The owner and prospective buyer of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have agreed to a set of financial assurance and site-cleanup terms that should help the deal pass the state’s regulatory review.
Most of the parties authorized to intervene in the Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) process signed on to the settlement agreement and memorandum of understanding filed Friday afternoon.
“The Parties hereto agree that the approval of the Proposed Transaction, if all terms and conditions described in this MOU are met, will promote the general good of the State of Vermont. The Parties shall jointly request that the PUC issue an Order approving the terms and conditions of this MOU, incorporating certain of them as terms and conditions of the Order,” the parties stated in the MOU.
Entergy closed Vermont Yankee in December 2014, and wants to sell the site to NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management. NorthStar says it can complete decommissioning as early as 2026 at a cost of about $811 million, but other parties have worried about its financial capacity and the state of the site when work is complete.
Among the long list of financial and cleanup terms intended to address those concerns:
- NorthStar’s financial assurance package will include the decommissioning and site restoration trusts, both transferred from Entergy; $400 million in performance bonds or corresponding assurance for subcontracted operations; and a $140 million support agreement payable to the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Trust.
- NorthStar will establish an escrow fund with at least $55 million, to fund decommissioning or site restoration if trusts for those operations are not sufficient.
- All cleanup work at Vermont Yankee will meet applicable environmental and health rules, “to the extent such standards and regulations do not conflict with the standards identified in this MOU.”
Parties to the memorandum of understanding are: Entergy, NorthStar, the Vermont Public Service Department and Agency of Natural Resources, Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, Windham Regional Commission, the New England Coalition, and the town of Vernon Planning and Economic Development Commission. The state Attorney General’s Office signed on for select provisions.
The Conservation Law Foundation did not sign on. “In a rush to secure a possible – and by no means certain – quick clean-up of the site, the settlement excludes reasonable protection for Vermont communities,” Sandra Levine, a senior attorney with the environmental group, said in a prepraed statement. “The deal Entergy and NorthStar proposed leaves Vermonters vulnerable to picking up the tab if something goes wrong.”
Entergy and NorthStar hope to secure PUC approval by July 31 and to close the deal by the end of 2018. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission must also approve the ownership transfer.
