A deal could be approaching to resolve the state of Pennsylvania’s concerns about the planned sale and decommissioning of the long-retired reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
In a letter Monday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) asked to be given until Aug. 10 to file a request for a hearing on the transfer of the reactor’s federal license. That should be enough time to know whether the issue can be resolved, according to DEP Assistant Counsel Alicia Duke.
The state agency in April submitted its petition for intervention on the license transfer from FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary GPU Nuclear to EnergySolutions branch TMI-2 Solutions. The license transfer would be followed by sale of the reactor, after which TMI-2 Solutions would assume all responsibility for decommissioning.
In its petition, DEP cited concerns about ensuring sufficient funding to complete decommissioning under the expedited schedule
“The Department has had discussions with Applicants concerning its contention and is currently in the process of evaluating whether its concerns have been fully addressed. The Department anticipates that it will be able to determine if it can withdraw its Petition by August 10, 2020,” Duke wrote.
The commission is considering both the April intervention petition and this week’s filing, but there was no word Tuesday on the schedule for the proceeding.
FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young said Tuesday details of the discussions are confidential and she could not discuss the matter further. The Department of Environmental Protection and EnergySolutions did not respond to queries.
Unit 2 at the Harrisburg-area facility famously operated for just a few months before a partial meltdown in March 1979. It never reopened, and its spent fuel was eventually shipped to storage at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.
General Public Utilities Nuclear, Inc. (GPU) holds the possession-only license for the reactor, which is kept in monitored storage.
