankee's operating license is far from over," Entergy said in a statement, pledging to carry on its license renewal efforts.

The state Senate voted against the renewal because it was "not in the best interest of Vermont," Pete Shumlin, president of the Vermont Senate and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told Reuters.

Shumlin also said there were concerns that the price Entergy offered to sell power in the future was higher than current rates and that the Louisiana company's plan to spin off its non-regulated nuclear plants, including Vermont Yankee, will not benefit Vermont ratepayers.

The NRC said in a statement it would send a team to the site to investigate Entergy's dealings with the state.

The nuclear power industry still faces regulatory hurdles as it tries to swing into construction mode for the first time since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 threatened the eastern United States with a nuclear meltdown.

Since 2007, the NRC has received applications to build 28 new reactors, which emit no greenhouse gases.

NOT THE ONLY TRITIUM LEAK

Tritium is a mildly radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in very small amounts in groundwater. It is also a byproduct of power production in nuclear plants. But the NRC said the leak reported at Vermont Yankee in January posed no immediate threat to public health and safety.

Entergy said there have been no tritium levels found in drinking water wells or the Connecticut River.

The 620-megawatt Vermont Yankee plant, located near the Connecticut River in Vernon in Windham County, can power about 620,000 homes.

Tritium contamination, however, is not unique to Vermont Yankee.

Over the past few years, the NRC has investigated tritium releases at several reactors, including Entergy's Indian Point and FitzPatrick in New York and Exelon Corp's Oyster Creek in New Jersey and Braidwood in Illinois.

The 104 nuclear power reactors in the United States provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

(Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore and Eileen O'Grady in Houston; Editing by Marguerita Choy)