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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. The plant single-handedly provides Vermont with nearly three fourths (73%) of its electrical generating capacity *.
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.
As a result of an NRC approved uprate, on May 6, 2006, the Vermont Yankee plant began operating at 650MW, or 120% of its original design capacity of 540MW. The gradual power increase to the higher power level was delayed at several points to permit additional analysis of excessive vibration of the plant's steam dryer.
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.
External links
- Entergy Corporation's Vermont Yankee web page
- Entergy Press release regarding the purchase of the plant.
- DoE Page
"Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant"