Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI) expects to move all of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s used fuel assemblies from wet storage to dry storage by 2023, according to documents submitted earlier this month to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The data point is included in a set of documents provided as part of the Nov. 16 application to transfer the Cape Cod, Mass., facility’s license from owner and operator Entergy to Holtec International. The New Jersey-based energy technology firm, through its HDI subsidiary, would then be charged with decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the single-reactor power plant following its closure by June 1 of next year.
There are 4,114 fuel assemblies at Pilgrim, of which 1,156 are in dry storage in 17 casks, according to an Entergy document. Another 580 assemblies remain in the still-active reactor and 2,378 assemblies are in the plant’s cooling pool.
Holtec expects $501.5 million of its predicted $1.134 billion decommissioning budget to be spent on spent fuel management. The company hopes to buy the site by late 2019 and believes it can complete dismantlement, decontamination, and environmental remediation at the Pilgrim property by 2027. The work would be carried out by Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a Holtec joint venture with Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin.
Holtec would presumably keep some portion of Pilgrim’s decommissioning trust fund once the work is complete. The trust held just over $1 billion at the end of October.
