This article by Susan Smallheer originally appeared Oct. 20 in the Bennington Banner.

BRATTLEBORO — A nonradiological site investigation report on the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station has uncovered no new contamination, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation said Wednesday.

Emily Boedecker told members of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel that while there is some shallow soil contamination at the Vernon site with polyaromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents, and some shallow groundwater contamination from other volatile organic compounds near fuel tanks and the plant’s main transformer, there is no water supply contamination and no bedrock well contamination.

“We are pleased,” Boedecker told the panel members. “There’s nothing at this point that is shocking or at a level of concern.”

She said that while there are low levels of contamination at the industrial site, there is “no real significant” contamination.

Vermont Yankee, which was sold in January to NorthStar Holdings, a New York City industrial demolition firm, is under active demolition and decontamination, a process that is expected to last six years, according to Scott State, the chief executive officer of NorthStar.

Read full article at the Bennington Banner.

(Fair use with written permission from the New England Newspapers Inc.)