UPDATED

Entergy keeps operating Vermont Yankee while leaking tritium (though it's not clear whether there are any new releases to the groundwater), trying to limp along until the scheduled April closing for refueling. Meanwhile, in Illinois, Exelon will have to pay big bucks for tritium leaks at three of their nuclear power plants.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced yesterday that Exelon General Corporation will pay over $1 million to settle lawsuits arising from tritium leaks into groundwater from the Braidwood, Byron and Dresden nuclear power plants.

I haven't looked at the performance of the Byron and Dresden plants. About the Braidwood plant, Public Citizen says (and the Illinois EPA confirms):

The site has experienced eight leaks between 1996 and 2006, including one in 1998 and another in 2000. The 1998 leak resulted in the release of three million gallons of tritium-contaminated water. It was not until November 2005 that the leaks were revealed to state officials.

I have a call in to the Attorney General's office about whether there are any similar lawsuits filed or planned in Vermont. I haven't heard of any, but I've also been out of state for a few days. 

UPDATE 4:30 pm: Deputy Attorney General Janet Murnane has told me that while there are numerous ongoing state investigations, no civil lawsuits have been filed against Entergy or Vermont Yankee regarding the tritium leaks.

With the help of Glenn Scherer at Blue Ridge Press, I turned the state Senate vote on Vermont Yankee into an op-ed on states' rights to regulate nuclear power plant. Blue Ridge Press sends out op-eds to newspapers around the country, and Glenn hoped the states' rights slant would appeal to newspapers in some conservative states.

We'll see how that strategy works. So far, it's been picked up by The Epoch Times in New York City.

I was pleased today when Free Speech Radio News broadcast a story on the Vermont Yankee vote that I put together with assistance from Thomas Weiss. Nice to get more national exposure for the story, especially since Peter Shumlin is offering to consult with other states on how they, too, can take control of their aging reactors. The producer there was a joy to work with, too--she helped enrichen and otherwise improve the initial script that Thomas and I submitted.

FSRN is broadcast in central Vermont at 6 pm weekdays on WGDR, Plainfield, 91.1 FM, and WGDR can be streamed at wgdr.org.

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