A BAD BARGAIN ALL THE WAY.

• Author: SINCLAIR, MARK
• Position: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

Last October, Vermont Yankee Power Corporation (VY), owned primarily by Vermont's two major utilities, announced its intention to sell the aging, 540-MW Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant that sits on the shores of the Connecticut River. For 27 years, this plant has provided about one-third of Vermont's power needs. But at a cost. As of 1999, Vermont Yankee had produced over 300,000 cubic feet of nuclear waste that still has no safe, final destination. And like many older plants, this one, too, is running out of onsite space for storing spent nuclear fuel.

Nor is the power produced by this plant an economic bargain for Vermont consumers. It is more expensive than power bought in the open market. Despite this economic unfeasibility, the plant survives because it remains on the public dole. In fact, nuclear power has become one of the most heavily subsidized energy sources in the country.

So who in their right mind wants to buy this nuclear albatross? A limited liability company called AmerGen, that's who. AmerGen Energy of Philadelphia is an international joint venture of PECO Energy and British Energy. In recent years, AmerGen has purchased or is in the process of purchasing at least six other old nuclear plants in the U.S. PECO itself owns and operates four reactors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while British Energy operates 15 reactors in Great Britain.

The reason AmerGen wants this aging Vermont plant is that the state's utilities are proposing to give it away for a song. AmerGen will pay only about $10 million for the plant if the deal closes by year's end. This is substantially lower than the $171 million book value of the facility. While a return of 8 cents on the dollar is bad enough, the news gets even worse. Our utilities also are throwing in the nuclear fuel remaining at the plant at no cost, despite its value of $24 million. The AmerGen sale may be the worst deal since the Dutch bought the island of Manhattan for 24 dollars worth of trinkets from the Indians. As Jenny Carter of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group stated in a recent news report, "Remember, these are the same folks who told us nuclear power would be too cheap to meter."

Meanwhile, the market for nuclear plants has become quite robust in recent months. In April, the New York Power Authority announced it was selling two nuclear plants in the Hudson region of New York State at 10 times the value per kilowatt that the sale of the Vermont Yankee plant will...