The New York state Attorney General’s Office and two other parties this week filed petitions for hearings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the proposed license transfer and sale of the Indian Point Energy Center.
Along with the Attorney General’s Office, the petitioners are: jointly the town of Cortlandt, village of Buchanan, and Hendrick Hudson School District; and the Safe Energy Rights Group, a Peekskill-based organization that opposes what it believes are harmful energy infrastructures. The deadline for filing was Wednesday.
While there are some differences in each petition, they cover the same topics in broad strokes: concerns about whether prospective plant owner Holtec International would be able to completely pay for decommissioning and whether the project’s corporate family tree shields Holtec from responsibility if the cleanup money falls short.
Entergy owns the Indian Point complex in Buchanan, planning to retire reactor Unit 2 by April 30, 2020, and Unit 3 by the end of April 2021. Reactor Unit 1 has been closed since 1974. Entergy plans to sell the complex to New Jersey-based energy technology firm Holtec, which would assume ownership of the decommissioning trust funds for the reactors and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management. However, the NRC must first approve the transfer of the plant’s reactor operations and spent fuel storage licenses.
The petitioners want to be recognized as intervenors in the NRC’s consideration of the license transfer applications — which would give them standing to argue their case in hearings.
“It is essential that the decommissioning of Indian Point be safe, rapid, and complete,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a press release. “Putting the decommissioning of Indian Point in the hands of a company with no experience and uncertain financial resources is very risky.”
Holtec has estimated a $2.3 billion price tag for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management for the three reactors. Entergy’s decommissioning funds for the reactors held $2.1 billion in October 2019, which the three petitions argue is $200 million short of what is needed. The petitioners argue the licenses should not be transferred until the shortfall is addressed. The petitioners also questioned the financial assumptions behind Holtec’s calculations — contending that the $2.3 billion project estimate could be too low.
