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The utility places a $100 million bet despite a hostile political environment The future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor got a bit brighter this week as its owner and operator the Entergy Corp. ( NYSE:ETR ) announced its board of directors had approved the fabrication of fuel and the refueling...

Rock blunts scissor ~ the federal agency concludes the reactor is safe to operate for another 20 years In the classic strategy game of rock, scissors, paper, as it has played out in the dispute over the relicensing of the 600 MW Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor , the governor and the legislature have done...

The high cost of closing the reactor will be keenly felt in the state’s economy Vermont Governor-elect href="http://shumlinforgovernor.com/">Peter Shumlin (right) must have woken up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. In troubled...

NRC chairman becomes a lightning rod for protests What is Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, (right) doing in Vermont that can’t be accomplished by the resident inspector and the utility? The question is raised because the chairman went to Vermont July 14 for a public meeting...

Public perceptions of problems at nuclear reactors are being cut down to size Getting an accurate bead on nuclear energy controversies is often more an issue of changing perceptions than the reshaping the physical dimensions of a problem. Also, the realities of having nuclear reactors that generate electricity...

Road warrior readership gets fleeting look at nukes One of the perils faced by a highly technical industry like nuclear energy is the appearance of a general assignment reporter on a controversial story. Today’s case in point is a USA Today article published this week on Vermont Yankee. Articles like...

Shumlin thumbs his nose at the White House The New York Times reports that the Vermont Senate has voted 26-4 to deny Entergy’s ( NYSE:ETR ) Vermont Yankee nuclear power station a ‘certificate of public good.” The vote against the plant was led by State Senate leader Peter Shumlin. In effect, the legislature...

Public perceptions and NRC regulatory views are at odds with each other Entergy ( NYSE:ETR ) must feel that more than a few people got out of the wrong side of the bed this week as it pursues relicensing of two nuclear reactors in New York and one in Vermont. At the Indian Point plant In New York, a...

Safety issues, rates, and even profit sharing are in the mix The toughest jobs in the nuclear industry right now have to be those of the managers of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.  Green groups want to shut the plant down, state agencies want to have their say about everything from safety to...

Legislature wants $600 million for plant shut down in two years. The Vermont Legislature has entered into a high risk game of  chicken with Vermont Yankee with legislation that would require its parent owner Entergy to come up with $600 million for the decommissioning fund by 2011.  That’s...

Catching up with the news Vermont Yankee - Entergy's nuclear plant Vermont Yankee is a reliable nuclear plant and could have its license renewed by the NRC if various steps to improve its operations at taken according a report issued in late December by the Vermont Public Service Board .  The...

Group leaves noxious chemical at state government offices News media reports from Montpelier, Vermont, say that a group of 15-20 adults with some children engaged in a protest over Vermont Yankee have taken anti-nuclear protest tactics to a new level.  The people involved must have granola for brains...

Vermont Yankee is a case in parallel with Indian point The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ) found itself in an  awkward position last week when it wrote a letter of apology to former Vermont Governor Thomas Salmon . The letter was sent after an NRC regional administrator lost control of a public...

Agency's top man heads a special inspection team The Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched a special  inspection last week into the circumstances surrounding a new leak in one of the cooling towers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vt. It sent top-level structural engineering...

The NRC and the State of Vermont are holding separate reviews on the license which expires in 2012 Entergy is one of the nation's biggest operators of  nuclear power plants in the U.S. delivering about 30 million MW to over three million customers.  Over the next year some unlucky souls...

Granola politics rules in the green mountain state It's drop your jaw time in Vermont, again, in response to the latest antics of Vermont State Sen. Peter Shumlin (D-Windahm) over the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.  The Rutland Herald reports Shumlin, working with Democratic gubernatorial...

It's unlikely that renewable energy will meet needs for electricity The New York Times has finally noticed the controversy  over the Vermont Yankee reactor and positioned it in an article as a contest between " back to the land " Vermonters and the major utilities and large businesses...

Gov. Jim Douglas said legislation would have raised rates Vermont Governor Jim Douglas vetoed a bill that would have required Vermont Yankee to substantially increase the money it pays into a decommissioning fund which would be used should the plant ever be closed. The increase was on the order of $400...

Senate leader calls business group "liars" A news conference called by a group of business leaders to defend the low electricity rates they get from Vermont Yankee descended into serious name calling on the steps of the state capitol.  The lug nuts have come off in the political version...

The state legislature may act without NRC review The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant operator's request for relicensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) faces a new an unusually hostile set of stakeholders in Vermont.  They begin with the Vermont State Legislature which is taking matters...

Bought any fuel oil for home heating lately? In a state where energy debates are sometimes characterized in terms of grams of fiber per pound of granola, and the resulting methane, it was interesting this week to read a letter to the editor in favor of nuclear energy.  It comes at a contentious...

Why can't the news media use it's head? Over at We Support Lee Ruth Sponsler has an analysis of how the news media covers the nuclear energy industry. Her focus is coverage in New England of the Yankee Atomic Energy Plant . She explains that the article discusses "what would happen"...