Entergy Corp. said on Wednesday that spent nuclear fuel at its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, Vermont, will begin to be transitioned into dry fuel for storage in 2017.
Currently, spent fuel at the facility is stored in pools of water. The company said all of this material will be processed into a dry form and placed in two storage pads. The company said its plan can proceed two years ahead of its original plan because the cask vendor indicated that deliveries would be able to be completed faster.
The company said overall costs of this project are expected to remain as they were. Currently, the company said the project could potentially be completed by the end of 2020, but this would require timely authorization of the second storage pad’s construction by the state’s Public Service Board.
Altogether, the facility is investing approximately $145 million into the project, which includes purchases of necessary equipment to complete the transition.
Entergy Corp. has a generating capacity of approximately 30,000 megawatts of electricity, and approximately a third of this is produced through the company’s nuclear power plants. The company serves approximately 2.8 million utility customers.
