Holtec International said Tuesday it plans to acquire the soon-to-close Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey for decommissioning, which would be conducted by its new joint venture with SNC-Lavalin.
If the deal goes through, Comprehensive Decommissioning International would begin decommissioning in 2019 and aim to complete work in eight years. That would dramatically accelerate the six-decade timetable under current plant owner Exelon Generation.
The Oyster Creek reactor in Lacey Township is scheduled to shut down on Sept. 17 of this year. Exelon had said it would place the facility into SAFSTOR mode, under which final decommissioning is not required for up to 60 years.
But on Tuesday, plans were announced to sell the plant to a Holtec subsidiary, Holtec Decommissioning International. The subsidiary has already issued a contract “worth hundreds of millions of dollars” to Comprehensive Decommissioning International, the New Jersey energy technology company’s newly formed partnership with Montreal-based engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin.
The Oyster Creek purchase is not expected to be complete until the third quarter of 2019, according to a joint Holtec and Exelon news release. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
Holtec will need approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to compete the purchase of the site. Agency approval is also needed for the revised decommissioning approach.
Comprehensive Decommissioning International would be charged with all decommissioning and site restoration duties. Its work would be paid for by the plant’s decommissioning trust fund, which will transfer from Exelon to Holtec upon completion of the deal.
SNC-Lavalin and Holtec are eyeing several unnamed potential decommissioning projects for CDI in the next 12 months.
