Entergy Watch: Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee
January 17, 2013 Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee atomic reactors are among the 73 two decade license extensions rubberstamped by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in recent years. But resistance to their ongoing operations is intensifying nonetheless!
In Plymouth, Massachusetts and on Cape Cod, watchdogs continue to hound Pilgrim, Entergy's General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor -- a twin design and vintage to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 -- near Boston. And Entergy's Vermont Yankee had its day(s) in court(s) -- another risky, age-degraded Mark I, which has very much worn out its welcome in the Green Mountain State!
Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee are also relatively small sized, single reactor, "merchant" nuclear power plants. As such, they are currently very vulnerable to permanent shutdown due to crushing economics -- such as the expense of badly needed major safety repairs.
In addition to Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee, Entergy owns a small-sized, single Mark I at FitzPatrick, NY (although the Nine Mile Point Units 1 & 2 atomic reactors, a Mark I and a Mark II, respectively, are located immediately adjacent to FitzPatrick, they are owned by another nuclear utility -- formerly Constellation, now Exelon). Entergy also operates the Cooper Mark I in Nebraska on behalf of NE Public Power District.
Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet "Freeze Our Fukushimas" lists all 31 Mark Is and IIs across the U.S.