In November, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office joined former plant owner Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. and the Vermont Public Service Department in filing the petition for review, which questioned the operator’s use of the estimated $600 million trust fund. The petitioners argued that Entergy should not be allowed to use excess decommissioning trust fund money to pay for spent fuel management expenses for the shuttered plant, among other claims.
In a 70-page response submitted Dec. 7, NRC staff recommended the commission to deny the request, concluding that Vermont’s petition suffers from numerous procedural defects and is not entitled to an adjudicatory hearing. Petitioners still have the option to pursue the matter via an enforcement or rulemaking petition, and Vermont Assistant Attorney General Kyle Landis-Marinello said Monday his office is preparing a response, which is due Thursday.
Entergy also filed a response on Dec. 7, calling the petition “procedurally and jurisdictionally deficient.” The 44-page response points out that in June 1994, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. had similar intended purposes for its decommissioning fund. That year, according to the response, the company filed a wholesale rate application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking to increase its authorized schedule of decommissioning charges based on an updated decommissioning cost estimate. That estimate included some of the same items the petitioners now challenge, the response states, including spent fuel management costs.
“The Petition also fails to sufficiently challenge any of Entergy’s decommissioning-related activities, which are fully consistent with NRC regulations, guidance, and precedent,” according to the Entergy response.
“We are and will remain fully compliant with NRC guidelines,” Entergy spokesman Marty Cohn said Monday. “Until such time that the NRC tells us anything different, we’re proceeding (with planned expenditures for decommissioning).”