The Public Service Board has approved Entergy Vermont Yankee's request to build a second dry fuel storage pad in Vernon.
The PSB on Monday issued a certificate of public good for the project, which will give Entergy additional capacity to store spent nuclear waste.
Entergy already has a single pad for spent fuel.
The company asked the Public Service Board to allow it to construct the second pad to build additional dry cask storage units for the nuclear waste. Entergy hopes have the second pad built before the end of 2017.
The board, in its ruling, said the second pad would not delay decommissioning or increase costs.
The second storage pad will not affect the aesthetics, the board found, and the company adequately proved to the board that no other sites exist for the spent fuel.
The spent fuel needs to be stored in dry cask storage as the reactor is decommissioned.
The certificate of public good only gives Entergy authority to store spent fuel that was created at VY.
The federal government currently doesn't have a long-term plan for storing nuclear waste.
Entergy says it plans to begin transferring spent nuclear fuel from wet to dry storage starting in 2017.
The company says it will cost about $145 million to move the spent fuel into dry cask storage. It expects to move all of the spent fuel into dry cask storage before 2020.
