Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI) expects to move all of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s used fuel assemblies from wet storage to dry storage by 2023, according to documents submitted earlier this month to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The data point is included in a set of documents provided as part of the Nov. 16 application to transfer the Cape Cod, Mass., facility’s license from owner and operator Entergy to Holtec International. The New Jersey-based energy technology firm, through its HDI subsidiary, would be the new owner and charged with decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at the single-reactor power plant following its closure by June 1 of next year.
There are 4,114 fuel assemblies at Pilgrim, of which 1,156 are in dry storage in 17 casks, according to Entergy’s post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDSAR). Another 580 assemblies remain in the still-active reactor and 2,378 assemblies are in the plant’s cooling pool.
Holtec expects $501.5 million of its predicted $1.134 billion decommissioning budget to be spent on spent fuel management., according to its separate PSDAR.
The separate PSDARs were submitted to provide the NRC with insight into what decommissioning at Pilgrim would look like if the license transfer application is approved or rejected.
The NRC will begin the proceeding with an acceptance review of the application, which would be followed by a full technical review covering environmental, safety, and security aspects to the license transfer.
Entergy and Holtec hope for an NRC ruling by May 31, 2019. A license transfer proceeding generally takes roughly one year, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email. A similar application for the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, from Entergy to NorthStar Group Services, was filed in February 2017 and approved in early October of this year.
“During a recent pre-submittal meeting, we informed the firms that while the NRC staff will endeavor to complete its review in the requested timeframe, that will depend upon several factors, including the amount of time it takes them to respond to our requests for additional information on the application; any unanticipated addition of scope to the review; and reviews by NRC advisory committees or hearing-related activities,” Sheehan wrote.
Holtec wants to take possession of the property by late 2019 and believes it can complete dismantlement, decontamination, and environmental remediation at the Pilgrim property by 2027. The work would be carried out by Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a Holtec joint venture with Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin.
Holtec would presumably keep some portion of Pilgrim’s decommissioning trust fund once the work is complete. The trust held just over $1 billion at the end of October.
In its original decommissioning approach, Entergy planned that Pilgrim would be largely dormant until 2075, with decommissioning operations scheduled from that year through 2083 and site restoration wrapping up the following year. Its PSDAR estimated the total budget of decommissioning and spent fuel storage at $1.1661 billion. That breaks down to $1.188 billion for decommissioning, $420 million for spent fuel management, and $53 million for site restoration.
The Holtec PSDAR’s total budget estimate of $1.134 billion breaks down to $592.6 million for decommissioning, $501.5 million for spent fuel management, and $40 million for site restoration. Pilgrim’s NRC license would be scheduled to terminate in 2063 — after the U.S. Department of Energy meets its legal requirement to remove the spent nuclear reactor fuel. Then site restoration is supposed to be done by 2064.
