Created by the Western Massachusetts Electric Company “Pioneering with Power” presents an early view of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. It was by most accounts a very successful power plant — at one time Vermont Yankee supplied nearly one-third of all electricity consumed in Vermont, contributing significantly to the environmental quality of the state’s electric portfolio, which had the lowest carbon footprint of any state in the nation.
In 1954, a consortium of 11 New England Electric utilities formed Yankee Atomic Electric Company for the purpose of designing, constructing and operating a prototype nuclear power plant as part of President Eisenhower’s ‘Atoms for Peace’ Program. Construction of a four-loop pressurized water reactor began in Rowe, Massachusetts in 1958 and was completed in 1960. It was the third nuclear power plant built in the nation and the first in New England. The Yankee Nuclear Power Station or “Yankee Rowe” as it is often referred to, began commercial operation in 1961 and was only expected to operate for about six years. Instead, the small, 185 megawatt plant operated for more than three decades earning international distinction for its outstanding record.
During Yankee Rowe’s 30 plus years of operation, the plant safely produced 44 billion kilowatt hours of electricity for its New England customers.
Since the 1970s, there have been many anti-nuclear protests about Vermont Yankee, including large protests after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 and on the date of the original operating license expiry in March 2012.
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