The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has canned a coalition of anti-nuclear groups’ call for a public hearing on a recently-approved order allowing Exelon to transfer ownership of over a dozen of its former nuclear plants to its generation spin-off company, the agency said this week.
The Environmental Law and Policy Center (EPLC) nonprofit and anti-nuclear group Three Mile Island Alert (TMIA) didn’t persuade NRC that a hearing on the license transfers of 15 nuclear plants to Constellation Generation from former parent company Exelon would be necessary, the commission said in a memorandum dated Monday. NRC approved the license transfers in November.
The state of Illinois and engineering services company EDF, Inc had also asked NRC for a hearing, the agency said, but both withdrew before the end of last year.
Among their contentions, EPLC and TMIA raised concerns in their June hearing request that Exelon didn’t meet NRC’s “financial qualification requirements” to operate and decommission its new nuclear plants.
In particular, EPLC argued that Exelon’s application wasn’t based on “plausible assumptions” about Constellation’s financial forecasts. The nonprofit pointed out several concerns about the spin-off company’s financial stability, including its investment rating, the early retirement of nuclear plants and its potential liability in the event of an accident. NRC dismissed those contentions, saying that they were not “adequately supported in law and fact.”
Meanwhile, Constellation announced its formal separation from Exelon Feb. 1. The spin-off company now oversees Exelon’s former nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, solar and natural gas assets. Exelon still retains control over its electric utility distribution business. Constellation’s nuclear portfolio includes three decommissioning sites: Zion in Illinois, and Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor in Pennsylvania.
The spin-off company has positioned nuclear power as a major part of its business model. Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez said during a January call with investors that its nuclear plants were “not a melting ice cube,” and that nuclear is a “big part of the climate solution.”
