By John Stang
Exelon at noon Monday officially retired its Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey ahead of what is anticipated to be an accelerated decommissioning.
The boiling water reactor in Lacey Township became operational in December 1969, on the same day as the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station near Oswego, N.Y. Since Oyster Creek received its license first from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it was technically the oldest operating power reactor in the United States.
“Eventually these buildings will disappear, but the station’s legacy of safe, reliable operations, community involvement, and environmental stewardship will never fade,” said Exelon Oyster Creek Vice President Tim Moore in a Monday news release.
Lacey Township Committee member Gary Quinn added: “Although we are sad to see this icon of the community cease operations, we look forward to a continued strong relationship with those at the facility as it enters into decommissioning.
While its current Nuclear Regulatory Commission license does not expire until 2029, New Jersey officials and Exelon agreed in 2010 to shut down the plant by late 2019 so the company would not have to pay $800 million to install new cooling towers. Exelon later moved the date up to Monday to help shift around workers more efficiently. About 300 Oyster Creek employees are expected to stay with the site for its decommissioning work.
Exelon plans to sell the plant for Camden, N.J., energy technology company Holtec International for decommissioning, which it will carry out with Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin. The NRC must approve the license transfer, but no state approval is necessary.
Holtec and Exelon hope to secure NRC approval and to complete the sale next year. However, the NRC is mum on the speed for reviewing the requested license transfer. The two corporation are keeping the sales price confidential.
Exelon originally planned to place the Oyster Creek reactor into SAFSTOR mode for several decades, with decommissioning and site restoration to be finished in 2080. Holtec intends to expedite decommissioning to 2027.
Full off-site transfer of the plant’s used fuel would shift from 2024 under the original Exelon plan to 2021 under Holtec. A question mark is how fast the federal government will come up with a permanent site to accept all of Oyster Creek’s used fuel.
Oyster Creek is the first of at least three soon-to-close nuclear plants Holtec plans to buy for decommissioning. The company and Entergy are expected in October to file a license transfer application for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, which is scheduled to be retired no later than June 1, 2019. The two companies are also planning a deal for the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan, which details still firming up ahead of its planned shutdown in 2022.
Holtec and its partners have avoided discussing the terms of the sales. But, if they follow the precedent set by NorthStar Group Services’ planned acquisition of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant from Entergy, Holtec would pay a nominal fee for each property and then keep some portion of its decommissioning trust fund once cleanup is complete.
