The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant is no longer generating power.
At 12:12 Monday afternoon operators at Vermont Yankee discontinued the flow of power from the reactor to the electric grid. At 1:03 p.m. the control rods were inserted into the reactor vessel for the last time, ending the fissioning process and the nuclear facility’s 42 years of operation.
Entergy Nuclear announced in August 2013 that the plant would cease operations at the end of 2014 due to economic factors.
Next year remaining staff will transfer the nuclear fuel into the spent fuel pool. It will eventually be placed in dry cask storage.
Full decommissioning of the facility could take 60 years.
