The Nuclear Regulatory Commission won’t consider Vermont Yankee’s effects on Connecticut River water temperatures as it reviews the plant’s request for a 20-year license extension.
That decision from the five commissioners reverses a ruling by a lower-level NRC panel that determined an anti-nuclear group’s evidence on river temperatures was worth hearing.
Vermont Yankee wants to put water used in the plant’s cooling system into the river in enough volume to raise water temperatures by one degree Fahrenheit.
Environmentalists say they’re worried about the effects of that change on fish and other aquatic life.