Expediting decommissioning of the newly retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey could shave hundreds of millions of dollars from the price tag for the project, according to prospective buyer Holtec International.
The New Jersey energy technology company wants to buy the power plant, which ended operations on Sept. 17, and then assume responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management. That would begin immediately after the sale goes through.
First, though, Holtec needs approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to transfer the license for the boiling water reactor from current owner Exelon, along with a separate license for the plant’s spent fuel storage pad. The agency last week completed its acceptance review of the companies’ Aug. 31 license transfer application, formally starting the in-depth technical review.
In an updated version of the post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR) for Oyster Creek, Holtec told the NRC it could complete primary decommissioning and site cleanup operations before 2026. The cleanup program would be complete by 2035, based on a projected schedule for the Department of Energy to meet its legal mandate to remove the plant’s spent fuel.
The total price tag for the DECON approach, according to Holtec, would be just over $885 million, in 2018 dollars: $617.8 for most decommissioning work leading to license termination, $225.8 million for spent fuel management, and $41.4 million for site restoration.
“This estimate is based on regulatory requirements, site conditions, basis of estimate assumptions, low-level radioactive waste disposal standards, high-level radioactive waste management options, and site restoration requirements,” Holtec said in its PSDSAR. “The methods utilized to estimate decommissioning costs were based on the professional judgment of experienced [subject matter experts] considering the nature of the work, degree of scope definition, availability of quantifiable cost and pricing data.”
The Holtec figures do not include $94 million in costs incurred by Exelon for decommissioning planning and related activities prior to the license transfer, according to the PSDAR.
Prior to announcing the planned sale of the facility, Exelon in May said in its own PSDAR issued it would place Oyster Creek in SAFSTOR mode for decades, maintaining the reactor under monitoring but not conducting active decommissioning. That work would be scheduled for 2075 to 2080. At the time the power company estimated costs at $1.1 billion for decommissioning, $290 million for spent fuel management, and $60 million for site restoration.
Holtec linked the differences in the anticipated costs to its accelerated decommissioning approach “as well as the use of specific rates for decommissioning and waste packing, transportation and disposal costs instead of the unit cost factor approach used in the Exelon estimate.”
This is one of three reactors Holtec plans to buy, along with Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts and Palisades Plant in Michigan. The deals appear likely to involve a number of subsidiaries. For this deal, Oyster Creek Environmental Protection would become the plant’s licensed owner and Holtec Decommissioning International the licensed operator. It would contract management of the actual decommissioning to Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a Holtec partnership with Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin.
Holtec and Exelon are hoping for a decision from the NRC on the license transfer within eight months, by May 1 of next year. The agency generally needs a year to evaluate the technical and financial capacities of the buyer, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. The NRC is expected this month to issue a decision on a similar license-transfer proposal for the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which was filed in February 2017.
Staff believes the Oyster Creek review will take roughly 630 hours.
In the NRC’s Sept. 27 acceptance letter to Exelon, senior project manager John Lamb that “NRC staff will endeavor to complete this review on the Applicants’ requested schedule. If there are emergent complexities or challenges in our review that would cause changes to the initial forecasted completion date or significant changes in the forecasted hours, the reasons for the changes, along with the new estimates, will be communicated.”
Factors that could slow the process include requests for additional information, an unexpected expansion of the scope of the review, and possible hearings. The public and government agencies will have an opportunity to request a hearing.
