Community and the state grapple with potential redevelopment of Vermont Yankee site

After 40 years in operation, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon shuttered in 2014, leaving over 100,000 tons of nuclear waste. More than a decade later, the developer that holds the lease, PowerTransitions, is envisioning the site’s future. 

Now, the local community and state are mulling the potential energy, environmental and economic impacts of the site redevelopment, which could include a data center. 

After purchasing the 140-acre property, NorthStar, which specializes in facility remediation, is on track to decommission the nuclear site by the end of the year, according to Kerrick Johnson, the Vermont Department of Public Service’s commissioner.

NorthStar agreed to lease the property to the Texas-based company PowerTransitions, which is backed by the private equity firm Partners Group. It specializes in converting former industrial areas into energy development sites with a focus on solutions to the growing AI and digital infrastructure demand.

It is unclear what PowerTransitions will build. 

Jim Pinkerton, a Vernon Selectboard member who also chairs the town’s planning commission, reported at a Tuesday night selectboard meeting that plans for battery storage, a small-scale nuclear reactor and a data center had all been floated by PowerTransitions, but no plan had been finalized. 

“Any of the projects they’re discussing would trigger (Act) 250 instantly,” Pinkerton said, referring to Vermont’s land use review process. The process typically takes many months or years to navigate, Pinkerton said, adding that “there will be two years before they even get a ruling on it.”

PowerTransitions is in the early stages of developing plans for the site, and the company intends to engage with the Vernon community and other stakeholders, according to a statement by PowerTransitions spokesperson Carrie Hitt. PowerTransitions currently plans to build a data center in Kansas.

Last month, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill that would have imposed restrictions on data centers, asserting that the state’s existing regulatory frameworks would suffice to limit any negative impacts. Scott has also long supported the revival of nuclear energy in the state.

Data center developments have caused a stir nationally, and Vermont municipalities like South Burlington and Royalton have weighed restrictions on data centers. Vergennes is contending with the current controversy over a proposed battery storage project. 

Pinkerton said that Vernon’s planning commission sees developing an “environmentally sound” project that generates revenue as a “regional gain.” But he said the town would need to weigh the downsides as well. 

Pinkerton also expressed personal concern about redeveloping a nuclear site and the potential “serious drain” on local water and power resources of a data center. This concern was echoed by some attendees at the selectboard meeting on Tuesday. 

In cleaning up the Vermont Yankee facility, NorthStar shipped low radiation waste to Texas and contained high radiation waste in 59 casks on site, Johnson, the public service department commissioner, said in an interview. These will remain under supervision by the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he said. 

The department wants the site to generate the greatest value, Johnson said, and different uses of the site “check different boxes.”

Battery storage has advantages, said Johnson, but development would be costly and time-intensive and could underutilize the site’s energy transmission capacity.

While there is interest in nuclear development, Johnson said, Vermont has significant and unique regulatory requirements for a company seeking to construct a small modular reactor. 

Any data center development would need to generate its own energy so that it would not tax the power grid, Johnson said, and a disadvantage of a data center plan is that the public perception is “pretty negative.”

“We’re looking more for something that puts energy out, not necessarily something that needs more energy,” Johnson said. 

NorthStar’s CEO, Scott State, said in a statement that his company intended to connect potential developers with the Vernon community and had done so with PowerTransitions.

Johnson said his department and PowerTransitions are in talks to reach an agreement outlining expectations for community engagement and environmental impacts.

The loss of Vermont Yankee has had repercussions on the state’s energy capacity, Johnson noted. “Following the exit of that key employer in that region, we have energy affordability needs, we have energy adequacy needs, meaning we need more sources of clean energy,” he said. “We’re in the process of developing options, and hopefully one of those options will come to fruition that best benefits the community, the state and the region.”

This story was first published by VtDigger and is republished with permission as part of the Vermont Journalism Trust’s Community News Sharing Project.