An anti-nuclear group still wants the The Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold a public hearing on the recently-approved sale of a Michigan nuclear power plant, even though Holtec International effectively cut SNC-Lavalin, whose character was at the center of the anti-nuker’s demands, out of the decom job.
But hearings are a matter for the commissioners to approve, or not, directly. And as of Monday, the three serving commissions had not scheduled one and had no timetable for deciding when, or whether, they might.
“Hearing petitions for license transfers go directly before the Commission, which operates on its own schedule,” an NRC spokesperson told Exchange Monitor via email Monday.
Aside from several antinuclear groups, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) also wants a hearing on the sale of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station to Holtec International from Entergy, though not for reasons related to the character of now-former decommissioning partner SNC-Lavalin. NRC approved the Covert, Mich., plant’s sale in December.
A spokesperson for Nessel’s office told Exchange Monitor via email Monday evening that the attorney general remains “hopeful” NRC will grant a hearing.
Last week, Holtec last week notified the agency that it was absorbing Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI), the company’s joint venture with Canadian engineering services company SNC-Lavalin, and that CDI would no longer be the site’s primary decommissioning contractor.
The move followed Holtec’s decision in December to terminate its four year-old joint venture with SNC-Lavalin for convenience.
Holtec told NRC that its decision to part ways with its joint venture partner “moots” concerns by anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear in its February 2021 hearing request that questioned “the business character of SNCLavalin, the minority upstream corporate parent of CDI.”
But Kevin Kamps, the chairman of the antinuclear Beyond Nuclear group, challenged Holtec’s assertion that the issue is closed.
“Nothing is mooted regarding our intervention or contentions, due to this latest company-shell-game move by Holtec,” Kamps wrote in a Friday email to Exchange Monitor. “We stand by all our intervention contentions.”
Beyond Nuclear said in its hearing request that the Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin has “been debarred, seen their officers and employees convicted of bribery for contracts in multiple countries, generated illegal campaign contributions, and other civil and criminal wrongdoing.”
SNC-Lavalin did not return multiple requests for comment throughout the week.
Along with Palisades, Holtec has a total of five decommissioning projects under its belt. The company is also decommissioning New Jersey’s Oyster Creek plant, New York’s Indian Point plant, and the Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts. NRC in December also approved the company’s application to take over spent fuel management operations at the already-decommissioned Big Rock Point nuclear plant in Michigan.
