Members of the Vermont congressional delegation are urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give local stakeholders “a seat at the table” in the decommissioning process for nuclear power plants.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), and Rep. Peter Welch (D), joined by 12 colleagues in the House and Senate, wrote a letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns on Tuesday. The letter provides suggestions to NRC as it works through a 2019 rulemaking intended to improve decommissioning regulations, with a focus on reducing the need for safety exemptions at closed nuclear power plants.
Among other recommendations, the Vermont lawmakers suggested NRC require licensees of reactors being decommissioned to include state and local input on decommissioning plans, which the regulator would formally approve. In August, the state of Vermont sued NRC for allowing the owner of the Vermont Nuclear Power Plant, Entergy, to use $225 million from its decommissioning trust fund for management of spent nuclear fuel, which the state contends is illegal. The state and former plant owner, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., have an interest in the fund because 55 percent of the money left over after decommissioning will be returned to the facility’s original Vermont ratepayers. A federal court in February dismissed the lawsuit, asking the NRC to address the issue at the commission level.
“The decommissioning of a nuclear power plant has an enormous impact on the state and communities hosting the plant,” the letter states. “It is essential, therefore, that the agency work collaboratively with states, localities, and interested parties throughout the decommissioning process.”
The lawmakers also called on NRC to ensure that site emergency preparedness and response, security resources, and licensing requirements remain fully in place until all spent fuel is moved to dry storage. For standard safety exemptions, NRC has reasoned that risks at a nuclear power plant are reduced when the plant shuts down, so therefore requirements also should be reduced.
Entergy in December announced plans to transfer its spent fuel at Vermont Yankee from wet to dry storage starting in 2017, which is two years ahead of schedule. The $145 million project, which will involve the transfer of about 3,000 spent fuel assemblies into 45 dry casks, is expected to be completed in 2020. An NRC-granted safety exemption is set to take effect on April 15, shrinking the plant’s 10-mile emergency planning zone to within the site’s boundaries. The change also means Entergy is no longer required to pay surrounding jurisdictions millions of dollars for emergency planning and groundwater monitoring. The Vermont Public Service Department and other state agencies are negotiating for further funding, which is expected to be significantly lower than when the plant was operating. Entergy paid Vermont about $2.4 million for emergency planning and groundwater monitoring in 2014, the year the plant shut down. That amount was reduced to $1.6 million in the current fiscal year, which will expire on June 30.
Tuesday’s letter also suggests that decommissioning funds be only used for “statutorily-authorized” purposes; that NRC require spent nuclear fuel to be removed from wet storage and placed into dry storage “as quickly as possible”; and that the site be “rapidly” returned to beneficial use, with the operator obtaining or maintaining the financial resources to do so.
“We will carefully consider the comments submitted by the congressional delegation, as well as the others put forward regarding our decommissioning rulemaking,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan stated by email Thursday. The current public comment period for the rulemaking ends today.
