The Nuclear Regulatory Commission met recently with Holtec International to discuss the agency’s concerns about the company’s proposed use of a shuttered New York nuclear power plant’s dedicated decommissioning fund, a regulatory filing shows.
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.
Holtec told NRC that the “clarifications and improvements” to Indian Point’s trust fund agreement would be “incorporated into other future site submittals.” The summary document did not provide specific dates for when Holtec would submit its final changes to the trust agreement.
A spokesperson for NRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on any proposed timeline.
NRC has said that it would make a determination on whether Holtec’s trust agreement is in line with federal regulations after it has received all of the requested information.
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.
