Karl Herchenroeder
RW Monitor
2/5/2016
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed its review of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant’s post-shutdown decommissioning activities report, concluding that plant owner Entergy’s decommissioning plan is on schedule and in compliance with NRC rules.
Submitted in December 2014, Entergy’s report includes cost estimates for decommissioning and an affirmation that the process can be completed in compliance with the site’s environmental statement.
Citing economic reasons in 2013, Entergy announced the premature shutdown of Vermont Yankee, which shuttered for good in 2014. The plant was then placed into SAFSTOR, which allows it to sit for 60 years or until its trust fund accrues sufficient interest to cover the cost of decommissioning. The total cost of decommissioning is projected at $1.2 billion, and the trust fund was recorded at $595.4 million at the end of 2015.
In a Jan. 29 letter to Entergy, NRC responded to public comments pertaining to the 2014 report through a series of generic responses addressing common questions the agency received. The comments were in part gathered at a public meeting in February 2015 in Brattleboro, Vt.
One area of interest was the plant’s decommissioning trust fund, a hotly debated issue in Vermont. The state Attorney General’s Office, with the support of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, has sued the company and requested a comprehensive review of the account. The state claims NRC is allowing Entergy to use the trust fund for illegal purposes not related to decommissioning activities. At issue is an exemption NRC granted in June 2015 that allows Entergy to use $225 million to manage spent nuclear fuel over several years, which the state contends is contrary to federal law. Vermont has interest in the fund because 55 percent of the money left over from decommissioning will be returned to the facility’s original Vermont ratepayers.
In the letter, NRC concluded that Entergy’s cost estimate for long-term storage of spent fuel, which is listed at $817.2 million, is “not unreasonable” and is consistent with regulations. That amount is greater than the $622.8 million minimum decommissioning cost that NRC has set. NRC also found that the decommissioning schedule is “adequate to achieve Vermont Yankee license termination within 60 years of permanent cessation of operations.”
“We are proud of the efforts all our employees have, and will continue to provide, to ensure that decommissioning of Vermont Yankee is done as safely and cost effectively as possible,” Entergy spokesman Marty Cohn said in response to the letter.
If Entergy proposes any significant schedule changes from planned decommissioning activities, including changes that significantly increase the decommissioning costs, it must notify the NRC in writing. The NRC said it will continue to conduct inspections at Vermont Yankee throughout the process to “ensure decommissioning activities are performed safely and in compliance” with the commission’s rules and regulations associated with the site license.
Cohn said at this point Entergy is not proposing any major changes to the post-shutdown decommissioning activities report, but he described the report as a “living document” that Entergy is constantly reviewing. The report does not require NRC approval, but the agency reviews the document to ensure activities meet regulatory requirements.
“(The report) is constantly reviewed,” Cohn said. “We’re always looking at the (post-shutdown decommissioning activities report).”
In December Entergy announced that it plans to transfer spent fuel at the site from wet to dry storage starting in 2017, which is two years earlier than expected. The $145 million project, for which nearly 3,000 spent fuel assemblies would be moved into 45 dry casks, is scheduled for completion in 2020. Vermont Yankee’s SAFSTOR schedule means Entergy has until 2074 to complete decommissioning.
On Feb. 1, NRC oversight of Vermont Yankee was officially transferred from the office responsible for operating reactors to the office responsible for decommissioning nuclear power plants. The Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards’ Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs is now overseeing licensing activities at Vermont Yankee.
