The state of New York is objecting to a request by power company Entergy for federal approval to reduce staffing at the Indian Point Energy Center as its two remaining operational reactors are retired over the next 16 months.
Three separate state agencies have reviewed the plan, filed last April with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It calls for culling around 50 shift and emergency operations positions in two stages, as Indian Point reactor Units 2 and 3 are retired and defueled. That would happen before all radioactive spent fuel is transferred to on-site dry-cask storage, raising the state’s ire.
“The State of New York strenuously objects to that timing and proposal,” Janice Dean, deputy counsel at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), wrote in a Jan. 9 letter to Rich Guzman, senior project manager for Indian Point at the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. She noted that the Westchester County power plant is 24 miles north of New York City.
“A spent fuel pool accident at Indian Point could have unique and devastating impacts on the New York metropolitan area, that would be unlike the impacts at any other site in the country,” according to Dean. “Accordingly, until such time that fuel from the reactors is secured in dry cask storage, and therefore any potential risk has been truly minimized, the State of New York’s position is that all on-site and off-site emergency response capabilities should be maintained at current levels.”
Entergy announced in 2017 it would retire Indian Point Unit 2 by April 30 of this year, followed by Unit 3 at the end of April 2021. Unit 1 has been shuttered since 1974.
The two operational reactors are each loaded with 193 fuel assemblies and will require about three weeks to be defueled, according to Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi. It will take roughly three years to move all used fuel from the facility’s two cooling pools into dry storage – though that job could fall to prospective owner Holtec International.
New Orleans-based Entergy wants to sell the plant to the New Jersey energy technology company. The parties hope the NRC will by May 31, 2021, approve the license transfers needed for the deal to proceed. Assuming regulatory authorization, the new owner would possess the decommissioning trusts for Indian Point’s three reactors, along with all responsibility for cleanup and management of used reactor fuel. Holtec has said it can complete decommissioning of all three reactors within 15 years at a cost of $2.3 billion.
In its 2019 filing, Entergy asked the NRC to by April 16 of this year approve the proposed license amendments allowing the staffing reductions. The agency expects to make its decision by that date, a spokesman said.
The amendments would take effect following certification that Unit 2 has been permanently defueled. Each stage of staffing reduction would involve a 90-day implementation period.
They would cover on-shift staffing across all three reactors and personnel in the plant’s emergency response organization (ERO), “in response to the reduced spectrum of credible accidents” as the facility is permanently retired, Entergy said.
“Plans to reduce staffing at Indian Point, including the staffing levels required to respond to a post-shutdown event, are commensurate with the reduction in risk following the permanent shutdown and defueling of the reactors,” Nappi said by email Tuesday. “Entergy’s plan for staffing is consistent with previously shutdown nuclear power plants and ensures the continued safety of its workers and the public.”
Stage I would cover the period after reactor Unit 2 has been shut down and defueled while Unit 3 remains operational. The sole remaining position for Unit 1, a single nuclear plant operator, would be eliminated. Only four positions would remain among the current minimum on-shift staff of 12 for Unit 2: one shift manager, one nuclear plant operator, one radiation protection technician, and one chemistry technician. There would be no changes to on-shift staffing for Unit 3 or the augmented ERO.
Stage II would be initiated following the retirement and defueling of Unit 3, at which point there would be no authorized operational reactor at Indian Point. At that point, the on-shift chemistry technician job at Unit 2 would be terminated – leaving the three other positions. Just three of 13 on-shift positions for Unit 3 would remain: one shift manager, one nuclear plant operator, and one radiation protection technician.
More than two dozen positions would be cut from the augmented ERO, including the plant operations manager and facility communicator in the control room; the manager and operations coordinator for the technical support center; and various positions in the operations support center, emergency operations facility, and joint information center. At least 18 positions would remain, including the emergency plant manager, radiological coordinator, and engineering coordinator in the technical support center; the operations support center manager; and the emergency director and others in the emergency operations facility.
The reduction and retention numbers for the ERO are not as clear as those for on-shift personnel. For example: The application to the NRC says an unspecified number of technicians in the operations support center would be reduced by an unspecified amount, available to respond as needed.
There is no estimate for the savings accrued through the reductions, Nappi said.
About 900 people are currently employed at Indian Point. Total headcount will drop to 300 to 350 employees after the last reactor is shut down and defueled. Those workers will be retained as staff for Comprehensive Decommissioning International, the Holtec-SNC-Lavalin joint venture that will carry out the actually plant decommissioning.
