By John Stang
A new approach to decommissioning the nearly retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey could save $200 million, according to owner Exelon and prospective buyer Holtec International.
The plant’s single boiling-water reactor is scheduled to shut down on Monday.
The two companies’ license transfer application was filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Aug. 31 and posted Thursday to the agency’s website. If approved, the new owner would join Canada’s SNC-Lavalin to expedite cleanup at Oyster Creek.
The NRC has projected a minimum of $1.083 billion for the site’s decommissioning needs. However, the license transfer application lists a cost estimate of $885 million for the proposed accelerated decommissioning plan that bumps completion of decontamination and demolition from 2077 to 2027. Oyster Creek’s decommissioning trust contained $980 million as of June 30, 2018, according to the application.
The document estimates the venture will require $618 million for decommissioning to license termination, along with $226 million for used fuel management and $41 million for site restoration.
“This transfer is desirable and of considerable benefit to the citizens of New Jersey because it will result in the prompt decommissioning of Oyster Creek and the release of all portions of the site other than the (interim spent fuel storage installation) on an accelerated schedule,” the joint application says.
In March, Exelon asked the NRC for authorization to use part of the set-aside decommissioning trust fund money for spent fuel management and site restoration. “This request demonstrated that the trust fund contains more than adequate funds to cover not only the estimated costs of radiological decommissioning, but also the estimated costs for spent fuel management and site restoration activities,” the companies said in their application.
However, they noted that the request was made under the assumption that Exelon would place the Lacey Township facility into SAFSTOR – under which final cleanup of a nuclear reactor can be delayed for up to 60 years. Now that Holtec plans to accelerate decommissioning under the DECON approach, it “will submit a separate exemption request with its analysis of the expected decommissioning costs, spent fuel management costs, and site restoration costs, demonstrating that an exemption is warranted to allow (the decommissioning subsidiary) to make withdrawals for payment of spent fuel management and site restoration costs,” the license transfer application says.
Full off-site transfer of the plant’s used fuel would shift from 2024 under the original Exelon plan to 2021 under Holtec. However, that would require a location for either interim storage or permanent disposal of U.S. reactor fuel, neither of which exist yet.
Holtec and Exelon hope to secure NRC and seal the deal next year. However, the NRC has been noncommittal on the speed for reviewing the requested license transfer. The two corporation are keeping the sales price confidential.
The 650-megawatt Oyster Creek reactor became operational in 1969. While its current NRC license does not expire until 2029, New Jersey officials and Exelon agreed in 2010 to shut down the plant by late 2019 so the company would not have to pay $800 million to install new cooling towers. Exelon moved the date up to mid-September to help shift around workers more efficiently.
A complicated chain of Holtec subsidiaries would tackle the decommissioning.
Holtec subsidiary Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI) has formed its own subsidiary —Oyster Creek Environmental Protection LLC — which would become the new owner of the Oyster Creek reactor site if and when the sale goes through.
Meanwhile, HDI has joined forces with Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin to form Comprehensive Decommissioning International LLC. Holtec is the majority owner of CDI. Then Oyster Creek Environmental Protection plans to hire CDI to handle the decommissioning work at Oyster Creek.
Holtec would take ownerhip of the decommissioning trust as part of the sale. It likely would keep some portion of the balance that remains once decommissioning is complete.
