The Florida Public Service Commission approved a $540 million fixed-price contract between Duke Energy and Accelerated Decommissioning Partners for the decommissioning of the Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida on Thursday.
Accelerated Decommissioning Partners is a joint venture between NorthStar Group Services and Orano USA.
The contract approval marks the final step in the regulatory process to start the decontamination and dismantlement of the plant after the Florida Public Service Commission approved the license transfer in August after a 14-month review.
Accelerated Decommissioning Partners will decommission the facility, which was shut down in 2013, over the next seven years. Duke Energy, which will retain ownership of the plant, originally planned to complete the decommissioning process in 2074 but decided in 2019 to contract the work to Accelerated Decommissioning Partners subsidiary ADP CR3 instead.
The company has already started prepping and engineering the facility for decommissioning, and plans to begin removing and shipping radioactive tools to the plant in 2021. Once the process ends in 2027, the dry cask storage facility will be the only thing left of the plant.
