Entergy Corp., owners of the soon-to-shut-down Vermont Yankee nuclear plant confirmed in a regulatory filing that it would cost $1.24 billion to decommission the facility that has been providing power since 1972.
Entergy notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission late last week that the estimate on costs had not changed since its October estimate. The company also said it had about half that amount in place currently and that it would not be until the 2040s or beyond before the decommissioning fund reached the point that the actual work of dismantling the reactor could begin.
Entergy spokesman Marty Cohn said the conservative estimate for a decommissioning start was 2052, but that "it is very possible that it could be in the 2040s."
The company has 60 years to complete decommissioning, reported WCAX.com. As of now, however, it is less than a week away from its final shut down, which will take place Dec. 29.
The plant's operators invited reporters in to attend the last walk-through of the shut down, which is the normal step taken before every refueling shutdown for the past four decades.
Yankee represents a core dynamics of the nuclear power industry in the United States. While under local political pressure to shut down, the plant's owners announced in August 2013 that economics would not support continued plant operations. Despite its extended license that would have allowed the plant to operate until March 2032, Vermont Yankee will be the first large boiling water reactor to be decommissioned, said Paul Paradise, decommissioning director.
"It seems rather unnecessary. We are taking a perfectly viable power plant and we are turning it off," said simulator instructor Brian Stewart during the run through of shut down procedures.
The plant currently looks to be a ground-breaker in the decommissioning process, the fate that every nuclear power plant operator expects to face someday.
The first step is to move the spent fuel from the reactor to a storage pool. The next is to move it to dry casks. After that, even as the plant infrastructure is broken down around it, the nuclear waste faces years of limbo, remaining on site until a national solution is found for spent fuel storage.
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A sad day.. Sorry to see you go Vermont Yankee!!! Hope the Governor can keep Vermonter's warm this winter.
Another Sad day. It has been a nice running plant for a long time. I have been on a visit once as an observer for the BWROG. I have only good things to say about this plant other than its having to S/D.
Better stock up on long underwear, blankets, rainbow juice and unicorn milk to keep warm this winter.
I spent the first 23 years of my career at VY and have never found a better core group of people. She will always be my home plant. Unfortunately, I feel it is just the start/continuation of the decline of nuclear power in the US.
Looks like the most vocal groups got their wish. I wonder how the merchants in this area feel about cutting off the flow of funds provided by an industrial facility like this?
