BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - U.S. senators from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and California are calling on the federal regulators to stop reducing or eliminating emergency preparedness zones around decommissioning nuclear power plants.
Sen. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders of Vermont have signed a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission along with Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
The Brattleboro Reformer reports (https://bit.ly/1fYmHKE ) that the senators are concerned that lessons learned from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan show that offsite emergency planning should continue while nuclear waste is stored in a spent fuel pool.
Vermont Yankee in Vernon is scheduled to be closed at the end of the year.
The NRC says it will review the letter and provide a timely response.
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