Holtec International anticipates the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will within six weeks approve license transfer applications for two retired nuclear power plants, after which it would buy the properties for decommissioning, a company executive said Monday.
Agency staff should in two weeks rule on the application for Holtec to assume the license for Exelon’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey, followed four weeks later on the application for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, according to Andrea Sterdis, vice president for regulatory and environmental affairs at Holtec Decommissioning International.
The New Jersey energy technology company anticipates affirmative decisions on both applications, Sterdis told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on the sidelines of the ExchangeMonitor’s Decommissioning Strategy Forum in Nashville.
An NRC spokesman on Monday confirmed the agency is on track for a decision on Pilgrim by the end of July, “barring unforeseen events.”
He did not confirm the timeline for the Oyster Creek plant, pending the results of an affirmation hearing of the commission this morning on petitions for a hearing in that license transfer application. The petitioners are the Sierra Club of New Jersey and Lacey Township, where Oyster Creek is located.
Exelon closed the boiling water reactor in September 2018. Holtec and Chicago-based Exelon filed their license transfer application the prior month.
Entergy closed the single-reactor Pilgrim plant, located on Cape Cod, on May 31. The New Orleans-based power company and Holtec filed their license transfer application last November. The commonwealth of Massachusetts and the advocacy group Pilgrim Watch have petitioned for hearings in that proceeding.
If the NRC approves the license transfers, the sales would be completed within days, Sterdis said. Holtec would then own the plants’ decommissioning trust funds, along with all responsibility for decommissioning, spent fuel management, and site restoration. In both cases, the company says it can complete decommissioning decades earlier than planned by the sites’ current owners.
