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Regional commission director says Windham must prepare for potential modular nuclear or storage use at Vermont Yankee site
Summary
The Windham Regional Commission's director told commissioners the region should prepare to facilitate discussions about possible reuse of the Vermont Yankee site — including small modular nuclear reactors or battery storage — but stressed site reuse depends on NRC decommissioning and release and that the commission has no formal position.
The Windham Regional Commission's director said the commission has long stayed neutral on Vermont Yankee and that the region should prepare for renewed debate over what comes next at the Vernon site, including the possibility of small modular nuclear reactors or battery storage.
"The commission has no position on it," the director said, stressing the issue "needs to be a statewide discussion" rather than a rushed local decision. He said Northstar, the current owner of the Vermont Yankee site, is exploring uses that reflect its business portfolio — including data centers, battery storage and interest in modular reactor concepts.
The director highlighted the site's existing electrical infrastructure, noting the Vernon switchyard is part of the Southern Loop in the ISO New England grid and that makes the site attractive for storage or generation projects. He cautioned, however, that "nothing's happening on that site until they finish decommissioning it, and until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission releases that site for some other use." The director added that spent fuel will remain on site and that NRC review of site release will take time.
He put the economic stakes in local terms: Vermont Yankee employees "only employed about 1% of Windham County residents or workers, but it generated about 5% of earned income in Windham County," a dynamic the commission considered while planning for the plant's closure and decommissioning.
The director said regional and neighboring-state stakeholders remain engaged: he described participating on a nuclear decommissioning citizen advisory panel with many Massachusetts attendees and warned the old fault lines over nuclear policy remain. He urged a "structured" approach to public and statewide conversations and said he has "no personal position on it," framing his role as facilitating community discussion rather than advocating for a particular outcome.
No formal motion or vote was recorded on the future of the Vermont Yankee site during the meeting. The director and participants said next steps would be informational and conversational: tracking decommissioning progress, waiting for any NRC site release decisions, and preparing to convene broader regional conversations if a reuse proposal advances.
