The Vermont Yankee nuclear power station stopped generating power nearly 7 years ago. Cleanup of the site has been underway for almost three years, slowly being decommissioned. North Star Group Services oversees the tremendous undertaking and aims to complete the project by 2026 — with the hopes that most of the work will be done much earlier.“The major site work 2024 is a good bet,” said North Star’s CEO Scott State. This is well ahead of their contractually obligated timeframe of 2030. The pieces of the core have been deconstructed, leaving mainly buildings behind. There are minimal changes to the outsides of buildings, with a few already destroyed, replaced with heavy machinery. “Having the right tools is important in this business,” State said. A high-reach excavator is used to demolish pieces of the plant, they own one of the largest in the world.The internal nuclear reactor and other components are then placed in custom boxes for transportation via rail to a waste repository in Texas. Boxes can weigh up to 240 thousand pounds. Some up to five inches thick of steel, leading to no outside exposure.“They were specifically fabricated for us, with dimensions and everything we wanted,” State said.Seventeen tons of material have already been hauled from the site. And 50 large concrete canisters with spent fuel will be stored on-site for now. They'll eventually be transferred to the US Department of Energy. “There is no specific timeline right now when the spent fuel would leave,” State said.North Star believes the land will be safe enough one day to build houses on or whatever is best for Vernon."The office building, does Vernon want that, have use for that?” State said. “If they don’t we’d take it out. If they do, we’d leave it and they could have it.So far, they are ahead of schedule, so this plot of land could be in the hands of the town before long.