All used fuel at Duke Energy’s retired Crystal River Nuclear Plant in Citrus County, Fla., has been moved to dry storage, the utility announced recently.
For security purposes, Duke is not publicly stating the number of fuel assemblies removed from the Crystal River spent fuel pool, spokeswoman Heather Danenhower said. However, the entirety of the plant’s spent-fuel stockpile, which has been building up in the pool since its first refueling in 1978, is now held in 39 concrete horizontal storage modules spread over one-and-a-half acres.
Crystal River was officially retired in 2013, four years after it went offline, and Duke the next year initiated development of its dry-cask storage facility. The storage pad was completed in May 2017, and transfer of spent fuel into dry casks began in June 2017. The final fuel assembly went into dry storage at 8:56 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, according to a Duke press release.
Duke Energy spent about $183 million to build the dry-cask storage facility and relocate the spent fuel, Danenhower said by email. Utility shareholders and ratepayers will pay about $105 million, with the rest of the money coming from the decommissioning trust fund for Crystal River.
“We will seek recovery of the vast majority of the $183 million cost from the Department of Energy – the agency ultimately responsible for safely storing the nation’s used nuclear fuel assemblies,” Danenhower stated. “Any funds recovered through litigation for costs that were paid by customers will be returned to customers. Likewise, any funds recovered through litigation for costs that were paid by the trust will be returned to the trust.”
Duke Energy has since 2014 won two federal court judgments from DOE for dry fuel storage expenses. The federal agency paid out $21 million following a March 2014 ruling for costs from 2006 to 2010, and Duke expects this quarter to receive another $21 million for costs incurred from 2011 to 2013.
Crystal River is in SAFSTOR mode, under which it will maintained and monitored for up to 60 years before active decommissioning begins. Duke Energy anticipates decommissioning will cost $1.18 billion in 2013 dollars.
More immediately, Duke decommissioning personnel will over the next 19 months disengage some gear, process roughly 400,000 gallons of fuel pool water, and ship non-fuel radiological parts off-site, according to the release.
