The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Indiana Michigan Power Co. have scheduled a July 17 teleconference to discuss an unexpected $150 million reduction in the decommissioning trust funds for the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant’s two power reactors.
In March 2017, Indiana Michigan Power reported the trust funds as of Dec. 31, 2016, stood at $459.5 million for Unit 1 and $418.2 million for Unit 2, for a total of $877.7 million. However, the NRC noted in May of this year that those figures were down significantly from the trust-fund numbers from 2015: $537.9 million for Unit 1 and $489.3 million for Unit 2, for a total of just under $1.1 billion.
The total reduction comes to roughly $149.6 million in just two years. Agency staff “notes that market growth during this period of time was approximately 9%. Therefore, the staff expected the [decommissioning trust fund] balances … to have increased accordingly,” Allison Dietrich, a project manager in the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, wrote in a May 29 letter to Joel Gebbie, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer for Indiana Michigan’s Nuclear Generation Group.
In an April 10, 2018, meeting, staff with the utility told NRC officials that while the amount of money in the trusts had increased, some of the funds had been reallocated for future maintenance of the independent spent fuel storage installation at the Berrien County, Mich., facility.
Agency staff noted that NRC rules prohibit repurposing of funds that have been designated for radiological decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The utility said it had not spent the money.
In her letter, Dietrich made five requests for additional information on the matter, including: confirming whether funds allocated for decommissioning of the two reactors had been repurposed for spent fuel management; the reasoning for reallocating the funds; and whether decommissioning funds were directed for any other purposes.
Dietrich directed Indian Michigan Power to respond within 30 days.
The teleconference on the decommissioning trusts is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday. Information on participating in the call can be found here.
