Vermont Yankee sale completed
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Entergy described the sale as the first of its kind in the nuclear power industry, involving a permanent ownership and licence transfer to a company that is to perform decommissioning and site restoration. The single-unit boiling water reactor ceased operations in December 2014 after 42 years of operation, and Entergy in November 2016 announced the sale of the plant to NorthStar for accelerated decommissioning.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission last October approved the transfer of Vermont Yankee's operating licences to NorthStar, and the Vermont Public Utility Commission issued an order approving the sale in December.
The NorthStar decommissioning team includes Orano USA, who will provide reactor vessel segmentation and used fuel management support; Waste Control Specialists, providing waste management, packaging, transport and disposal; and Burns & McDonnell, who will provide engineering and regulatory support. NorthStar has said it will start decontamination and dismantling work at Vermont Yankee by 2021 and complete decommissioning and site restoration by 2030, with the exception of the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation into which all the plant's used fuel has now been transferred. This is 45 years sooner than under Entergy's original decommissioning schedule for the plant.
The transaction "closed on terms consistent with the companies’ previously disclosed financial commitments and assurances", the companies said. The pre-tax book charge to Entergy's earnings is expected to be consistent with previous estimates, and will be recorded in fourth-quarter results for 2018. It will be considered a special item and excluded from operational results, the company said.
