About half of a Massachusetts nuclear power plant’s spent fuel inventory has been moved to dry storage, setting up the project for completion in late fall, the company in charge of decommissioning the sites said in a recent press release.
Seventeen of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s 34 spent fuel canisters have been transferred to the plant’s onsite independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI), Holtec International said in a Sep. 23 press release. After switching to a “24/7 loading effort” in August, the company has been loading spent fuel canisters onto the ISFSI at a rate of two per week, Holtec’s Pilgrim project manager Brandon Murray said in the release.
“With an emphasis on safety and quality, the project team continues full steam ahead to a completion of the spent fuel transfer to dry storage by the end of November,” Murray said.
Holtec acquired the Plymouth, Mass. nuclear plant from Entergy back in 2019. The company has said that it plans to wrap up decommissioning around 2027 or so.
Meanwhile, Holtec said Sep. 23 that it is also forging ahead with spent fuel transfers at the recently-deactivated Indian Point Energy Center. The company plans to store nuclear waste from the Buchanan, N.Y. plant in 147 ISFSI canisters — 125 for spent fuel and an additional 12 for Greater-Than-Class-C waste.
A Holtec spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor via email Monday that there are currently 54 casks on Indian Point’s storage pad. The company should add four more by the end of the year, bringing the total to 58 canisters, the spokesperson said.
Waste transfer for Indian Point, which shut down for good in April, should be done by spring 2023, Holtec said in its press release.
