Two interesting items from the past few days:

  1. Vermont Yankee is for sale.
  2. Vermont Yankee might shut down even sooner that we might think.  In the article, “An Uncertain Nuclear Countdown,” the Times reports:

If the clock is ticking on the lifetime of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, when will it actually close?  As I write in Friday’s Times, Entergy, which bought the plant in 2002, is looking for a buyer because the state Legislature has refused to give the company permission to run it after Vermont Yankee’s initial 40-year license expires in March 2012. (What is more, one of its top opponents in the Legislature was elected governor on Tuesday.)  But if the Legislature does not relent, it may not last even that long.  “No nuclear plant has ever operated to the end of its license,” said John Reed, an investment banker who specializes in nuclear plants and helped organize the auction under which Vermont Yankee was sold by its builders eight years ago.“You get to the point where you say, if all I’ve got is six months or a year to recover incremental capital, I’ll just shut now.’’

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