A total of 181 nuclear power reactors around the world have been retired as of July 1, but only 19 of those have been fully decommissioned, according to the 2019 version of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report.
The number of shuttered reactors rose by eight from the 2018 version of report. The United States, Japan, and Russia all had two retired reactors, with one each in South Korea and Taiwan.
Those numbers appear slightly outdated – In the U.S., for instance, reactor Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania closed on Sept. 20.
Overall, the closures are heavily focused in Europe, representing 108 of the depowered reactors through June 2019, with 42 in North America and 31 in Asia. These plants “are awaiting or are in various stages of decommissioning,” the report says.
Figuring that reactors will on average operate for 40 years, another 207 are due for retirement by 2030 and 125 more as of 2059, according to the authors.
The number of decommissioned reactors – those that have been defueled, deconstructed, and dismantled – remains the same as reported in the 2018 report. The United States accounted for 13 of those reactors, Germany five, and Japan one. Other adopters of nuclear power, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada, have yet to completely decommission any reactor, the report says.
“In the U.S., there was no tangible progress in reactor decommissioning [since the prior report], but it seems that the new organizational model of selling the license to a decommissioning contractor, identified in WNISR2018, gains popularity,” it says.
A number of U.S. companies have jumped into this decommissioning market in the last few years, with three retired power plants changing hands within the past 12 months and more deals set in coming years.
The report notes that Vermont in December 2018 gave final regulatory approval for the sale of the Vermont Yankee power plant, closed since December 2014, from owner Entergy to NorthStar Group Services. The deal closed the following month, making the New York City-based environmental solutions provider responsible for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the site.
Since then, energy technology specialist Holtec International has acquired the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey and the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts under similar deals. It plans to acquire facilities in New York state and Michigan following their retirements over the next three years.
Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, a joint venture of NorthStar Group Services and the U.S. branch of French nuclear company Orano, and nuclear services firm EnergySolutions are also eyeing opportunities in the new decommissioning business model.
In these cases, the buyer pays a nominal amount for the reactor property and also acquires the plant’s decommissioning trust. Those funds are the intended central source of profit for the new owners once decommissioning is complete.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report provided updates on nuclear power decommissioning projects in the United States and abroad, though some of its information is outdated or incorrect.
It mentions that Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions bought the licenses for the two retired reactors at the Zion nuclear power plant in Illinois and for the shuttered La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin. But in those cases the owners transferred the licenses to EnergySolutions for decommissioning, but will reclaim them following the end of that work.
There is also reference to continued defueling of reactor Units 2 and 3 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County, Calif., following their permanent shutdown in 2013. However, the reactors have already been defueled; their spent fuel assemblies are now being moved from two cooling ponds to dry storage on-site. That process resumed in July following a nearly yearlong halt in the wake of a mishap in which one fuel canister was left at risk of an 18-foot drop while being placed into storage in August 2018.
The authors acknowledged the potential for errors in the report: “This report contains a very large amount of factual and numerical data. While we do our utmost to verify and double-check, nobody is perfect. The authors are always grateful for corrections and suggested improvements.”
The lead authors of the report are Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt, both consultants on global energy issues. The project was funded by environment-focused organizations including the MacArthur Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Heinrich Böll Foundation France, and the Swiss Renewable Energy Foundation.
The green focus of the funding organizations did not go unnoticed.
“Does anyone else wonder how folks behind World Nuclear Industry Status Report managed to convince so many reporters to quote it as if it was an independent analysis?” pro-nuclear power specialist Rod Adams tweeted this week. “Authors have a biased position on value of nuclear energy. Not experts. Writers of antinuclear talking points.”
Five U.S. Nuclear Power Plants to Close by End of 2025, EIA Says
Eight U.S. nuclear power plants have been retired since 2013 in the face of continued energy market pressure, with five more scheduled for shutdown over the next six years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Monday.
The latest early retirement was Exelon’s reactor Unit 1 at Three Mile Island. Before that, Entergy closed its single-reactor Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on Cape Cod, Mass., on May 31.
“Declining prices for electric power in wholesale markets have placed economic pressures on many nuclear power plants in the United States and led to several plant closures,” the EIA noted on its “Today in Energy” article.
Low natural gas prices have been identified as a particular challenge to the viability of nuclear power.
To offset these challenges, five states have enacted financial-assistance programs for atomic energy operations within their borders, according to the EIA. Ohio put its program into place in July, following similar efforts dating to 2017 in Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.
“Collectively, the 14 reactors at the 10 plants receiving state support account for 9% of the utility-scale generating capacity in those five states and 13% of the nation’s nuclear generating capacity,” EIA said. “Because nuclear power plants tend to operate at higher capacity factors than other generator types, these plants’ shares of their states’ or the national electricity generation is larger than their shares of capacity.”
The programs have been controversial, drawing lawsuits and, in Ohio, a proposed November 2020 ballot referendum to undo the new law under which electricity ratepayers subsidize continued operation of FirstEnergy Solutions’ Davis-Besse and Perry plants. FirstEnergy Solutions had planned to close the sites before the legislation passed this summer.
Unlike their peers in the five states, legislators in Pennsylvania have to date refused to pass legislation to provide financial support for nuclear power.
