Decommissioning Vermont Yankee

The issue of decommissioning Vermont Yankee has been a lightning rod for partisan debate in Montpelier. We take a step back from the politics of decommissioning to look at the economic and practical challenges involved in taking a nuclear plant off line and leaving the site in a safe and usable condition.

Our guests include Vermont Associated Press reporter Dave Gram, whose recent stories on decommissioning fund shortfalls at nuclear plants around the country have attracted national attention. Also with us is Richard Sedano, an energy regulatory consultant who served as Vermont's Commissioner of Public Service from 1991 to 2001. Listen

Also on the program, we talk with Tom Greene, a novelist who became a college president last year with the founding of Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. The college is currently celebrating its first anniversary. Listen

And VPR's Steve Zind visits Circus Smirkus to find out what it's like to choreograph a big top performance. Listen