By John Stang
Companies that want to assist in decommissioning the retired Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant have until Dec. 28 to submit requests for proposals.
Staff at the Omaha, Neb., Public Power District told its board of directors that three companies are expected to submit bids, but did not identify the firms. The board met as a committee of the whole on Tuesday in preparation for a formal full meeting on Thursday.
The utility closed the 43-year-old, single-reactor plant near Omaha in October 2016. Last month, the board voted to have OPPD remain in charge of decommissioning the plant rather than turning the work over fully to another entity. However, it will take assistance from a hired contractor.
While OPPD hopes to seal a contract early next year, it did not detail any more specific timetable.
“OPPD will look to the selected contractor for technical support, as well as guidance on decommissioning resources, processes and best practices. It is our full intention to leverage the site-specific expertise of OPPD personnel with that of the decommissioning-selected contractor,” said spokesman Christopher Averett said by email.
The OPPD originally placed the single-reactor facility into “safe storage,” or SAFSTOR, after it shut down. The site would have been monitored and maintained until the late 2050s before active decommissioning began. Decommissioning would have ended in 2066.
In October, the board opted to take the reactor into active decommissioning to trim costs, with most of the work to be done by 2028. Accelerated decommissioning has an estimated cost of almost $1 billion, compared to nearly $2.5 billion for the original approach.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission records show that as of Dec. 31, 2016, Fort Calhoun had $286 million in its decommissioning trust fund, with the NRC estimating $931 million would be needed. In 2018, OPPD reported $439 million in its decommissioning trust fund.
The utility this week declined to discuss the bidding process for the decommissioning assistance.
Holtec International, one of several U.S. companies that could conceivably pursue the contract, also declined to comment. The New Jersey energy technology company has already announced plans to acquire three nuclear power plants for decommissioning, with license transfer applications filed with the NRC in recent months for Exelon’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey and Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts.
Orano USA subsidiary Orano TN was contracted last spring to transfer the rest of Fort Calhoun’s used reactor fuel from wet storage to dry storage. The company, a branch of French nuclear company Orano (formerly AREVA), has partnered with New York City-based NorthStar Group Services in Accelerated Decommissioning Partners.
Salt Lake City-based nuclear services firm EnergySolutions is also managing several nuclear decommissioning projects, partnering with AECOM on the cleanup at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.
Orano and EnergySolutions did not respond to requests for comment this week.
