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The Louisiana-based company said the decommissioning process “is likely to take decades.” The plant will follow the SAFSTOR method, first letting the reactor cool, and eventually taking the building apart.

“In theory they could knock the whole plant down quickly and be done with it, but they don't have enough money in the bank to do that,” he said.

No power from Vermont Yankee is purchased by Vermont utilities.

However, about 2 percent of energy on the New England grid comes from the Vernon plant, said Brad Ferland, president of the Vermont Energy Partnership.

“We essentially took a piece of the pie out of our portfolio, but we don't have a good plan for replacing it,” Ferland said.

Yankee’s closing puts pressure on ISO-New England, the power grid operator, and state regulators, to move toward renewable energies.

In Vermont, the state has pledged to be 90 percent renewable by 2050.

Unlike renewable energies like wind or solar, that rely on weather to produce power, nuclear energy is constant and controlled, Ferland said.

Constant power is what the grid relies on, Ferland said, noting ISO-New England's recent request to Green Mountain Power during the July heat wave to revert to older power-generating technologies to produce power, rather than wind.

“They have to have predictable, reliable power,” Ferland said about the grid. “When you have intermittent power like wind or solar, they cannot rely on that 24/7.”

Even without electricity from Vermont Yankee, nuclear energy makes up 53 percent of electricity for Vermont customers, according to ISO-New England.

No matter when Yankee is gone, Gundersen said the Vernon property, which will remain under Entergy’s ownership, is primed for electricity production.

“The power lines are already there, and all the transformers are already there, so it's a logical place to consider building a power plant,” Gundersen said.

Entergy said Tuesday it would eventually restore, regrade and reseed the Vernon site.