Entergy has agreed to sell its shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant to NorthStar Group Services, a deal the company said will shorten the timeline to fully decommission the facility from 2075 to 2030.
The company announced the deal Tuesday, days after Vermont Public Service Commissioner Chris Recchia argued the Vernon plant could be decommissioned in the 2020s, rather than the 2070s. Various lawmakers have called on Entergy to accelerate the decommissioning process for the facility, which closed in 2014, claiming the site’s spent fuel is safer in dry storage than wet storage.
Entergy’s announcement said spent fuel at the site will be transferred from wet to dry storage by the end of 2018, four years earlier than originally expected. Entergy last December had shifted that timeline from 2022 to 2020. The $145 million project involves moving nearly 3,000 spent fuel assemblies into 45 dry casks.
Entergy spokesman Martin Cohn said by email Tuesday that the company has maintained an open dialogue with the Public Service Commission and other officials, and that the potential for this type of transaction has always been discussed.
“By accelerating decommissioning, we are fulfilling a commitment we made in 2013 to decommission Vermont Yankee as soon as reasonably possible,” Entergy Wholesale Commodities President Bill Mohl said in a statement.
NorthStar, which will assume ownership of Vermont Yankee’s estimated $600 million decommissioning trust fund, is paying Entergy $1,000 for the plant. NorthStar will also issue a promissory note to Entergy equal to the amount owed at closing under a credit line to finance Vermont Yankee’s dry fuel storage costs.
The Vermont Yankee sale is subject to closing conditions, including approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Vermont Public Service Board. Entergy and NorthStar are seeking Public Service Board approval for proposed site restoration standards that are “generally consistent with those of other regional decommissioning projects,” according to Entergy. Entergy expects the transaction to close by the end of 2018.
NorthStar, a New York-based dismantling and remediation specialist, will partner with Waste Control Specialists, AREVA, and Burns & McDonnell for the project. The NorthStar team has collectively worked on more than 300 nuclear and non-nuclear power plant projects over the past 15 years, specializing in reactor vessel segmentation, waste packaging/transportation/disposal, environmental remediation, site closure and spent fuel management.
“Our in-house expertise, combined with the proven track record of our partners, provides the complete package of skills needed to ensure the timely, safe, cost-efficient decommissioning and restoration of the Vermont Yankee site,” NorthStar CEO Scott State said in a statement Tuesday.
Entergy’s original decommissioning schedule, as drawn up in its post-shutdown decommissioning activities report filed with the NRC, called for decontamination and dismantlement to start in 2068. Entergy had opted for SAFSTOR decommissioning, which allows a nuclear facility to be maintained and monitored for up to 60 years while radioactivity decays, and the site’s trust fund accrues enough money to cover the cost. NorthStar has agreed to begin D&D work to begin by 2021, shifting the end date to 2030. After that, NorthStar will continue to operate the site’s independent spent fuel storage installation pad until the Energy Department removes the fuel under Nuclear Waste Policy Act obligations. NorthStar will then decommission the ISFSI, terminate the license, and complete site restoration. The total cost of decommissioning is currently projected at $1.2 billion.
