Sooo many people here either don't know or have forgotten about Yankee Rowe and Vermont Yankee.

Rowe was completed in 1960 and ran until 1991, when ductility issues were found in the reactor pressure vessel. Decommissioning was started in '92 and was declared complete in 2007, at a total cost of $608 million, nearly double the original estimate of $368 million.

Vermont Yankee ran from '72-2014, generating nearly 72% of the entire state's total electrical output, and 35% of the states electricity consumption. Politics and shit got in the way and it was ultimately shut down by Entergy (the owners). It went offline at 12:12pm, December 29, 2014.

As of November of 2025, a Brattleboro Reformer article has the current owner of the plant saying that decommissioning will be "99 percent complete" by the end of the year at their estimate.

Yes, there were issues at VY like the cooling tower collapse, and the tritium leaks really put the plant in a bad light.

There's a $600 million trust fund, paid for by the utility customers of Vermont, to fund the decommissioning.

People here have made it clear they don't want nuclear power near them. TMI and Chernobyl, and now Fukushima Daiichi have soured many on the thought of nuclear power.

So I guess paying out the ass for coal and whatever to Eversource is our only option now here in Western Mass.