The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting additional information from power company Entergy concerning its application to transfer the license of its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon as part of a $110 million deal to sell the facility. The regulator wants to ensure the facility maintains proper staffing levels over the course of the ownership change.
Entergy agreed to sell FitzPatrick to Exelon in August, after the New York Public Service Commission approved Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard, which is projected to pay upstate nuclear power plant operators nearly $8 billion in energy subsidies over the program’s lifetime. Entergy had previously planned to close the FitzPatrick plant, which has about 600 workers, in January of next year.
The sale will require regulatory approval from the NRC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the state Public Service Commission.
In a Nov. 2 letter to Entergy, the NRC requested verification that Exelon will comply with plant staffing requirements after Entergy employees are offered employment through the plant’s new owner. This staffing requirement ensures the owner has adequate resources to provide technical support for the operation and maintenance of the facility under both normal and off-normal conditions.
Entergy’s NRC license transfer application states that prior to the closing of the transaction, Exelon will offer employment to “substantially all of the Entergy employees at FitzPatrick such that at the time of the closing of the transaction and transfer of the license, the Entergy employees who accept offers of employment will become employees of Exelon Generation.”
The NRC has said in the past it plans to decide in March whether to approve the license transfer. Exelon, a Chicago-based utility, operates 16 nuclear power plants across the country, making it the United States’ largest nuclear generator. If the deal goes through, the company would own all three upstate New York nuclear plants, as it currently operates the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station.
Various utilities and environmental groups have filed challenges against the potential sale, including Public Citizen’s request last month that FERC reject Entergy’s application, claiming that the utilities failed to address the impact the deal would have on New York’s power market. Soon after, a coalition of electric utilities sued the New York Public Service Commission, arguing that Cuomo’s program unlawfully intrudes on FERC’s authority over New York’s power market.