The former site of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant is officially safe to use for other activities, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced in a press release last week.
NRC released the site of the decommissioned La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor for “unrestricted public use,” the agency said in the Friday press release. Such a designation means that residual radioactivity at the Genoa, Wisc., site is low enough that it can be used for any type of development activity.
La Crosse’s license, which currently belongs to Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions, will now be transferred back to Dairyland Power Cooperative, the utility that ran the facility from 1967 until shut down in 1987, NRC said. EnergySolutions took over at LaCrosse in 2016 — the company wrapped up decommissioning in 2019.
Dairyland Power Cooperative’s license for La Crosse will only cover the former plant’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI), the press release said. The utility will be responsible for security at the storage site and will have to keep around $100 million in liability insurance until the spent fuel is removed.
“We appreciate the NRC’s thorough and rigorous process to ensure the safe, successful completion of La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor decommissioning, EnergySolutions CEO Ken Robuck said in a statement dated Tuesday. “This approval is a testament to Dairyland Power and EnergySolutions’ dedicated, highly skilled employees, and our key partners.”
EnergySolutions first requested La Crosse be released for unrestricted use in 2020, and NRC approved a partial site release in May that only included the ISFSI. Friday’s announcement opens up the whole site for unrestricted use, the agency said.
