The company decommissioning a shuttered Vermont nuclear power plant ran slightly afoul of federal guidelines for such facilities, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a recent letter.
A November inspection at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station revealed a regulations violation of “very low security significance,” NRC told plant operator NorthStar in its letter, dated Dec. 15 and made public Friday. The agency did not make the specifics of its findings public, explaining that its inspection report contained sensitive information about plant security.
Because NorthStar’s violation was of low significance, and because the company has already taken steps to address it, NRC said it would consider the incident a “non-cited violation” under the agency’s enforcement policy — meaning no further action is required from NorthStar.
This news comes as decommissioning work at the Vernon, Vt., nuclear plant passed a major milestone last week. Nuclear services company Orano USA announced Dec. 13 that it had finished dismantling the last of Vermont Yankee’s reactor components, and that irradiated material had been packaged for shipment to a low-level radioactive waste disposal site in Texas.
Two Orano subsidiaries, Orano Decommissioning Services and TN Americas, were under contract with NorthStar to handle Vermont Yankee’s reactor components and other low-level radioactive waste. The plant’s reactor pressure vessel and internal components are being shipped to Waste Control Specialists’ low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Andrews, Texas, the company said.
Vermont Yankee’s Greater-Than-Class-C waste, which includes irradiated building materials and solids, has already been packaged and stored onsite, NorthStar has said.
NorthStar, which purchased Vermont Yankee from former operator Entergy in 2018, has said it could wrap decommissioning by 2030 or so. The plant stores around 58 casks of spent nuclear fuel at an on-site waste storage pad.
