By John Stang
Entergy said this week it has not determined yet when it will restart moving spent nuclear fuel at its retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The power company halted spent fuel transfer from wet to dry storage on March 10 after a broken bolt was found in a Holtec International spent fuel storage canister at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County, Calif. While Vermont Yankee uses a different type of Holtec canister for fuel storage, it plans to examine all of its casks.
When the fuel transfer was suspended, 43 of 58 casks had been loaded and transferred to the dry storage pad, the Rutland Herald reported on March 30. Entergy aims to complete the process by the end of 2018. Thirteen of those containers had been filled prior to the plant’s closure in December 2014.
Separately, Entergy is on track to make a May 5 deadline to provide the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission with additional documentation regarding the planned sale of Vermont Yankee to NorthStar Group Services, said Joe lynch, Entergy’s senior government affairs manager for decommissioning.
In an April 5 letter, the NRC said it needs more information demonstrating NorthStar has sufficient financing to carry out the cleanup work after taking over Vermont Yankee and is qualified to conduct decommissioning.
The NRC wants documentation of current or future litigation against the U.S. Department of Energy that would back up the companies’ claim that they can safely anticipate payments from the federal government to replenish the decommissioning trust fund for Vermont Yankee to pay for spent fuel management. It is also looking for the source of funding for a $55 million escrow fund that would backstop financing for decommissioning and site restoration.
Both the NRC and Vermont’s Public Utility Commission must approve the sale.
On March 2, Entergy, NorthStar, three Vermont state agencies, and several New England community organizations signed a proposed settlement in which the site’s current and prospective owners offered financial assurances and site-remediation terms intended to resolve concerns about the deal. The set-aside money to cover any cost overruns in decommissioning is to be more than $200 million, according to the agreement.
The NRC wants to know what impact the terms and conditions of the proposed settlement would have on the financial and technical data provided by Entergy and NorthStar about the license transfers.
In a related matter, Vermont Assistant Attorney General Kyle Landis-Marinello — who has handled the Vermont Yankee sale review for the state agency — became general counsel for the Vermont Public Utility Commission on Monday. A commission memorandum said he will not participate in settlement agreement issues in his new post.
