Entergy to Shutter Plymouth's Nuclear Power Plant

By Abigail Burr

Entergy Corporation will be closing the Pligrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, the company announced in a release Tuesday.

The plant’s parent company said it will be closing do to poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs. The shutdown will take effect by June 1, 2019. The exact date of the closure will be decided in early 2016 and will depend on many factors including Entergy Corporation’s discussions with the independent system operator.

Entergy Corporation’s Chairmen and CEO Leo Denault said of the decision to close the plant it “was incredibly difficult because of the effect on our employees and the communities in which they work and live. Our people at Pilgrim are dedicated and skilled, a wonderful blend of young professionals and seasoned, experienced veterans, who for decades have been generating clean power and contributing millions of dollars of economic activity to the region. But market conditions and increased costs led us to reluctantly conclude that we had no option other than to shut down the plant.”

About 600 people work at the planet now and Entergy says the job cuts will be done over the next few years. Some, however, will stay on even after the plant closes.

In response to the news, Gov. Charlie Baker bemoaned the loss of clean energy generation. The closing “will be a significant loss to the carbon-free electricity generation and will offset progress Massachusetts has made in achieving the 2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction goals,’’ Baker said.