Geographical political economy of nuclear power plant closures

[Display omitted] •Recent nuclear plant closure controversies in Vermont and New York were examined.•Region-level activism alone is insufficient in explaining contrasting outcomes.•Key actors selectively deploy various global and local contexts to their advantage.•The two closure episodes are intricately linked through the owner company’s strategy.•Geographical political economy perspectives capture more nuanced closure dynamics. Nuclear power had its heyday in the 1970s in the United States, and many of the nuclear power plants constructed during that period are now facing the end of their design life. Consequently, nuclear power plant closures and unsitings are emerging as highly contentious public issues. In an effort to provide a more nuanced account of nuclear power plant closures, we adopt theoretical vantage points from the geographical political economy literature. Our analysis focuses on the articulation and characterization of socio-spatial “moments” of closure processes rather than enumerating underlying “factors” in order to better explain variegated plant closure outcomes. For empirical analysis, we examine two contrasting cases of recent conflict over nuclear power plant closure in the northeastern United States, involving the Vermont Yankee and FitzPatrick plants. These closure episodes show marked differences in region-level activism. Yet the presence of these movements alone is insufficient in accounting for particular outcomes (the when and how) of the plant closure controversies. Our analysis highlights the agency of key state actors and their selective deployment of various global and local themes, such as nuclear disaster in Fukushima, global climate change, corporate accountability, and regional economic conditions, to define and promote their goals. Our study also demonstrates how the moments of closure decisions can be opened up by viewing the closure controversies from the owner company side, pointing to the usefulness of not only comparative, but also of connective accounts that highlight spatio-temporal links between closure processes.