Entergy expects this year to select a company that will take ownership of its Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York for decommissioning, Chairman and CEO Leo Denault said Wednesday during an earnings teleconference with financial analysts.
Denault did not elaborate on the numbers and identities of the prospective bidders for the deal. He said the proposed sale won’t be completed until Indian Point officially shuts down in 2021.
“[We] have begun work on a transaction,” Denault said. “That, as we’ve mentioned before, we would expect to complete sometime between now and the end of the year.”
Entergy plans to shut down the Unit 2 reactor in April 2020, followed by Unit 3 in April 2021, dates that are respectively 13 and 14 years earlier than their Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses require. Unit 1 ceased production in October 1974 after the emergency core cooling system failed to meet regulatory requirements. The 2,000-megawatt power plant is located 25 miles north of New York City.
The New Orleans-based power company in January completed the sale of its Vermont Yankee power plant, retired in 2014, to NorthStar Group Services. The new owner now holds the decommissioning trust fund for the site, along with all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management. It says it can complete the majority of work as early as 2026. NorthStar has joined nuclear company Orano to form Accelerated Decommissioning Partners in pursuit of more reactor acquisitions.
Entergy, meanwhile, plans to sell its Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts and Palisades Power Plant in Michigan to Holtec International for decommissioning. The deal would also cover the site of the already-decommissioned Big Rock Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan.
Pilgrim is scheduled to close by the end of May, and the companies have already submitted their license transfer application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Paperwork on Palisades is anticipated closer to its anticipated shutdown in 2022.
