Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/30/2015
EnergySolutions introduced a new decommissioning team earlier this month aimed at leveraging its D&D experience to attract work in the growing decommissioning market, Logistics, Processing and Disposal President Ken Robuck told RW Monitor this week. The decommissioning market for commercial plants could begin to boom in the coming decades. Looking at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s projections for needed funding in a plant’s decommissioning trust fund, the NRC estimates the cost of cleanup for plants readying for shutdown in the next 40 years at an estimated $70 billion to $100 billion, and EnergySolutions hopes to position itself as the “experienced leader” of commercial reactor decommissioning, according to Robuck. “These decommissioning projects are large complex projects and require experienced leaders to ensure reliable, consistent executions,” he said. “Our team has extensive experience with D&D projects.”
The decommissioning team will be led by Robuck, and will also include Tom Nauman as Senior Vice President of Sales ; John Sauger as Operations Executive Vice President; and John Hess as Commercial Senior Vice President. “EnergySolutions is growing and committed to supporting the commercial nuclear industry. Commercial nuclear D&D is our number one strategic initiative for the future. Because of this we are expanding our resources and committing to the future,” Robuck said.
SONGS Will Be a Major Focus
While EnergySolutions cites several projects as reason for its commitment to commercial D&D, a major focus for the new decommissioning team is the pending San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) decommissioning contract procurement. Southern California Edison, the operator of SONGS, estimated the total cost of the cleanup at approximately $4.4 billion, according to a Decommissioning Cost Estimate it submitted to the NRC last year. SCE confirmed earlier this month that the utility plans to issue a Request for Proposal by the end of the first quarter and award the contract by the end of the year. According to Robuck, the scope of work available at SONGS and the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin motivated the company to dedicate a high level team to the commercial market.
EnergySolutions currently has work under a license stewardship agreement at the Zion Nuclear station in Illinois, and the company announced two weeks ago the that it was closing in on a second agreement at the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Genoa, Wis. Under the terms of these agreements, EnergySolutions temporarily takes over responsibility for the license and decommissioning responsibility from the plant operators during cleanup, eventually returning the license for the independent spent fuel storage installation after the decommissioning is completed. According to Robuck, the company’s experience and workforce separates them from the competition. “What sets us apart from all the rest is our unique and talented workforce and our logistics, processing and disposal facilities,” he said. “We are confident that with this work force and assets we can be a major player in the D&D market.”
