Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Nuke-NRC1 Vermont Yankee is a boiling water reactor (BWR) type nuclear power plant currently owned by Entergy Nuclear. It is located in the town of Vernon, Vermont and generates approximately 535 megawatts (MWe) of electricity. The plant began commercial operations in 1972. It generates one-third of the electricity used in Vermont.
On July 31, 2002, Entergy's Non-Utility Nuclear business purchased Vermont Yankee from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation for $180 million. Entergy received the plant, nuclear fuel, inventories, and related real estate. The liability to decommission the plant, as well as related decommissioning trust funds of approximately $310 million, was also transferred to Entergy. The acquisition included a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) under which the former owners will buy the power produced by the plant, which is past the expiration date of the current operating license for the plant on March 21, 2012.
In 1978, the Vermont Yankee plant was the subject of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., an important United States Supreme Court case about administrative law.
Dry fuel storage
- Entergy is seeking to gain approval for enough dry fuel storage to get through to the end of the existing plant operating license expiring in 2012. Loading spent fuel into transportable dry fuel storage casks is the first step toward sending it out of Vermont to a central federal repository when one opens at Yucca Mountain, NV.