NRC relicenses US reactor that is same design as Fukushima
With audacious (and we would argue reckless) timing, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today officially issued a license extension for the Vermont Yankee reactor, the same GE Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor design as those in crisis at Fukushima, Japan. A mass vigil on Sunday at the plant was attended by 600 people but on Monday the NRC declared the reactor safe enough to operate another 20 years when its current license expires on March 21, 2012. Bob Stannard of Citizens' Action Network told Vermont Public Radio: ""It's unimaginable to think that the NRC would declare this plant safe when this plant houses 640 tons of spent fuel in an unprotected fuel pool with no containment vessel; In Japan, the plant that's in the worst shape has only 80 tons."
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