After 40 Years, Vermont's Nuclear Power Plant Shuts Down

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant ended more than four decades of electricity production on Monday, moving to full retirement amid growing competition from cheap natural gas from the shale boom. Environmentalists, who had waged a lengthy fight to close the General Electric Type 4 boiling-water reactor, in Vernon, Vt., applauded the news. Others lamented the loss of a source of low-cost, carbon-free electricity and jobs in the region.

Owner Entergy Corp. said the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station produced 171 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity since 1972—more than 70% of the electricity generated in Vermont over that period.

ISO New England, the agency that oversees the area’s high-voltage electricity grid, already has determined that the region’s power system can reliably operate without Vermont Yankee given other power sources and the interconnectedness of New England states, said ISO spokeswoman Marcia Blomberg.

Aging nuclear power plants, which still make electricity cheaply but may face refurbishment costs, have become less economically feasible given the growing availability of inexpensive natural gas.