The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it has reduced the insurance requirements for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts.
The agency issued the regulatory exemption to subsidiaries of plant owner Holtec International on Jan. 6, according to a notice in the Federal Register. It allows Holtec Pilgrim and Holtec Decommissioning International to reduce the level of primary off-site liability insurance from $450 million to $100 million and to forgo secondary financial protection.
The higher insurance levels are intended to apply to operating nuclear power reactors that still carry fuel. However, then-owner Entergy shut down Pilgrim’s sole reactor on May 31, 2019, and defueled the facility by June 10. Following NRC approval of the transfer of the site’s operational and spent-fuel storage licenses, Entergy sold Pilgrim to Holtec on Aug. 26.
The New Jersey energy technology company is now responsible for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the Cape Cod property. The commonwealth of Massachusetts, though, has challenged the federal license transfer that enabled the sale to proceed.
“Many of the accident scenarios postulated in the updated safety analysis reports for operating power reactors involve failures or malfunctions of systems, which could affect the fuel in the reactor core and, in the most severe postulated accidents, would involve the release of large quantities of fission products,” the NRC said in explaining its decision on the request for the insurance exemption. “With the permanent cessation of power operations at Pilgrim and the permanent removal of the fuel from the reactor vessel, many accidents are no longer possible. Similarly, the associated risk of offsite liability damages that would require insurance or indemnification is commensurately lower for permanently shut down and defueled plants.”
