Mass. AG Petitions to Intervene in NRC Review of Pilgrim Deal

By Chris Schneidmiller

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and a local watchdog organization this week petitioned for intervention and a hearing in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the license transfer application for the nearly retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

An affirmative decision from the NRC is required for owner Entergy to sell the plant to Holtec International. If the deal goes through, Holtec would assume ownership of the decommissioning trust fund for the single-reactor facility on Cape Cod and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and management of spent fuel.

In separate petitions, each totaling more than 100 pages, Attorney General Maura Heaney and Pilgrim Watch made the case for their standing to intervene in the proceeding and presented contentions they would raise at an adjudicatory hearing. The agency must be persuaded that the petitioners have such standing and have submitted admissible contentions to approve their intervention, which would make them parties to the NRC review.

The Attorney General’s Office claim for standing is barely three lines: It represents the state of Massachusetts, which is where the plant is located. Pilgrim Watch, based about 35 miles outside of Boston in the town of Duxbury, goes into slightly more detail: A number of its members live within 10 miles of the facility and the NRC previously gave it standing during the license renewal for the site, among other reasons.

Both petitions offer two similar contentions: That the companies have not proven that there is enough money to pay for decommissioning, as demanded by law, and that the companies have not performed the necessary environmental evaluations.

A key point is Holtec’s request for an exemption from federal regulations that would allow it to use the decommissioning trust for spent fuel management and site restoration.

“The Commonwealth contends that the Applicants have not demonstrated that the Decommissioning Trust Fund, standing alone and in light of Holtec’s Exemption Request, will provide adequate financial assurance as required by the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) and the Commission’s regulations,” lawyers for the Attorney General’s Office wrote in their petition. “Indeed, Holtec’s own Cost Estimate predicts that it will have a meager $3.6 million left in the Trust Fund on the license termination date—an amount that, on its face, raises serious questions about whether adequate financial assurance exists.”

Heaney’s office added that Entergy and Holtec failed to account for potential developments that could drive up the cost of decommissioning. Holtec’s 17-percent contingency allowance is sufficient to cover only events it anticipates, the AG said.

The second shared contention is that the license transfer request did not feature an environmental report and separate environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal regulations.

The license transfer application “cannot be approved without an updated environmental report based on a thorough environmental assessment performed at the beginning of the decommissioning process as required by the National Environmental Policy Act,” Pilgrim Watch stated in its petition.

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s boiling water reactor began operations in 1972, and New Orleans-based Entergy bought the plant in 1999. In 2015, it announced plans to close the facility, citing low natural gas prices for power production and other financial challenges that would cause it to lose $40 million annually. Pilgrim is now scheduled to close by May 31.

Under the license transfer application filed in November, the Entergy subsidiary that owns the plant would sell it to a Holtec subsidiary that would assume possession. Actual decommissioning would be carried out by Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a partnership of Holtec and Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin.

In its post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR), the New Jersey energy technology company said it could complete decommissioning by 2027, with full license termination in 2063 once the site’s spent fuel is removed. The full cost is estimated at $1.134 billion, just above the $1 billion presently in the decommissioning trust. The timeline is decades faster than Entergy had planned, and the approach slightly less expensive.

Entergy said Thursday it is reviewing the intervention petitions, but did not say whether it would oppose them. “We believe the transfer of Pilgrim to Holtec for prompt and safe decommissioning is the best option for Plymouth and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

“Holtec International respects all U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission proceedings, including the right of individuals and organizations to intervene,” Joy Russell, Holtec’s senior vice president for business development and communications, said in prepared statement. “We believe our company’s industry-leading expertise in the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel, combined with our joint venture company’s (Comprehensive Decommissioning International) expertise in decommissioning is the perfect partnership to safely decommission Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. We remain committed to working with the stakeholders in the region to demonstrate our environmental and economic commitment to the Pilgrim project.”

Holtec and Entergy hope for an NRC ruling by April on the license transfer. A review generally takes roughly one year, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Thursday by email.

“During a pre-submittal meeting last year, we informed the firms that while the NRC staff will endeavor to complete its review in the requested timeframe, that will depend upon several factors, including the amount of time it takes them to respond to our requests for additional information on the application; any unanticipated addition of scope to the review; and reviews by NRC advisory committees or hearing-related activities,” Sheehan wrote.

The commission itself will review the intervention petitions, according to the spokesman.

Entergy also plans to sell its Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan to Holtec and is looking for buyers for its Indian Point facility in New York state. Along with Pilgrim, these are the final reactors in Entergy’s Wholesale Commodities business, which it is winding down.

Holtec is also in negotiations to buy Exelon’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey.

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Mass. AG Petitions to Intervene in NRC Review of Pilgrim Deal