Source: The Boston Globe
Date: 8/27/2013
By
Martin Finucane
|
The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station sits along the banks of the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vt. Credit: Toby Talbot/AP File |
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will be closed, the company
that owns it announced today, bringing to a close a long-running,
divisive battle over the plant.
“This was an agonizing decision and an extremely tough call for us,” said Leo Denault, chairman and chief executive of Entergy.
While activists have criticized the plant for years, the company said
its decision was based, in the end, on economics. The company blamed a
variety of factors, including the boom in natural gas that has driven
down natural gas and wholesale energy prices, the high cost of operating
the plant, and what it called wholesale market “design flaws.”
The company said it would operate the Vernon, Vt., plant through the
fourth quarter of 2014 to “duly and properly plan for a safe and orderly
shutdown” and prepare filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on
shutdown and decommissioning.
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