Entergy Appeals Vermont Nuclear Ruling to Prevent State Shutdown of Plant

Entergy Corp. (ETR), the nuclear-plant operator that won a federal court ruling last month preventing the state from shutting down its Vermont Yankee reactor, appealed that decision to prevent the state from further attempts to close it.

Entergy appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York late yesterday, 10 days after Vermont’s attorney general appealed U.S. District Judge Garvan Murtha’s decision in Brattleboro, Vermont, that the state lacked the authority to deny Entergy a license to operate the state’s only nuclear reactor after March 21.

The company, in a separate filing yesterday, sought an injunction that would block the state from taking any new actions to shut down the plant pending the appeal.

Vermont’s Public Service Board, in a memo dated Feb. 22, said that the state still has the right to deny a license because of the amount of spent nuclear fuel that is stored at the reactor, Entergy said in its filing. Entergy seeks to have Murtha’s ruling amended because it didn’t take into account this matter.

The case is Entergy v. Shumlin, 11-00099, U.S. District Court, District of Vermont (Brattleboro).

To contact the reporter on this story: Don Jeffrey in New York at djeffrey1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net