As a decommissioning company looking to purchase a Wisconsin nuclear power plant argues its case before a state regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pinned its seal of approval on the proposed transaction, the agency said this week.
NRC has approved the sale of Kewaunee Power Station and its spent fuel storage facility to EnergySolutions from Dominion Energy, according to the press release dated Thursday. EnergySolutions plans to begin decommissioning the Carlton, Wisc., plant this year and wrap things up by 2030, the agency said.
Meanwhile, EnergySolutions and Dominion are in the midst of a state-level dispute with NorthStar about whether the Wisconsin State Public Service Commission (WPSC) should be able to rule on the financial terms of the transaction.
According to a Monday filing with the WPSC, EnergySolutions pushed back on NorthStar’s March 18 request that Kewaunee’s sale only be approved if the commission can impose financial conditions on the transaction ensuring that leftover cash in the plant’s decommissioning trust fund is returned to ratepayers after the project is completed.
EnergySolutions argued Monday that such an action “would serve nothing more than NorthStar’s commercial interests and potentially shift risks back onto ratepayers.”
Moreover, WPSC “relinquish[ed] authority” over Kewaunee’s decommissioning fund when it approved the plant’s 2005 license transfer to Dominion from the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and Alliant Energy, EnergySolutions said.
In its March 18 request, NorthStar suggested that WPSC implement a fixed-price contract to decommission Kewaunee, and that the contract include financial assurances that would protect against misuse of decommissioning trust funds.
EnergySolutions also took issue with NorthStar’s claim that it could decommission Kewaunee for around $500 million — significantly less than EnergySolutions’ quote of around $724 million. NorthStar’s projection is “misleading and without sound evidentiary basis or legal foundation,” EnergySolutions said. NorthStar hasn’t provided any sort of decommissioning plan, estimate or contract for WPSC review, the company argued, and the commission should reject its position.
NorthStar said in its own brief Monday that WPSC is not required to “blindly accept” EnergySolutions’ commitment to return excess funds, and that EnergySolutions is opposing the commission’s involvement in managing the trust fund because it “might result in state oversight of how it manages nearly one billion dollars of ratepayer funds.”
“[EnergySolutions’] ‘commitment’ is nothing more than a request that the Commission trust EnergySolutions completely,” NorthStar said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, presiding WPSC Judge Michael Newmark had yet to respond to either brief.
EnergySolutions has repeatedly expressed its frustration with NorthStar’s involvement in the Kewaunee proceedings ever since the company was allowed to intervene in September. So far, WPSC has yet to boot NorthStar from the docket.
Dominion and EnergySolutions reached a sale agreement for the Carlton, Wisc., nuclear plant in May 2021. WPSC must approve the transaction before it can move forward — a process for which the commission has said there is no strict timeline.
