By John Stang
Parties to a state regulatory review of the planned sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant said Wednesday they anticipate within two weeks reaching agreement on remaining points of contention.
“The Parties anticipate that a Memorandum of Understanding will be filed with the Commission by March 2, 2018, that addresses financial assurances and site restoration standards and that some or all of the parties participating in settlement negotiations will join. That agreement is close to but is not yet final,” several of the parties said in a status update filed with the Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC).
A status conference on the talks between the parties and PUC was scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Power company Entergy closed Vermont Yankee in December 2014, and aims to sell the plant to NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management. NorthStar says it can complete decommissioning by 2026 at a cost of roughly $811 million.
The Public Utility Commission must approve the sale, and it has authorized intervention by a number of governmental and nongovernmental organizations. That enables the entities to participate in the PUC’s proceeding.
NorthStar’s financial wherewithal to carry out its cleanup pledge, and the state the property will be left in once decommissioning is complete, have been key issues for the intervenors.
Wednesday’s status update was filed by Entergy; NorthStar; the Vermont Public Service Department, Agency of Natural Resources, and Attorney General’s Office; and the Windham Regional Commission, a local planning body for 27 towns in three counties. The Elnu Abenaki Tribe offered partial concurrence.
The status update lays out two schedules for the PUC review after the anticipated MOU is filed. The process has been largely suspended in recent months as the parties negotiated on the sidelines.
If all the parties sign the March 2 memorandum, prefiled testimony would be submitted by March 12, followed by the second and last commission public hearing on the sale sometime from March 13 to 23 and evidentiary hearings starting on March 26 in Montpelier. The Elnu Abenaki Tribe agreed with this timetable.
If only some of the parties sign the March 2 memorandum, prefiled testimony would be submitted by March 9, written discovery would be submitted by March 16, and depositions would be taken as needed from March 27 to April 2. The public hearing would take place between April 5 and April 9, with evidentiary hearings to begin April 10. The Elnu Abenaki Tribe had not taken a position on this timetable.
Entergy, NorthStar, and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office either declined to comment or did not respond to phone calls Thursday on the talks.
Other parties to the PUC proceeding are the Associated Industries of Vermont, the town of Vernon’s Planning and Economic Development Commission, the Conservation Law Foundation, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 300, Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, and the New England Coalition.
The antinuclear New England Coalition on Wednesday submitted its own proposed timetable. “NEC has participated in multiple negotiation sessions regarding possible resolution of this proceeding. NEC continues to hope that this proceeding will be resolved by an agreement that is entered into by all parties,” the environmental group said in its filing with the PUC.
If all the parties sign the March 2 memorandum, the New England Coalition proposed that the Public Utility Commission set the schedules.
If only some of the parties sign the March 2 memorandum, the coalition proposes a longer, more drawn out timetable, with prefiled testimony to be submitted 10 business days after the start of the clock on an indefinite date. Discovery would begin 10 business days after the prefiled testimony. Subsequent steps would take more than a month.
Entergy and NorthStar hope to close the sale by the end of 2018, pending approval from the Vermont PUC and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The federal agency has said it expects to complete its review of the Vermont Yankee license transfer request in the first quarter of this year. The companies have indicated their hope the Public Utility Commission will also meet that schedule, though that appears unlikely at this point.
