By John Stang
A New Jersey state judge on July 17 signed a consent order authorizing Holtec International to continue decommissioning of the retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station.
The order nominally resolves a brief dispute between the energy technology company and leaders in largely rural Lacey Township in south New Jersey, home to the single-reactor former nuclear power plant. Work had continued while the sides settled their differences.
Power company Exelon shut down Oyster Creek in September 2018, then sold it the following July for decommissioning by Camden, N.J.-based Holtec. To date it has demolished several office and storage buildings, removed the main power transformers, and dismantled a steam dryer.
Holtec had planned to begin expanding the used fuel dry storage pad and building a cask transfer pit. While the pit has been completed, management ultimately decided against the storage pad expansion.
Lacey Township contended local construction permits were needed for that work. Holtec countered that it already had the necessary authorization, from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under the federal license for Oyster Creek’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI).
On June 2, Lacey Township obtained a stop work order from the Superior Court of New Jersey in Ocean County. Holtec contested that stop order and continued the work. The two sides spent June and early July filing their arguments in court.
At the core of the dispute were differing interpretations on whether the NRC or Lacey Township had authority to issue Holtec’s construction permits, said Veronica Laureigh, the township administrator. Township officials tried to research the matter, “but nobody could give us an answer,” she told RadWaste Monitor.
On July 17, Superior Court Judge Francis Hodgson signed a consent order — negotiated by the parties in the preceding weeks – in which both sides declared it would be best to resolve the matter amicably without neither side admitting any fault.
The consent order directs Holtec to submit a plan to the township’s planning board on Aug. 10 that would cover the intended dry storage pad expansion, the numbers and engineering of the casks, and explanations of how the fuel would be transferred from a pool to dry storage. Holtec is expecting an answer from the planning board within 30 days of Aug. 10, after which it will apply for the appropriate permits. The company will update the planning board on a quarterly basis regarding progress with the project.
After receiving the planning board’s approval of the plan, Holtec will apply for township construction permits to build the cask transfer pit, said Holtec spokesman Joe Delmar. That pit will be used to transfer the canisters holding the spent fuel rods from a transport cask to the final dry cask overpack. Holtec has NRC permission for a dry run in the transfer process in September.
Movement of the actual fuel is scheduled to begin in early 2021. There are currently 34 NUHOMS canisters on the dry storage pad. Holtec plans to add 33 Holtec casks, but believes it can fit them on the current installation.
The legal dispute has not affected Oyster Creek’s decommissioning schedule, Delmar said. Decommissioning is supposed to be largely completed by 2025.
Holtec is also decommissioning the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, and plans to buy still-operational facilities in Michigan and New York state. In each case, it assumes all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
Under decommissioning, facilities must be removed and radiation levels reduced to the level where the property can be put to other use. While it has not discussed terms of its deals, Holtec assumes ownership of the trust funds that pay for decommissioning each reactor, which are generally worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
