Entergy has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to authorize the reduction of insurance for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts following its closure a few weeks from now.
In two March 25 letters, the New Orleans-based power company asked the agency to by April 1, 2020, approve exemptions to federal regulations on financial protections for nuclear reactors.
Specifically, Entergy wants to shrink the mandatory level of primary off-site liability insurance from $450 million to $100 million and to be relieved of the requirement for a secondary private liability insurance plan. Those plans are intended to ensure the power operator can pay claims related to a “potential nuclear incident or
precautionary evacuation associated with an individual power reactor,” Entergy said.
The company also wants allowance to reduce on-site insurance coverage for potential property damage from $1.06 billion to $50 million.
“The NRC staff will carefully review both requests, including Entergy’s risk analyses,” an NRC spokesman said by email Friday, without committing to the proposed April 1 deadline.
Entergy plans to close the single-reactor power plant on Cape Cod no later than June 1 of this year. All 580 fuel assemblies would be removed from the reactor within several weeks and placed into wet storage for cooling, a company spokesman said Friday.
In line with previous requests from nuclear utilities for relief from insurance requirements for closed facilities, Entergy emphasized the reduced danger posed by Pilgrim 10 months after it ceases power production.
Entergy’s analysis “demonstrates that 10 months after permanent cessation of power operations, there is sufficient time to mitigate events that could lead to a zirconium fire,” Mandy Halter, Entergy Nuclear Operations director for nuclear licensing, wrote in the letter to the NRC. ”In the permanently defueled condition, the number and severity of potential radiological accidents is significantly less than when the facility is operating.”
Entergy hopes this year to sell the shuttered facility to energy technology provider Holtec International, which would then own Pilgrim’s decommissioning trust fund and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management on the property. Holtec says it can complete most of the cleanup by 2026.
The NRC is reviewing the companies’ license transfer application for Pilgrim. The state of Massachusetts and advocacy group Pilgrim Watch have petitioned the agency to intervene in the proceeding, raising concerns about the adequacy of funding levels for decommissioning.
Indian Point Resumes Power Production
Separately, Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear power plant in upstate New York was back online as of Wednesday following the final maintenance and refueling outage ahead of its retirement in 2021.
The maintenance period started on March 11 covered, according to an Entergy press release: inspections of the reactor vessel head and baffle bolts; swapping out the reactor coolant pump seal and various pumps and motors, preventive upkeep on the emergency diesel generator; and laser scanning “the reactor head seal seating surfaces.”
For about a month, 900 contract workers joined the 1,000-person Entergy plant workforce.
Refueling addressed reactor Unit 3. The entire project cost $70 million.
Entergy bought Units 2 and 3 from their prior owners in 2000 and 2001. The power company plans to retire Unit 2 by the end of April 2020 and Unit 3 a year later. It expects to announce plans for the sale of the facility by the end of 2019.
