NRC Signs Full-Power License for Seabrook
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday signed a full-power license for the Seabrook nuclear power plant, ending any chance that opponents will be able to prevent it from operating before court appeals are completed.
“This is a major victory for New England consumers,” said Edward Brown, president of New Hampshire Yankee, which operates Seabrook. “Our 17-year licensing saga is over.”
But opponents said the legal battle to shut down the plant would continue.
“We have not yet begun to fight,” said Scott Denman, director of the Safe Energy Communication Council, an anti-Seabrook group that has been assisting in the legal battle. “The lawsuit will go on, and the final outcome is yet to be known.”
Thomas Murley, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, made the license official two weeks after the commission voted to allow the New Hampshire plant to operate commercially. The NRC placed a two-week hold on its vote to allow time for filing court appeals.
Commission spokesman John Kopeck said Thursday that the license had been signed.
The signing came a day after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington refused to block the issuance of the license.
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