The Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center has petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review whether FirstEnergy Solutions’ decommissioning trust funds will have enough money to shut down and dismantle three nuclear power plants.
The ELPC contends that since FirstEnergy Solutions is closing its three Ohio and Pennsylvania sites — containing four reactors — decades earlier than planned, the set-aside decommissioning trust funds won’t be able to grow in the 2020s, 2030s, and 2040s to provide enough money for the cleanup work and management of used nuclear fuel.
The Akron, Ohio, company declared bankruptcy in March, just after announcing it would by October 2021 close the three power plants: the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio; the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio; and the Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa.
The four reactors’ NRC operations licenses are not scheduled to expire until different times between 2026 and 2047.
The NRC has received the ELPC petition and has formed a petition review board to decide whether to pursue the matter. If so, the regulator will publish a notice in the Federal Register to seek public comment.
“Meanwhile, the staff continues to watch the FirstEnergy bankruptcy proceedings with interest — our main interest being the decommissioning funds are left untouched. As of the last reporting cycle (end of 2016), the funds showed reasonable assurance that there would be enough money on hand for decommissioning when needed. The next report is due March 31, 2019, with information as of December 31, 2019. For that report, the licensee will of course be using the current anticipated shutdown dates when calculating the formula,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email.
FirstEnergy Solutions declined to comment Wednesday beyond pointing to an April 4 NRC memo that said its decommissioning funds seem to be sufficient.
