The owner and prospective buyer of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have revised their financial assurance plan to address concerns about the sale.
The update was noted in a Jan. 5 letter from Stephanie Hoffman, special counsel for the Vermont Public Service Department, to Judith Whitney, clerk for the Vermont Public Utility Commission. Hoffman said the amended financial assurance proposal would be discussed at a meeting planned for this week between state officials and representatives for Entergy and NorthStar Group Services.
The document and its terms, both in the original version and as amended, are confidential, Entergy said Monday. The company closed Vermont Yankee in December 2014, and in late 2016 announced plans to sell the facility to New York City-based NorthStar, which would take charge of decommissioning and keep some portion of the trust fund for that work when it finishes the job.
NorthStar has said it can finish decommissioning as early as 2026 at a cost of just over $811 million, but observers have expressed concerns about its capacity to do the job.
Both the state Public Utility Commission and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission must approve the sale. The PUC has scheduled its second public hearing, plus a second round of depositions, for this month.
“As is typical of proceedings before the PUC, the joint petitioners have engaged in discussions with the Vermont state agencies in an effort to resolve constructively the issues over which there has been disagreement,” Michael Twomey, vice president for external affairs at Entergy Wholesale Commodities, said in a statement. “We have made substantial progress in that regard and are now engaging the other parties to the docket on those issues. We remain committed to completing the sale to NorthStar by the end of this year.”
Twomey declined to discuss details of the upcoming meeting, which Hoffman’s letter said would involve both companies; officials from the state Public Service Department, Attorney General’s Office, and Agency of Natural Resources; and “counsel for all other interested parties.” The letter did not cite a specific date and time for the session, and Hoffman did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
