Despite the still-raging pandemic, Holtec International’s decommissioning and advanced nuclear business lines had a pretty good year, the nuclear services company said in a roll-up press release this week.
The Camden, N.J., based Holtec moved 207 casks of spent nuclear fuel into dry storage at 21 plants around the world in 2021, the company said in a statement Monday. Holtec also set new speed records for spent fuel transfers last year at New Jersey’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and later at Massachusetts’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, the statement said. Oyster Creek was completely defueled over the summer, and Holtec moved Pilgrim’s last spent fuel canister into dry storage Dec. 13.
The rest of Holtec’s U.S. decommissioning portfolio is growing, the company said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December approved Holtec’s application to purchase Michigan’s Palisades and Big Rock Point from Entergy. Meanwhile, defueling at New York’s Indian Point Energy Center, which Holtec took over from Entergy in April, is “on track,” the statement said.
As of 2021, Holtec has 138 clients worldwide for its spent fuel storage and transfer services, the company said. Most recently, Holtec locked down a contract with India’s national nuclear plant operator to build a spent fuel transport cask for Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant — the country’s largest nuclear plant.
Holtec also touted its advancements in advanced nuclear power development. The company formalized an around $116 million grant from the Department of Energy last year to support development of its SMR-160 advanced reactor. That federal cash was a “tonic to the morale” of Holtec staff working on that project, the company said, and has advanced the deployment timeline for the first SMR-160 unit to 2029 from 2030.
Holtec has said that the Oyster Creek plant is being evaluated as a potential site for an SMR-160. Vice President of Regulatory and Environmental Affairs Andrea Sterdis told RadWaste Monitor Nov. 1 that the company wasn’t ready to comment on a timeline for such an evaluation.
