Febuary 3, 2010

The following remarks by Entergy's Chairman and CEO, J. Wayne Leonard, were taken from the transcript of his February 2, 2010 quarterly conference call to stakeholders. The excerpts pertain to the company's ongoing investigation into recent events at Vermont Yankee, including the discovery of tritium in a groundwater monitoring well as well as conflicting information provided to state officials about the existence of underground pipes carrying radioactive nuclides.

"... Entergy Corporation and the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee management team take with utmost seriousness the responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to regulators and other stakeholders...

In conversations with Governor Douglas, I made a personal commitment to not only resolve the known inconsistencies, but to seek out and find any and all discrepancies or less than clear information supplied in this process and correct the record.

This is how Entergy operates. We will be fully transparent in our investigation and findings.

We will restore trust and credibility with our stakeholders... A comprehensive internal investigation, conducted by an independent counsel, is now underway to get to the bottom of this matter. The report by the state contractor was issued on December 22, 2008 and indicated there were no underground pipes carrying radioactive nuclides.

It contained a 14 page document provided by Entergy in 2008 that clearly indicated there were such pipes.

To my knowledge, while we commented on the report we did not note the discrepancy between the report findings and the data we had provided earlier.

In January 2009, we submitted a response to a discovery request that indicated no such pipes existed now or in the past. That response was not accurate. It has been corrected and refiled.

In May 2009, an Entergy executive testified in a hearing on the state's report that he didn't think we had any such pipes, but he would get back to them.

He did not get back to them. He has issued a public apology and made clear that he failed to provide full and complete information.

He has been permanently relieved of his duties in Vermont, and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the full investigation.

Meanwhile, work of a multi-discipline technical team continues to investigate the tritium matter.

It is important to note that there has been no elevated tritium level found in any drinking water well samples.

The existence of tritium in such low levels does not present a risk to public health or safety.

We continue to believe Vermont Yankee represents a vital source of clean, economical power that is safe, secure and reliable. It is a model plant in many respects. We do not comment on specific ratings of specific plants, but Vermont Yankee is among the 'elite' in operating performance. Further, we remain unwavering in our belief that Vermont Yankee should continue operations for at least another twenty years.