Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that states have a lot of control over the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, but that radiological issues remain the federal domain.

Tom Frederick, speaking at a meeting in Bethesda, Md., told a group of nuclear power operators, the public and the press in a telephone conference call that states control land issues and chemical contamination at the plants.

"We don't have authority over such things as land use," Fredericks said. "I can say states have considerable authority."

Frederick sidestepped a question from Arnold Gunderson, a nuclear engineer from Burlington, who asked what safeguards there were to protect the state if Entergy "left a carcass of a plant behind" and didn't have the financial resources to clean it up.

"We have a state/federal system," he said.

The meeting was called to discuss the NRC's finding earlier this summer that more than two dozen nuclear plants' decommissioning trust funds were inadequate and needed additional funding, including Vermont Yankee and two other Entergy Nuclear plants in the Northeast.

The shortfalls at the nuclear powers ranged from $151 million to $47 million, but nuclear industry officials pointed out that 70 percent of the plants had adequate funding in their trust funds. Frederick said the NRC did not look into the "cumulative" shortfalls, even if several plants owned by one company needed to make substantial contributions.

In Vermont, the NRC found that Vermont Yankee's nuclear cleanup trust fund was short $87 million, although Entergy earlier this week said the figure was closer to $51 million, thanks to rebounds in the stock and bond markets.

Entergy has pledged to make a financial contribution, but has been non-committal about exactly how that contribution will be made and in what financial form.

After the meeting, Stephen Wark, a spokesman for the Vermont Department of Public Service, said the state wanted the contribution in a substantial financial instrument, saying the state wanted something substantial because of the pending transfer of ownership of Vermont Yankee to a subsidiary, Enexus, which won't have the financial backing of its parent.

"We're looking for some kind of instrument, and we don't know what their instrument is, that provides value for Vermonters. It can't just be something that's superficial," Wark said.

The NRC says that Entergy must have $513 million on hand in 2012, if the plant shuts down then at the end of its original 40 year license. Currently, according to Entergy, there is $402 million in the fund, and along with a $51 million contribution and the stock market, there should be enough money to dismantle and clean up the Vernon reactor.

But Vermont, which has yet to decide whether Entergy Nuclear can continue operating the reactor for 20 years beyond 2012, has long held to a "green field" standard.

On Thursday, Robert Williams, Entergy Nuclear spokesman in Vermont said that the company estimated it would cost an additional $40 million to bring the Vernon site — which was once a dairy farm — to the so-called "green field" standard.

"It is an obligation we accepted," Williams said, noting it was contained in an earlier written agreement with the Department of Public Service.

But in expert testimony filed in 2007-08 with the Vermont Public Service Board, Entergy's own experts have said the cost could climb close to $1 billion, depending on when the high-level radioactive waste gets removed from Vernon, and when exactly the plant is demolished. Entergy wants to mothball the plant for several decades; the state is opposed to that plan.

All of the high-level waste, spent nuclear fuel, is still at the Vernon site — most of it in the reactor's storage pool on the reactor floor, and as of last summer, a fraction of the waste is in five concrete and steel giant canisters outside the main building.

susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com