The commonwealth of Pennsylvania has not proven its case to be allowed to intervene in the federal review of the license transfer application for reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, according to the reactor’s owner and prospective buyer.
Subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp. and EnergySolutions on Monday filed their response with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the April 15 petition from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
In short, the companies said the agency failed to sufficiently demonstrate that EnergySolutions branch TMI-2 Solutions might not have the financial wherewithal to decommission the reactor after assuming ownership from FirstEnergy subsidiary GPU Nuclear.
“As explained in this Answer, DEP’s arguments lack merit, and its Proposed Contention falls far short of the admissibility requirements in” federal regulations on hearing requests to the NRC, according to lawyers for the companies. “Thus, the Petition must be denied.”
There was no immediate comment from the Department of Environmental Protection to the new filing.
Reactor Unit 2 has been retired since its famous partial meltdown in March 1979 after just a few months of power production near the capital city of Harrisburg. Nearly all of its used fuel and damaged core material have been shipped to the Department of Energy’s Idaho Site, with the reactor itself placed in post-defueling monitored storage.
GPU Nuclear and TMI-2 Solutions last November filed their joint license transfer application. Pending approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, TMI-2 Solutions would buy the facility and assume all responsibility for decommissioning. It says it can complete the job in just over 16 years for about $1 billion, cutting 17 years of the previous schedule for cleanup.
The license transfer applicants on Monday also formally opposed an intervention petition from the local advocacy organization Three Mile Island Alert.
