The Fort Calhoun Station will cease operations on Monday, a manager with the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week, as the company ramps up its $1.2 billion decommissioning project at the Nebraska nuclear facility.
OPPD’s Board of Directors in June unanimously approved shutting down the 43-year-old, Blair, Neb., facility, calling it an economic decision. Company President and CEO Tim Burke said in April that continued operation of Fort Calhoun was no longer in the best long-term financial interests for OPPD or its customers. Having employed about 700 workers at the plant, many of the board members called it the hardest decision of their tenures.
OPPD Senior Director of Fort Calhoun Decommissioning Mary Fisher briefed NRC staff on decommissioning plans during a conference call Tuesday. The utility plans to lay off about 400 workers over the next 20 months. The first round of job cuts is expected in November, followed by two more in 2017, another two in 2018, and a final round of cuts in 2022.
The utility plans to deliver a post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR), a decommissioning cost estimate (DCE), and a spent fuel management plan and limited site characterization in the first quarter of 2017. The most immediate milestone will be delivery of a certificate of permanent removal of fuel from the reactor vessel, which OPPD expects to submit to the NRC in November.
According to Fort Calhoun plant training manager Tim Uehling, who was also on the call, OPPD anticipates completing its one-year effort to move all spent fuel into dry storage on a spent fuel pad by 2022. The existing pad, Fisher said, is presently loaded with 10 casks. There are 320 fuel bundles currently stored in the 10 casks on the pad. Another 944 fuel bundles will be moved to the pad in approximately 30 casks.
Fisher noted that OPPD has communicated with utilities that manage several other sites that have undergone or are undergoing SAFSTOR decommissioning, which OPPD has chosen. Under SAFSTOR, often referred to as “deferred decommissioning,” a nuclear facility is maintained and monitored in a condition that allows the radioactivity to decay, and allows the site’s trust fund to accrue enough money to cover the cost. The operator has 60 years to dismantle and decontaminate the property. OPPD hopes to apply the lessons learned from other utilities.
NRC staff asked Fisher if OPPD plans to establish a decommissioning advisory panel, which several other utilities have done at their facilities. Fisher said that while the utility is always evaluating its options, OPPD’s board of directors meetings and outreach currently allow for a sufficient amount of public discourse.
