Entergy Nuclear battered by lawsuit, arrest, layoffs

Entergy's troubled fleet of a dirty dozen atomic reactors nationwideEntergy's dirty dozen atomic reactors across the country have been jolted by a wrongful death lawsuit in Arkansas, a safety-significant arrest of a supervisor in New York, and 800 layoffs across its fleet.

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc., asserts that the 30 layoffs planned at Entergy's problem-plagued Vermont Yankee atomic reactor will inevitably increase safety risks there.

Gundersen questions whether Entergy will invest the $70 million needed at Vermont Yankee for safety significant repairs, or simply decide to permanently shutdown the troubled, controversial reactor.

Reuters has reported that Entergy CEO, Leo Denault, has admitted to investors and reporters that, regarding Entergy's non-utility, "merchant" reactors in deregulated, competitive electricity markets, "all options are on the table." Last February, Denault admitted in a Reuters interview that needed safety repairs were a major financial challenge for Entergy's age-degraded reactor fleet.

All this bad news for Entergy comes on the heels of Mark Cooper's recent report, identifying half of Entergy's reactor fleet as being at risk of near-term "early retirement," due to an array of economic, operational, and safety factors.