Entergy vows to sue over cleanup fund

No way, we won't pay.

In fact, if you try to force us through legislation, said a top executive from Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, we will file a lawsuit.

The Vermont Legislature has been debating a bill that would require Entergy to fully fund Yankee's decommissioning trust prior to receive approval from the state for continued operation past 2012.

"I don't want it to sound like a threat because it's not a threat, but Vermont Yankee does not make the kind of revenue that would allow this kind of payment," Jay Thayer, Yankee's site vice president, told members of the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday.

The decommissioning bill, which was recently approved by Vermont's House of Representatives, requires that Entergy pay $229 million into the cleanup fund between now and 2012.

Yankee is scheduled to shut down in 2012, but Entergy has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend its license to 2032.

Brattleboro Reformer