The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received formal notice of Entergy’s intent to close its Palisades Power Plant in Michigan more than three years later than it had recently planned.
Power operations will end in spring 2022, Charles Arnone, site vice president for Entergy Nuclear Operations, said in a Sept. 28 letter to the NRC. The letter, posted Oct. 6 on the regulator’s website, was issued the same day that Entergy announced it would not close Palisades next October.
“A more specific date for permanent power cessation cannot be provided at this time due to fuel cycle duration variables,” Arnone wrote. “Assuming no material change to present circumstances, ENO will submit a supplement to this letter certifying the cessation date in accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(1)(i) and 10 CFR 50.4(b)(8).”
The Sept. 28 letter specifically supersedes Entergy’s prior notice of its plan to close Palisades on Oct. 1, 2018, according to Arnone.
Entergy opted to keep the single-reactor facility open upon the mutual termination of a deal under which Michigan utility Consumers Energy was to buy their power purchase agreement. That deal was foiled when the Michigan Public Service Commission directed that Consumers Energy could have access to about $136 million in bonds for the contract buyout, roughly $35 million less than requested.
Entergy over the summer submitted several requests for exemption from certain regulations during the decommissioning transition period, in areas including security and cybersecurity, an NRC spokesman said: “Now that the licensee has decided to remain open, we expect them to review the requests and amend or withdraw them as appropriate.”
The utility now anticipates refueling Palisades in fall 2018 and then in 2020, spokeswoman Valary Gent said by email Thursday. Neither refueling would have happened under the prior closure schedule.
“Entergy will spend tens of millions of dollars on the next refueling and maintenance outages,” Gent wrote. “We will always make the necessary investments required to assure the safe and reliable operations of Palisades.”
The company said little about its plans for decommissioning Palisades, noting that it would be required within two years after permanent closure to submit to the NRC its post-shutdown decommissioning report covering the schedule and cost of site cleanup. The decommissioning trust for the plant held over $425 million as of February, Gent said.
Gent declined to comment on the status of talks to sell the facility to Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, a joint venture of AREVA and NorthStar Group Services formed earlier this year to buy up closed nuclear plants for decommissioning.
An AREVA executive last week told RadWaste Monitor that the negotiations, which also involve the Pilgrim Power Plant in Massachusetts, would not be completed in 2017, as had previously been anticipated.
