The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested additional data from Entergy regarding the application to transfer the operations and spent fuel storage licenses for its shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to planned facility buyer NorthStar Group Services.
The companies filed the application in February with the federal regulator, with the aim of completing the sale at the end of 2018. NorthStar would then own the plant and its independent spent fuel storage facility, in charge of decommissioning Vermont Yankee and managing its used fuel until the Energy Department takes the waste off its hands.
In an Oct. 12 letter to Entergy Nuclear Operations President and CEO Christopher Bakken, posted Friday on the NRC website, Jack Parrott, senior project manager for the agency’s Reactor Decommissioning Branch, submitted five requests for additional information covering financial and technical issues with the license application.
Among the requests, the NRC wants:
- To know whether Entergy and NorthStar would request an exemption from federal law in order to use funds from Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning trust fund for spent fuel management purposes, or whether they believe Entergy’s current exemption would apply to the new owner.
- More information regarding the calculations showing that $125 million in financial that NorthStar would provide to subsidiary NorthStar Vermont Yankee would be sufficient to cover spent fuel management until DOE’s scheduled acquisition of the material in 2052.
- More information on the “technical qualifications” of license transferee NorthStar, including resumes for key personnel including quality assurance manager, health and safety manager, and waste manager.
NRC staff wanted the responses to the requests for additional information within 30 days of the date of the letter.
In a statement to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Michael Twomey, vice president for external affairs at Entergy Wholesale Commodities, said: “Entergy is reviewing the NRC’s requests for additional information received today pertaining to the Vermont Yankee license transfer application and together with NorthStar will respond in a timely manner. Entergy has no comment on the timing of the NRC’s review.”