The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday urged a federal appeals court to reject two requests from the commonwealth of Massachusetts to freeze the license transfer of the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit does not yet have jurisdiction under federal law to rule on the matter, because the commission itself has not issued its final ruling on the license transfer and associated actions – even though NRC staff gave “provisional” approval and prior owner Entergy in August sold the plant to Holtec International, according to the Nov. 22 filing.
Under the Atomic Energy Act and Hobbs Act, “the NRC must issue a ‘final order’ before the Court may exercise jurisdiction over a petition challenging NRC action,” the motion to dismiss says.
The motion would cover dismissal of Massachusetts’ request in September for the court to vacate the license transfer and other NRC actions that allowed the sale to happen, along with an October petition for the D.C. Circuit to stay the license transfer until it rules on the earlier motion.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office did not reply to a query by deadline Tuesday on the NRC motion. It has until Dec. 20 to file its formal response with the court.
Entergy on May 31 closed the single-reactor facility on Cape Cod, the commonwealth’s last operating nuclear power plant, after nearly 47 years of energy production. It had already announced its intention to sell the property to energy technology company Holtec, which would assume ownership of the decommissioning trust for the facility and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
In furtherance of the sale, the companies had requested NRC approval of the transfer of Pilgrim’s reactor and spent-fuel storage licenses; deletion of a $50 million contingency fund that had been applied to Entergy; and a regulatory exemption allowing money from the decommissioning trust to be used for spent fuel management and site restoration. Agency staff approved all three requests on Aug. 22, just days before Entergy and Holtec completed the sale.
The approval order, though, makes clear the commission can rescind, revise, or place conditions on the license transfer, the NRC told the court.
