NorthStar Group Services has requested approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to switch the means of transport to disposal of 200,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The company plans to move the wastewater primarily by rail to a disposal site in Idaho, rather by truck as previously OK’d by the federal regulator.
Then-owner Entergy closed the single-reactor nuclear facility in December 2014. In 2016, it asked the NRC to approve alternate disposal of the wastewater from the reactor torus, which contains low levels of fission and activation products. The plan then was to use tanker trucks to move the wastewater from Vermont Yankee to a US Ecology facility at Grand View, Idaho, where it would be solidified for on-site disposal. The NRC signed off on the request in June 2017.
Entergy in January completed its sale of the plant to NorthStar, which now is fully responsible for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the property. The New York City-based company wants to ship the wastewater by train to a US Ecology Idaho rail transfer facility in Mayfield, Idaho. The material would then be loaded into tanker trucks for the remaining 35-mile trip to the disposal site.
“Since this request is a slight change to that approved method, they wanted confirmation from us that it was acceptable,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email Friday. “That is why we are evaluating the new option.”
A decision is expected in the near future, Sheehan said.
