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Vermont Yankee Says Shutdown To Cost $1.24 Billion

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
Courtesy NRC and Entergy Corp.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant before decommissioning

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has released a new estimate of what it will cost to decommission the reactor, manage high-level radioactive waste and restore the plant site.

The estimate of about $1.24 billion — is nearly double what plant owner Entergy Corp. currently has saved in the plant's decommissioning fund.

Vermont Yankee’s Martin Cohn says $368 million of the total is attributable to the need for the plant to manage its high-level radioactive waste. He says much of that cost is due to the failure of the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a long-awaited plan for removing highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial reactors around the country.

Vermont Yankee announced 14 months ago that it would close at the end of this year.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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