The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved the transfer of the licenses for Exelon’s retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey to Holtec International.
Holtec expects by next month to complete its acquisition of the facility, announced about a month prior to its closure in September 2018. It will own the trust fund that will pay for decommissioning the reactor, along with all responsibility for cleanup and spent fuel management on the property.
The New Jersey-based energy technology company has estimated decommissioning will cost $885 million and can be largely finished by 2027. Exelon’s decommissioning trust, as of June 2018, held $980 million.
The Chicago-based power company had previously planned to put the plant into SAFSTOR mode, under which final decommissioning can be delayed for up to 60 years.
In its order, the NRC said it had determined the license transfer met the requirements of the Atomic Energy Act and federal nuclear regulations, and that there was “reasonable assurance” that future activities at Oyster Creek would not harm public health and safety or the common defense.
“This rapid regulatory approval is a significant achievement for our company and the industry as we undertake the prompt decommissioning of Oyster Creek,” said Holtec President and CEO Kris Singh said in a press release. “Approval of the License Transfer in a mere nine months from the date of application is a testament to the strong regulatory and financial profile of our company, the quality of our submittal to the NRC and the organizational efficiency of the NRC.”
This is the first of four nuclear plant acquisitions announced by Holtec to receive the NRC’s regulatory OK. A company executive said earlier this week that the license transfer application for Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts could be approved within six weeks.
Over the course of a year, Holtec has become possibly the lead player in a new approach for decommissioning shuttered nuclear power plants. Rather than doing the work, or hiring an outside contractor, nuclear utilities are selling off the properties and related assets. The prospective new owners say they have the experience and know-how to do the work faster and at less cost. They look to profit by finish decommissioning while still holding some portion of the trust fund.
NorthStar Group Services, a New York City-based demolition specialist, was first out of the gate by buying the shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from Entergy in January after receiving NRC and state authorization. Decommissioning is now underway, scheduled for completion by 2030 at a cost of $495 million.
During one week last summer, Holtec announced plans to acquire Oyster Creek, Pilgrim, and Entergy’s Palisades Power Plant in Michigan. The latter deal will advance closer to Palisades’ closure in 2022. Holtec in April also said it aims to buy the Indian Point Energy Center in upstate New York from owner Entergy in 2021, the year the plant’s final reactor is due to close.
Competitor Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, a joint venture of NorthStar Group Services and the U.S. branch of French nuclear firm Orano, meanwhile is set to assume ownership of Duke Energy’s retired Crystal River plant in Florida. The companies filed their license transfer application with the NRC this week.
Exelon closed the Oyster Creek boiling water reactor after nearly 50 years of power production.
The Sierra Club of New Jersey and Lacey Township, where the plant is located, both petitioned for hearings in the license transfer. They questioned whether there was enough money available to cover full decommissioning and expressed skepticism about Holtec’s partner in that work, Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin, which has been embroiled in a bribery scandal in its home nation.
Earlier this week, the four-person commission formalized their unanimous decision against the hearing requests in the proceeding. The commissioners determined both entities had failed to submit viable contentions against the license transfer and that the Sierra Club had not proved it had standing in the matter.
The actual license transfer will occur once the sale is completed, which Holtec expects in July. It will cover both the reactor operations license and the license for Oyster Creek’s spent fuel storage pad.
Holtec subsidiary Oyster Creek Environmental Protection will become the licensed plant owner. Another subsidiary, Holtec Decommissioning International, will be the decommissioning operator. The actual work will be done by the venture with SNC-Lavalin, Comprehensive Decommissioning International.
In approving the license transfer, agency staff required the Holtec subsidiaries to submit proof that they have sufficient levels of insurance as required by NRC regulations. They must also give the agency two days’ advance notice of the closing of the sale.
“Should the transfer of the license not be completed within 1 year of this Order’s date of issuance, this Order shall become null and void; provided, however, that upon written application and for good cause shown, such date may be extended by order,” the NRC order says.
Holtec said it eventually hopes to ship the plant’s used reactor fuel, totaling more than 4,000 fuel assemblies, to a centralized storage facility it plans to build in southeastern New Mexico. The NRC is still reviewing the company’s license application for that facility, which if built could store in excess of 100,000 metric tons of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants until a permanent repository is ready.
Speaking at the ExchangeMonitor’s Decommissioning Strategy Forum in Nashville on Monday, Holtec Decommissioning International Vice President for Regulatory and Environmental Affairs Andrea Sterdis said the company anticipated NRC approval on Oyster Creek in two weeks and for Pilgrim four weeks later.
An NRC spokesman on Monday confirmed the agency is on track for a decision on Pilgrim by the end of July, “barring unforeseen events.”
Entergy closed the single-reactor Pilgrim plant, located on Cape Cod, on May 31. The New Orleans-based power company and Holtec filed their license transfer application last November. Holtec says it can complete primarily decommissioning there by 2026.
The commonwealth of Massachusetts and the advocacy group Pilgrim Watch have petitioned for hearings in that proceeding.
