Connecticut's Department of Public Utility Control and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal alleged gross mismanagement of the 582-megawatt Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant in charges filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Northeast Utilities owns 49 percent of the facility.
The plant has been shut since December 1996 and is being dismantled. The filing claimed the utility lost control of contamination and created an undocumented nuclear waste dump. Connecticut officials made the filing to try to prevent Northeast Utilities from collecting further decommissioning costs from ratepayers. Northeast Utilities has already recovered about half the estimated $427 million in decommissioning costs.
On Sept. 18, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) called for a congressional probe of Northeast Utilities and the NRC over alleged mismanagement and negligence at the plant. Dodd, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), asked that a hearing be scheduled within 30 days.
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