New York state is suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its refusal to delay the sale of Indian Point, according to a legal filing from last Friday.
New York state attorney general Letitia James submitted the filing to the D.C. circuit court of appeals, after the NRC denied the state’s request to intervene on the Indian Point license transfer on Jan. 15.
This new development further adds to the gridlock around Indian Point’s decommissioning. Holtec International is supposed to take ownership of the plant from Entergy once the latter ceases all reactor operations in April.
The plant’s Unit 1 reactor shut down in 1974, and Unit 2 was shuttered late last year. Indian Point’s Unit 3 reactor is the only still online.
Meanwhile, new tax legislation took effect in New York earlier this month, potentially piling further costs on to the decommissioning.
The bill, signed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late last year, classified nuclear fuel storage sites at power plants as “real property” taxable by local authorities. The new state law went into effect Jan. 1. According to the bill, taxing fuel storage sites is designed to put pressure on generating companies and the federal government to make good on their plans to find a permanent waste storage site.
Joe Delmar, Holtec’s senior communications director, told RadWaste Monitor in an email Thursday that it was “still unclear” how the new taxation law would be implemented and how it would impact the Indian Point sale.
Holtec will assume ownership of Entergy’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement it had with New York when the license transfer is complete, Delmar said. The company also committed to enter into more of these agreements in the future, he added.
Under a PILOT agreement, a tax-exempt company makes an annual payment to the government to make up for lost tax revenue. Depending on how it’s enforced, New York’s new law may impact the agreement Holtec is inheriting from Entergy, Delmar said.
The Indian Point saga hasn’t just attracted state attention. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), now the Senate majority leader, supported New York’s petition for a public hearing on the Indian Point sale in October.
In last Friday’s filing, James asked the court to review legality of the Indian Point license transfer and voiced concern about the Commission’s legal exemption for Holtec, which allowed them to make use of preexisting trust funds set aside by the plant for decommissioning.
These actions were violations of the Atomic Energy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Commission regulations, James said in the brief.
The NRC declined this week to comment on the current litigation. A spokesman for the Commission said in an email Monday that the agency would “provide a response at the appropriate time.” At deadline Friday, the commission had not publicly responded to the New York suit.
