9 States, NCSL, and Vermont NGOs join VT AG's appeal of Entergy Vermont Yankee atomic reactor ruling
June 12, 2012 
Vermont Attorney General William SorrellThe Attorney General of the State of Vermont, William Sorrell (pictured left), fresh off his victory against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision" at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, has filed his brief in New York City appealing a Brattleboro, VT federal district judge's ruling in January which enabled the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee atomic reactor to continue operating, in contravention of State of Vermont laws. AG Sorrell's brief was supported by "friend of the court" briefs from nine states (Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, and Utah), as well as the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. Also filing "friend of the court" briefs in support of VT AG Sorrell were VT NGOs Conservation Law Foundation, the Vermont Natural Resources Council, the New England Coalition, and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.
Vermont is unwilling "host" to Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee GE BWR Mark I, an identical design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4. Connecticut "hosts" the permanently closed Millstone Unit 1 Mark I -- although the high-level radioactive waste generated there is still stored on site. Iowa "hosts" the Duane Arnold Mark I. Massachusetts "hosts" the Pilgrim Mark I near Boston -- and is only 8 miles down the Connecticut River from Vermont Yankee. New Hampshire, for its part, is directly across the Connecticut River from Vermont Yankee. New York "hosts" the FitzPatrick and Nine Mile Point Unit 1 Mark Is at Scriba, 6 miles outside Oswego, on the Lake Ontario shore, as well as the co-located, very similarly designed Nine Mile Point Unit 2 Mark II.