By John Stang
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing a petition contending FirstEnergy Solutions decommissioning trust funds have enough money to shut down and dismantle three nuclear power plants.
The Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center submitted the petition earlier this year as FirstEnergy Solutions filed for bankruptcy and announced it will shut down four reactors at the facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania in less than four years if it does not get federal and state financial assistance.
The petition to the NRC was filed in March, one day before FirstEnergy Solutions announced the probable shutdown of the reactors and less than a week before the bankruptcy filing.
No timetable is set for the NRC to complete its review. The nuclear industry regulator has formed a petition review board to decide whether to pursue the matter. If it does, it will publish a notice in the Federal Register to seek public comment.
FirstEnergy Solutions files a report with the NRC every two years on the status of its decommissioning trust funds.
“If FirstEnergy’s trust funds come up short in the next (March 31,2019) report, we would direct them to take action to restore reasonable assurance,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email.
The ELPC, an environmental watchdog organization that includes nuclear energy in its portfolio of issues, is seeking such an order from the NRC.
Like other nuclear utilities, Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Solutions says low natural gas prices and other market forces are driving its nuclear power plants out of business. The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, would close in May 2020; the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio, in May 2021; and the Beaver Valley Power Station’s two reactors in Shippingport, Pa., in May and October 2021.
The four reactors’ NRC operations licenses are not scheduled to expire until different times between 2026 and 2047.
FirstEnergy Solutions’ decommissioning trusts for each site are tailored for closures dates from 2026 through 2047, not for 2020 and 2021, said EPLC attorney Margrethe Kearney. Consequently, the group believes the trusts would not have enough time to accumulate the money needed for decommissioning.
“All the accelerated dates are significant, and they impact the math,” Kearney in an interview with RadWaste Monitor.
In its petition to the commission, the ELPC cited significant shortfalls in decommissioning funding, using figures from the company’s 2017 decommissioning funding status report to the NRC.
At last accounting, FirstEnergy had $286.6 million in external trusts for Beaver Valley reactor No. 1, which has an estimated decommissioning cost of $481.9 million. Beaver Valley No. 2’s trust fund held $378.7 million for the projected $481.9 million cleanup. FirstEnergy is the majority owner of the No. 2 reactor, for which it shares decommissioning obligations with Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison.
Meanwhile, Davis-Besse had $552.4 million set aside for a decommissioning estimate of only $467.4 million. And Perry’s trust fund had $515.5 million for a project anticipated to cost $651.9 million.
The NRC staff will be watching to ensure the decommissioning trusts are untouched as FirstEnergy proceeds through bankruptcy, McIntyre said.
“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,” he wrote. “The next report is due March 31, 2019, with information as of December 31, 2018. For that report, the licensee will of course be using the current anticipated shutdown dates when calculating the formula.”
FirstEnergy Solutions declined to comment Wednesday beyond pointing to an April 4 NRC memo that said each of FirstEnergy Solutions’ three sites have sufficient funding in their decommissioning trusts. The April 4 NRC memo did not list specific dollar amounts.
The company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., has asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry to order power grids to buy electricity from nuclear and coal-fired plants, arguing he has the power to do so under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act and the Defense Production Act of 1950
On June 1, President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to help keep struggling nuclear and coal-fired power plants afloat. But FirstEnergy Solutions contended it still needs help from the state governments of Ohio and Pennsylvania to sustain its four reactors.
At the state level, no such legislation was ever introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature. A bill to allow FirstEnergy to increase its rates died in committee in the Ohio legislature.
So far, no details have been made public of how Trump’s order will be carried out, including what help will come from the Department of Energy.
The president’s directive prompted criticism from PJM Interconnections, members of Congress, states’ attorneys general, environmental organizations, the American Petroleum Institute, and natural gas industry associations. PJM Interconnections, the regional power clearinghouse for several Midwest and central Atlantic coast states, buys FirstEnergy Solutions’ electricity. The thrust of their criticisms is that the federal government should not artificially prop up the nuclear and coal-fired power industries when natural gas is providing cheaper power on the free market.
