The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Tuesday has placed a new branch in charge of oversight of the recently retired reactor Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa.
Oversight has been transferred from the agency’s operating power reactor inspection program to its decommissioning power reactor inspection program under the Region I Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, according to an Oct. 1 letter from Anthony Dimitriadis, chief of the decommissioning branch within the Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, to Exelon Nuclear President and Chief Nuclear Officer Bryan Hanson.
“The NRC’s oversight of your licensed activities as you progress through decommissioning will be conducted under the provisions in [Inspection Manual Chapter] 2561, ‘Decommissioning Power Reactor Inspection Program,’” Dimitriadis wrote. “The objectives of the decommissioning inspection program are to verify that decommissioning activities are being conducted safely, that spent fuel is safely being stored, and that site operations and license termination activities are in conformance with applicable regulatory requirements, licensee commitments, and management controls.”
Exelon announced the retirement in 2017 and on Sept. 20 permanently powered down the 45-year-old pressurized-water reactor. Following removal of the reactor’s spent fuel, the Chicago-based power company plans to place the plant into SAFSTOR mode, under which completion of decommissioning can be delayed for up to six decades. Under Exelon’s schedule, active decommissioning would begin in the 2070s and be completed to license termination in 2079. The company expects to pay $1.245 billion for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
The reactor is officially in the “post-operation transition phase” of decommissioning, according to Dimitriadis. Inspections will be carried out under the “core inspection procedures” for that phase under the NRC’s inspection manual. The regulator might also conduct discretionary decommissioning inspections “based on site activities and conditions,” he wrote.
Reactor Unit 2 at Three Mile Island, which has been closed since partly melting down in 1979, is owned by FirstEnergy Corp.
