By John Stang
The fact that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission tweaked the conditions for transferring the licenses for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is cause for the state Public Utility Commission to reject the plan as it currently stands, an environmental group argued in a new filing Wednesday.
Among the organizations authorized to intervene in the state proceeding, the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation was the lone holdout to a settlement agreement for the sale of the retired single-reactor facility from Entergy to NorthStar Group Services.
The three-member Vermont Public Utility Commission has not set a schedule for completing its deliberations on the proposed sale, said John Cotter, VPUC deputy counsel. All parties have until Monday to file additional documents pertaining to the deal.
New Orleans-based power company Entergy closed Vermont Yankee in December 2014 and announced nearly two years later it would sell the property to NorthStar, a nuclear decommissioning specialist headquartered in New York City. The new owner would assume all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the property in the town of Vernon. It says it can complete the majority of cleanup as early as 2026.
On Oct. 11, the NRC approved transferring Entergy’s licenses for Vermont Yankee’s boiling water reactor and spent fuel storage pad. The $1,000 sale must be completed before the licenses are actually transferred. The two companies hope to finish the sale by the end of this year, but still need the OK from VPUC. They asked for a decision within 30 days of the NRC ruling, but the commission has not committed to that schedule.
The NRC added a number of conditions to its approval of the license transfers, focusing on guaranteeing the financial viability of the decommissioning project.
NorthStar must provide the agency with proof that it has sufficient insurance for the property. NorthStar’s subsidiaries at Vermont Yankee cannot take any steps to undermine the $140 million support agreement for funding at the site, one of the components of the settlement memorandum of understanding, without prior approval from the NRC’s director for the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. And NorthStar must secure a $4.3 million performance bond if it cannot reach agreement with the Department of Energy on reimbursement for spent fuel management costs by Jan. 1, 2022.
The Conservation Law Foundation zeroed in on those NRC conditions in its filing with the state commission: “The determination by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve the proposed transfer only with additional conditions and additional financial assurances demonstrates clearly that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) cannot approve the proposed transaction based on the current evidentiary record.”
It urged VPUC to reject a finding that the sale is in the general good if Entergy and NorthStar fail by Monday to submit prefiled testimony and additional paperwork that address the conditions set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Because of the NRC determination, the proposal presented to the PUC is not the current proposal, and does not include the terms under which a transfer will proceed. The PUC should not approve an outdated and phantom proposal that lacks the additional assurances required by the NRC,” the foundation contended.
“Ultimately, we’d like to see the Vermont Yankee site cleaned up quickly and clean up well. … Our concern here is there is an insufficient backstop (if NorthStar runs into difficulties with financing or decommissioning),” said Sandy Levine, senior attorney the foundation, in a telephone interview.
The organization has contended NorthStar needs insurance or other guarantees in place that amount to one-and-a-half times its cleanup budget in order to address unexpected problems; Entergy must retain some fiscal responsibility for the site; incentives need to be built into the sales agreement for NorthStar to do the best possible job; and public oversight must be more transparent.
In a statement to RadWaste Monitor, Michael Twomey, vice president for external affairs for Entergy Wholesale Commodities, said only that the power company is reviewing the Conservation Law Foundation filing and has “no further comment at this time.”
The Conservation Law Foundation did not sign a March 2 settlement filed with the VPUC by Entergy, NorthStar, and a number of government entities and nongovernmental groups. The agreement lays out a long list of financial and remediation assurances for decommissioning Vermont Yankee.
The other parties to the agreement are the New England Coalition; the Vermont Department of Public Services, Agency of Natural Resources, Department of Health, and Attorney General’s Office; town of Vernon Planning and Economic Development Commission; Windham Regional Commission; Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi; and the Elnu Abenaki Tribe.
