The current and prospective owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant believe they can count on additional legal wins against the Department of Energy to help finance decommissioning of the shuttered facility.
Power company Entergy and nuclear decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services also say they should not need a new Nuclear Regulatory Commission exemption to continue using funds from Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning trust fund to pay for management of the site’s spent reactor fuel.
Both assertions, along with over 200 pages of supporting documentation, are featured in Entergy’s Dec. 4 response to the NRC’s request for additional information regarding the companies’ February 2017 application to transfer the Vermont Yankee operating and independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) licenses from Entergy to NorthStar.
Entergy closed the boiling water power reactor in December 2014 after more than four decades of operation, and planned to keep it in “safe storage” mode for decades before decommissioning. But early this year, it announced plans to sell the plant for a nominal $1,000 to NorthStar, which says it can finish decommissioning as early as 2026 at a cost of $811.5 million.
NorthStar would take ownership of the trust fund, which held $577.9 million as of Oct. 31. It would keep some portion of the trust upon completing cleanup.
In November, NRC staff submitted a five-part request for additional information to Entergy regarding the license transfers. Topping the list, the agency wanted to know if the companies intended to apply for a new regulatory exemption allowing use of decommissioning trust money for spent fuel management, and whether they believe the fund would be replenished if some balance is used for non-radiological decommissioning expenses.
Entergy received an NRC exemption for that purpose in 2015 (to the dismay of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office), and NorthStar has no plans to request another unless directed to do so by NRC staff, according to this week’s response.
“As is typical in license transfers, upon completing the transfers, NorthStar NDC and NorthStar VY plan to assume the regulatory rights and obligations of ENOI and ENVY, including exemptions, regulatory commitments responsibility for any pending amendments, and responsibility for any other pending requests before NRC,” Entergy stated. NorthStar believes the existing exemption will remain applicable, it added.
NorthStar would use no more than $20 million from the trust at any one time for spent fuel costs, the information response says.
The companies can also rely on funds from the Department of Energy to replenish the decommissioning trust, given the agency’s continued liability under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act for failing to start taking possession of nuclear utilities’ reactor fuel by January 1998, Entergy said.
The federal judgment fund for DOE’s breaches of Standard Contracts with nuclear utilities by the end of September 2016 had paid out more than $6 billion in settlements and judgments in 79 cases brought by companies forced to shoulder the costs of storing spent fuel from their power reactors. Entergy alone had received more than $65 million in two judgments in 2013 and 2016, it said.
“It is well-established that ISFSI maintenance costs, in particular, are generally likely to be recovered as damages, whether through settlement or litigation,” Entergy told the NRC this week.
The company currently does not have any pending federal cases over recovery of damages from DOE over spent fuel at Vermont Yankee, according to Michael Twomey, vice president for external affairs at Entergy Wholesale Commodities.
The remainder of Vermont Yankee’s spent fuel is now being moved into dry storage. Ultimately, roughly 3,000 spent fuel assemblies will be held in 58 storage casks spread across two independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSI).
In addressing other requests for additional information, Entergy provided the NRC with resumes demonstrating the technical qualifications of managers who will fill key positions on the NorthStar decommissioning team, including quality assurance manager, health and safety manager, ISFSI/plant manager, and waste manager. An accompanying chart lists a number of nuclear cleanup projects where NorthStar has carried out reactor disassembly, structural demolition, decontamination, and other work relevant to the Vermont Yankee project.
Pending approval from the NRC and Vermont Public Utility Commission, Entergy and NorthStar hope to complete the Vermont Yankee sale by the end of 2018.
NRC staff expects to complete its review of the license transfer request by March, agency spokesman Neil Sheehan said Thursday.
“That is contingent upon the responses to our Request for Additional Information (RAI) being satisfactory,” he wrote in an email message. “If they are not, we may have to seek more details from the Entergy/NorthStar. At this point, we do not believe another RAI is needed, but we wouldn’t rule out that possibility.”
The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board continues to consider requests from the state of Vermont and nongovernmental New England Coalition on a hearing on the license transfer request. Whatever decision the board makes could be appealed to the commission, Sheehan said.
NorthStar has said it hopes the Vermont Public Utility Commission will wrap up its review of the planned sale by the end of the first quarter of 2018. In July, the state commission issued a new review schedule that pushes its calendar of document filings and hearings to at least the end of January.
Meanwhile, the companies and other parties to the PUC review have in recent weeks filed a flurry of new documentation, including “subrebuttal” testimony from state officials and others to earlier testimony by executives including NorthStar CEO Scott State.
Entergy Plans $4M Disbursement from Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Trust
Separately, Entergy last month notified the NRC of plans for a new $4 million disbursement from its decommissioning trust for Vermont Yankee.
“The disbursement request is expected to include, among other things, site-specific decommissioning costs related to licensing/emergency planning contractor costs, insurance and property tax,” according to a Nov. 21 letter, posted Wednesday on the NRC website, from Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Director John Boyle and Bank of New York Mellon Managing Director David Ryan to several NRC officials.
Bank of New York Mellon is the trustee for the decommissioning trust for Vermont Yankee, which closed in 2014. The master trust agreement requires the bank to give 30 days advance notice to the NRC of any disbursement or payment from the account. The head of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation can block a disbursement.
Entergy and Bank of New York Mellon said the $4 million disbursement is expected to be made 30 days following the date of the letter.
