Surprise, Surprise!

Uncategorized

So, despite earlier threats to shut-down cold this fall if not granted the requested preliminary injunction to continue operating past March 2012, Entergy has decided to refuel Vermont Yankee.  

There is still some more profit to be extracted from the old tin can, even if only until March; and look what just this gesture of confidence has done for Entergy stock:

Following the 8 AM release of the decision to refuel, the company's stock rose as soon as the market opened Monday, ending the day up 47 cents to $68.78 a share.

It's all about gamesmanship, an Entergy specialty.  If rather than refueling, they had lived-up to their threat and announced an immediate closure, not only would their stock have taken a huge and long-lasting hit, but the prospects for their case against the state would have gone right up the spout.

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates sheds some additional light on Entergy's likely motives:

Without new fuel, Entergy could not have kept the plant running at full power beyond this fall, said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer in Burlington and a critic of the plant. Running the plant at reduced power is less reliable and less profitable, he said.

Gunderson goes somewhat further and speculates that, even if allowed to operate past next March, the plant might in any case close in 2015:

Vermont Yankee faces replacing a $100 million condenser and making repairs that will be required in response to the March failure of the Fukushima plant in Japan following an earthquake and tsunami.  “They may decide to throw in the towel in 2015,” Gundersen said. “It makes no economic sense.”

This way, any bad news for investors may be kicked down the road while the cash-cow that is VY, though elderly and prone to leakage, can still be stripped for the cream she continues to yield.

“VT thinks ENVY wants a 20 year marriage, but what they really want is a series of 20 years of one night stands.  The moment VY becomes too costly, they will be gone!”

 

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

5 thoughts on “Surprise, Surprise!”

  1. Entergy Louisiana just being Entergy Louisiana, leaking & lying as usual. Source of ‘YankiLeaks II of 2011’ has yet to be found as well as the level of COB drinking water well contamination and in the midst of another coverup. But what’s another leak, a little more nuclear waste seepage & another lie among friends. Coverup? What else is new.

    NRC, nuke industry criticized for skirting public

    2:29 PM, Jul. 10, 2011  

    http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

    “Ray Shadis, a nuclear consultant to the New England Coalition, says Entergy’s choices are even less stark. If it orders the fuel rods in July and the court later rules that the plant must close, it can sell the fuel rods to another facility – even if they have already been partially used.”

    http://vtdigger.org/2011/05/25…

  2. “The cost of this decision as well as the cost of the preemption litigation are just the costs of doing business in the manner in which Entergy does business.” Shadis, who worked closely with Entergy managers for more than seven years of the Maine Yankee shutdown and decommissioning, says he knows the Entergy management style to be risk-taking and aggressive, “They are used to a pliant NRC and used to bullying their way past concerned citizens and regulators wherever they do business, but that just doesn’t work in New England with its speak-up democratic traditions, he said, “Bucking public sensibilities here costs money, lots of money, pure-and-simple.”

    “Whichever way it plays out in federal court” said Ned Childs, NEC President, “This may be the last big ticket financial decision that Entergy may ever make for an operating Vermont Yankee plant. Vermont Yankee hasn’t met its allocated maintenance costs, meaning it hasn’t turned a profit for the last three years. One more unanticipated large expense such as a new steam dryer, or modifications resulting from a Fukushima accident inquest, is likely to sink the ship. I can see no rational business reason for Entergy to persist; they should cut their losses and walk. “Know when to hold’em and know when to fold’em,” is the way the country music classic has it.”

    Shadis agrees, “Closing VY before another twenty years elapses is no longer a question of if, but when and how. Entergy has placed itself in the untenable position of trying to operate an antiquated, aging reactor beyond its design capacity and design life in an alienated and increasingly hostile political and regulatory environment. It’s simply unsupportable. Refueling it now is simply letting stubborn wishful thinking get the better of common sense.”

    http://www.evacuationplans.org…

Comments are closed.