[V]ermont Yankee’s remaining workforce was cut by more than half on Wednesday as Entergy continues to pare down staff at the idled Vernon nuclear plant.
The reduction from 54 to 24 employees – a number that does not include contracted security personnel – was spurred by the recent completion of a $143 million fuel-storage project at the Vernon facility.
The cutback is “based on the workload that we have right now at the site,” said Joe Lynch, a senior government affairs manager for Entergy.
While Wednesday marked the final major layoff at the plant, there are two additional, smaller workforce reductions planned in the next few months. By year’s end, only eight employees will remain at Vermont Yankee.
The plant once employed more than 600. When Entergy stopped power production at Vermont Yankee at the end of 2014, there were still about 550 people working there.
The workforce has declined incrementally since then.
The first major cut – to about 316 – happened when all fuel was permanently removed from the reactor in January 2015. Another big layoff happened in spring 2016, when Vermont Yankee’s emergency planning zone shrunk due to federally approved regulatory changes.
Of the 61 employees who remained this year, seven accepted transfers to other Entergy plants. For the 30 who were departing as part of Wednesday’s layoff, Entergy says it offered support including “workshops on retirement, pensions, career transition and entrepreneurship.”
Lynch said the two dozen people who are still working at Vermont Yankee hold a variety of job titles and will be handling duties including spent fuel management, administrative support and regulatory compliance.
“And then there’s still some modifications that are going on that are necessary for us to transition into SAFSTOR or for us to complete the transaction with NorthStar,” Lynch said.
Those are the two options for the plant’s future at this point: Either Entergy will put Vermont Yankee into an extended period of dormancy called SAFSTOR, or the company will sell the facility to NorthStar Group Services.
New York-based NorthStar has pitched an accelerated decommissioning project that could lead to most of the site being cleaned up as soon as 2026. That’s in contrast to the possible 60-year decommissioning time frame proposed by Entergy under SAFSTOR.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved transferring Vermont Yankee’s federal license to NorthStar. But the Vermont Public Utility Commission has not yet made a decision on the matter, and in a recent order the commission would not commit to a time frame for issuing that decision.
On Wednesday, Lynch said Entergy remains hopeful that the sale to NorthStar can be completed by the end of the year. But he acknowledged that the process may be pushed into early 2019 if the state utility commission’s deliberations extend into December.
“There’s a period of time that we would need once we get the approval … to physically facilitate the transaction,” Lynch said.
If NorthStar takes control of Vermont Yankee, the company has pledged to retain Entergy staffers who are still working at the plant.
But NorthStar would be inheriting an even smaller workforce than exists now. Lynch said the plan is to cut another 11 employees on Nov. 29, and then to decrease the staff by five around the end of the year.
“If the (NorthStar) transaction doesn’t take place, those eight people will remain Entergy employees,” Lynch said.
