The legal debate over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is heating up at federal appeals court and at the state Public Service Board. The state this week laid out a detailed case for why the plant should not get a new 20 year state permit to operate.

At the urging of federal regulators, technicians at Vermont Yankee are inspecting the plant to assess risk from severe floods and earthquakes. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has required nuclear plant operators to do a series of inspections following the earthquake and tsunami that crippled reactors in Japan.

Senator Bernie Sanders says he's encouraged by President Barack Obama's choice to head the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be in Brattleboro today to talk about their annual safety assessment of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says he's "extremely disappointed" that the chairman of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who frequently clashed with other members as he pushed for reforms in the nuclear industry, has announced his resignation.

In a report released Monday morning, a special task force calls for the creation of an economic growth and mitigation program to determine how to absorb the economic impact when Vermont Yankee closes.

Lawyers made their opening arguments this morning as the trial got under way in Entergy Vermont Yankee's lawsuit against the state.

In the first day of a case that could decide whether a state can deny the license extension of an operating nuclear power plant, an attorney for the Entergy Corporation said Thursday that jurisdiction should fall to federal regulators.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it won't intervene in the lawsuit against the state over the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee plant. Yankee owner Entergy wants a court to rule that only the federal government has the right to control Yankee's future operation. But the NRC says Vermont has a regulatory role as well.

Two dozen nuclear power plants around the country have leaked radioactive tritium into groundwater. And now, a destroyed oil well is leaking oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Senator Bernie Sanders says it's enough to demand new thinking on national energy policy.

Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will arrive this week to review Vermont Yankee's groundwater testing program after a tritium leak was found at the plant.

The company that built the containers used to hold high-level nuclear waste at Vermont Yankee failed to conduct a required test to insure the casks are safe.