By John Stang
All used nuclear fuel has been removed from the newly retired reactor at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey, according to a Sept. 25 letter from plant owner Exelon to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The short message, submitted by Exelon Vice President for Licensing and Decommissioning Michael Gallagher, also provides official notice of the plant’s permanent closure.
The 49-year-old boiling-water reactor in Lacey Township ended operations on Sept. 17. Its used fuel is now held in a cooling pool or the plant’s on-site independent spent fuel storage installation.
The Chicago-based power company plans to sell the plant to New Jersey energy technology specialist Holtec International for decommissioning, which it will carry out with Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin. The NRC must approve the license transfer, which Holtec and Exelon hope will happen next year.
Exelon originally planned to place the Oyster Creek reactor into SAFSTOR mode for several decades, with decommissioning and site restoration to be finished in 2080. Holtec wants to speed that up to 2027.
Right now, Oyster Creek has 34 canisters of fuel assemblies in dry storage and expects to need another 42 canisters through 2021 for material still in wet storage. Overall, the site has 1,594 fuel assemblies, with the individual canisters holding varying numbers of assemblies.
The NRC has projected a minimum of $1.083 billion for the site’s decommissioning needs. However, the license transfer application cites a cost estimate of $885 million for the proposed accelerated decommissioning plan. Oyster Creek’s decommissioning trust contained $980 million as of June 30, 2018, according to the license transfer application.
The document estimates the venture will require $618 million for decommissioning to license termination, along with $226 million for used fuel management and $41 million for site restoration.
The site had roughly 400 employees at closure, with that number due to finish a drop to about 300 soon following completion of the fuel removal from the reactor.
The two companies are also planning a deal for the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan, with details of that sale expected closer to its planned shutdown in 2022.
