The Fort Calhoun Station will cease operations on Monday, a manager with the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week, as the company ramps up its $1.2 billion decommissioning project at the Nebraska nuclear facility.
OPPD’s Board of Directors in June unanimously approved shutting down the 43-year-old, Blair, Neb., facility, calling it an economic decision. Having employed about 700 workers at the plant, many of the board members called it the hardest decision of their tenures.
OPPD Senior Director of Fort Calhoun Decommissioning Mary Fisher briefed the NRC’s staff on decommissioning plans during a conference call Tuesday, saying the utility expects to deliver a post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR), a decommissioning cost estimate (DCE), and a spent fuel management plan and limited site characterization in the first quarter of 2017. The most immediate milestone will be delivery of a certificate of permanent removal of fuel from the reactor vessel, which OPPD expects to submit to the NRC in November.
According to Fort Calhoun plant training manager Tim Uehling, who was also on the call, OPPD expects to complete its one-year effort of moving all spent fuel into dry storage on a spent fuel pad by 2022. The existing pad, Fisher said, is presently loaded with 10 casks.
Fisher noted that OPPD has communicated with utilities that manage several other sites that have undergone or are undergoing SAFSTOR decommissioning, which OPPD has chosen. OPPD is hoping to apply the lessons learned from other utilities.
NRC staff asked Fisher if OPPD plans to establish a decommissioning advisory panel, which several other utilities have done at their facilities. Fisher said that while the company is always evaluating its options, OPPD’s board of directors meetings and outreach currently allow for a sufficient amount of public discourse.
