nuclear-news

Latest report from Nuclear Shutdown News

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the US and global nuclear industry. In addition, it highlights the efforts of those who are working to create a nuclear free world. Here’s our November report. 

1. Two more US nuclear plants slated for shutdown.
November brought news that two more US nuke plants will be permanently shutting down in the future. 

On November 3 Bloomberg.com reported that the Fitzpatrick nuke on Lake Ontario in uppermost New York state would close down for good in “late 2016 or early 2017.”

Then on November 7 the Cape Cod Times reported that the Pilgrim nuclear plant on Cape Cod in Massachusetts will have its permanent closure “sometime before June 19” next year.

Both nukes are owned and operated by New Orleans based Entergy Co., the nation’s second largest nuclear utility . Bloomberg reported that Entergy CEO Leo Denault commented, “Given the financial challenge our nuclear plants from sustained wholesale price declines and other unfavorable market conditions, we have been assessing each asset.”

Translation: As these “assets become financial liabilities, we’ll shut ’em down.

Around the turn of the century, Entergy was a leading player in buying up aging nuclear plants on the cheap (as nuke plants go) and running them under increasingly unsafe conditions to squeeze as much additional profit out of them as they could.

The Pilgrim nuke suffered many unplanned shutdowns in recent years, and was rated by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as one of the US’s worst nuclear plant, which is saying a lot.

Pilgrim started up in 1972.Fitzpatick in 1975.

Entergy also owns the Vermont Yankee nuke, which it shut down at the end of 2014. According to the November 7 Cape Cod Times report, Entergy has stated that the total costs of shutting down and dismantling Vermont Yankee will be $1.2 billion. Yet the fund set aside to cover these costs has only $67 million in it. It could take 60 years before this job is done.

In addition, Entergy also owns the ancient Indian Point nuclear plants, whose two doddering reactors are less than 40 miles up the Hudson River from New York City. No nuke activists such as River Keeper have been campaigning for many years for their shutdown, and have been joined in recent years by New York State Governor Mario Cuomo.

Bloom berg.com reported that Entergy’s stock “fell 22% to date” in 2015.

Sources:bloomberg.com; capecodtimesonline.com

2. Future of Diablo Canyon nuclear plant increasingly in doubt.  https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/11/28/18780443.php

November 30, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general