The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant shut down in late December. But the decommissioning of the Vernon plant is going to take up to 60 years under a proposal by its owner, Entergy. That didn’t sit well with some attending a public meeting last night in Brattleboro, hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The more than three-hour meeting started with the NRC and Entergy officials describing how and when Vermont Yankee will be decommissioned. The plan under federal review calls for the process to be completed by 2075.

Peter Tusinski of Leyden, Massachusetts, says that’s too long.

“It seems like we’re going to have a 60-year waste dump, and we’re gong to live within 10 miles of it, ” Tusinski said. “We all love this Connecticut River Valley. We don’t want to see it degraded with a long-range nuclear waste dump.”

The meeting was raucous at times, with audience members frequently interrupting NRC members, and even each other. Among the unpopular: Guy Page of the group Vermont Energy Partnership, who was a rare voice of support for Entergy’s plan to store spent nuclear fuel underground for more than 30 years.

“The virtual invulnerability of these dry casks to severe weather, earthquakes, terrorist attacks and other threats have been well documented by independent scientific experts,” Page said, to heckles.

Others, like Nancy Bross, were concerned about Entergy’s use of a trust fund to pay for Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning. She says she’s skeptical whether the company will even be around by the time the process is complete.

“A billion dollar charge on to the state of Vermont is a huge amount of money we’re talking about,” Bross said. “And I don’t know, at this point, under your regulations, who else is going to get stuck with the [bill] to decommission an orphan nuke in 60 years?”

Bert Picard of Brattleboro says he doesn’t trust the commission to oversee the process, given the agency granted Vermont Yankee an operating license in 2011, despite objections from state officials.

“When the governor didn’t want it, [that] didn’t mean a thing to you. So what are you? A government of occupation, right? A government of occupation — that’s what you are,” Picard said to applause. “I have no respect for any of you.”

The NRC will continue to accept written comments until late March. But this debate will continue in Vermont and nearby states for years to come.