MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont Yankee’s owners remained mum Friday about whether they’ll order fuel for the nuclear reactor during a scheduled outage this fall.

The decision on the $60 million fuel purchase comes as New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. faces uncertainty about the future of its Vermont property.

The state is moving to shut the 605-megawatt reactor down when its initial 40-year license expires next March.

Vermont Yankee earlier this year won federal approval for a 20-year license extension and now is suing to block the state’s efforts to shut it down.

During a hearing in June in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro, an executive and a lawyer for Entergy Corp. had cited July 23 — today — as its deadline to decide whether to make the $60 million fuel purchase.

John Herron, the head of subsidiary Entergy Nuclear, raised doubts about whether it would make sense to buy the fuel if the plant did not get a preliminary injunction allowing it to remain open while the lawsuit worked its way through the courts.

Entergy lawyer Kathleen Sullivan echoed those doubts, calling the July 23 fuel order “a make or break decision on the life of the plant.”