The municipality that is home to the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and two local organizations have requested public hearings on the proposed transfer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the newly retired New Jersey power plant.
Among the concerns cited by Lacey Township, the Concerned Citizens of Lacey Coalition, and the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club: the viability of the fund that would pay for decommissioning the facility and corruption allegations against the Canadian company that would play a key role in cleanup.
The 49-year-old boiling-water reactor ended operations on Sept. 17. Owner Exelon plans to sell the plant to 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. Stakeholders had until Nov. 8 to file their request for a hearing.
In its request, the government of Lacey Township noted that the NRC has estimated decommissioning will cost $1.4 billion and Exelon had only $945 million in its decommissioning trust fund as of July. However, the companies’ license transfer application projects Holtec’s plan for accelerated decommissioning will cost $885 million: The New Jersey energy technology company believes it can largely wrap up work by 2027, where Exelon’s timeline stretched to about 2080.
The actual decommissioning would be carried out by a new Holtec-SNC joint venture: Comprehensive Decommissioning International. All three petitioners for a hearing expressed concerns about SNC-Lavalin’s background, which includes bribery charges filed by Canadian authorities in 2015.
“SNC has been charged in Canada with corruption, fraud and bribery. As they will be integral part of the decommissioning, there are major concerns by the Township and public at large of SNC’s involvement,” according to the Lacey Township filing.” It should be a concern of the NRC’s as well. Decommissioning, as mentioned above, is a billion-dollar business. A company with a reputation such as SNC’s involvement in such an endeavor is troubling, at best.”
