The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved changes to Holtec International’s framework for managing a dedicated decommissioning fund at a shuttered New York nuclear power plant after pointing out a discrepancy in the plan, the agency said this week.
NRC Nov. 9 greenlit a revision to Holtec’s master decommissioning trust fund agreement for Indian Point Energy Center following a meeting with the company to discuss the plan’s “shortcomings,” a spokesperson for the agency told RadWaste Monitor in an email Thursday.
According to a summary of NRC’s Nov. 2 call with Holtec, published Monday, the nuclear services company gave the agency a progress update on its work to clarify aspects of its plan for managing Indian Point Energy Center’s decommissioning trust fund.
NRC in October raised concerns about the Buchanan, N.Y. plant’s multi-million dollar decommissioning fund, taking issue with a provision in Holtec’s master agreement for the account that appeared to allow the company to appoint itself as an investment manager for the fund. That would conflict with federal regulations, NRC said at the time.
During the Nov. 2 call, Holtec walked NRC through a draft of proposed changes to Indian Point’s trust agreement, explaining how the updates “provided a consistent understanding” of how the investment provision complies with federal regulations.
According to the call summary, the agency seemed to be at least partially mollified by the draft updates, saying that they “appear to meet the NRC’s understanding.” The commission asked Holtec to formalize the changes. The company submitted its final changes Nov. 4, NRC said Thursday.
Holtec told the commission that the “clarifications and improvements” to Indian Point’s trust fund agreement would be “incorporated into other future site submittals.”
Holtec, which took ownership of Indian Point after it shut down in April 2021, has already faced questions about its planned use of the facility’s decommissioning trust fund. The company reached a settlement with the state of New York in May 2021 which, among other things, required it to keep no less than $400 million in the Indian Point fund during decommissioning.
Holtec has said that it could finish decommissioning Indian Point by 2023 or so.
