This commentary is by Ann Darling of Easthampton, Massachusetts (formerly of Brattleboro). She is a member of the Citizens Awareness Network, lived in the Brattleboro area for 35 years of Vermont Yankee’s 42-year operation and was active in shutting down the plant.Vermont Yankee nuclear power station is coming down as you read this. It may surprise you to hear from this long-time anti-nuclear activist that there is much to be grateful for with VY’s decommissioning. With the participation of local activists, the state worked out a fairly robust agreement with the owner of VY, NorthStar, to monitor all clean-up and financial activities and return the land to very low levels of radiation. NorthStar is being pretty transparent, complying with state oversight, and keeping within budget to complete the job this decade. One great idea in the agreement, the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, or NDCAP, has not fulfilled its potential. Its purpose is “to serve as a conduit for public information and education on and to encourage community involvement in matters related to the decommissioning of the VYNPS.” READ MORE Over the years, the NDCAP has met fewer and fewer times and is now down to three meetings a year. There is no outreach to the public, no education about what’s happening or what the risks are. Apart from a few diehards like me, very few members of the public attend, and there is very little time for public comment. The panel members rarely ask hard questions of NorthStar, like exactly what will NorthStar do to protect the elementary school across the street, or the towns across the river, from toxic dust created when the reactor building is demolished this year?The “C” in NDCAP hasn’t really worked out all that well. Right now, out of eight seats set aside for citizen appointees, three are vacant. The two ex officio members of the legislature have not been attending. The “optional” seat for someone from Massachusetts has been empty for years, and a New Hampshire appointment was made only recently. The remaining eight seats are for ex officio representatives of state agencies and NorthStar. This is going to be a big year in VY’s decommissioning, as the reactor building comes down and the serious business of safeguarding over 50 casks of high-level nuclear waste continues. VY is the first commercial US reactor to be decommissioned by NorthStar, and the country and the industry are watching the precedents being set.READ MORE We need robust citizen participation with leadership and outreach from the panel and the state. For further information, go to the NDCAP website and the Citizens Awareness Network website. Please join us at the panel’s next meeting on May 12.Read the story on VTDigger here: Ann Darling: We need robust citizen participation as Vermont Yankee comes down .