By John Stang
Duke Energy is keeping its options open for eventual decommissioning of its retired Crystal River nuclear plant in central-western Florida.
In a request last week to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to release the bulk of the Crystal River property for unrestricted use, the Charlotte, N.C.-based power company mentioned that “Duke Energy is still considering beginning active decommissioning,”
“We routinely get offers/requests from companies to do decommissioning differently from what is currently planned (SAFSTOR – 60-year timeline),” Duke spokeswoman Heather Danenhower said this week by email. “Considering different options is prudent for any utility to consider. Therefore, in November 2017, we started researching the options, feasibility and costs of expediting CR3’s decontamination and dismantlement. Last year, we initiated a request for proposals process, and that confidential process is still underway. If we decide changing our decommissioning plan is feasible, we will notify regulators and other stakeholders.”
Duke Energy formally retired the Citrus County facility in 2013 rather than try to fix its containment building. In 2015, the pressurized-water reactor was placed into SAFSTOR – the decommissioning mode in which the facility is largely untouched while radiation levels drop and funding is built up for active cleanup. Under SAFSTOR, nuclear utilities have up to six decades to complete decommissioning. Duke expects to finish the job in 2074.
All used fuel at Crystal River had been placed in dry storage as of January 2018.
Danenhower emphasized that no decision has been made to switch from SAFSTOR to a faster decommissioning approach. Duke has also signed confidentiality agreements with companies that have approached it about that prospect, she said.
As of Sept. 30, 2018, Duke had $734 million in its decommissioning trust fund for Crystal River. In June 2018, the company submitted an updated cost estimate to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of roughly $896 million for decommissioning. This estimate covers approximately $749 million for license termination activities, covering most decontamination and dismantlement; $95 million for spent fuel management; and $52 million for site restoration, Danenhower wrote.
There are a number of companies that would be able to take Crystal River off Duke’s hands, temporarily or permanently, for decommissioning.
Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions, for example, has created subsidiaries for decommissioning of the Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois and La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin. Those subsidiaries took over the plants’ operating licenses and will transfer them back when its work is done – a process already underway at La Crosse. EnergySolutions has also teamed with AECOM for decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County, Calif.
Holtec International, an energy technology company headquartered in Camden, N.J., plans to buy at least three retired or soon-to-close nuclear plants from their current owners, power companies Exelon and Entergy. It would then assume ownership of the decommissioning trust fund for each property, along with all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
That is effectively the same business model as applied in NorthStar Group Services’ recently sealed deal for Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. NorthStar is now teaming with nuclear company Orano in search of additional business as Accelerated Decommissioning Partners.
Conversely, the Omaha, Neb., Public Power District decided last year to maintain control of decommissioning of its shuttered Fort Calhoun Station facility.
EnergySolutions, Orano, and NorthStar this week declined to comment on any interest in expedited decommissioning at Crystal River.
