Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/29/2015
Six months after Entergy shut down operations at the Vermont Yankee Power Station, the utility continues to make preparations to enter the SAFESTOR state, Vermont Yankee spokesman Marty Cohn said this week. Vermont and Entergy came to an agreement at the end of 2013 that stipulated the utility will place the plant in SAFESTOR only until its decommissioning fund collects enough money to cover the costs of decommissioning, estimated at $1.24 billion. As part of that process, Entergy has been reviewing possible steps that will help the site enter a “mothball” stage. “What we are doing now is reviewing current systems that can be shut down or made cold,” Cohn said. “We are doing the engineering around that to see what can be removed.”
As part of that review process, Entergy has identified some non-radioactive structures within the site boundaries that can be removed without much effort, compared to other decontamination and tear down activates that will eventually take place at the site. “We removed some temporary structures that were non-rad, but necessary to improve the security lines of vision,” Cohn said. “A lot of what we have done is to enhance security. Most of the work we have done in terms of this removal has used local contractors. Through the months of January and February, we spent about $1 million in local contractors.” Cohn also indicated that concrete removal from the teardown will occur within the next few weeks.
While some of the non-radioactive structures are being removed, Entergy does not plan on removing any of the plant itself at this time. “We have no plans to dismantle any of the plant itself, with no contamination or low levels. The only thing we are doing is we are closing down systems we can, such as water going into a building,” Cohn said.
Similar to other sites that have entered into SAFESTOR in the last two years, like Crystal River and Kewaunee, Vermont Yankee has looked to recover as mush reusable technology from the plant for use at other reactors. “We have had asset recovery take a look at the site,” Cohn said. “We are looking at some assets like the transformers, which are in pretty good working order, and what we may do is sell those to someone who has a need for a second transformer or looking into some kind of recycling.” Cohn also said that the utility has gathered old computer systems and office furniture from the site for recycling.
State Fighting NRC Exemption Requests
While the site undergoes physical changes, Entergy is also seeking to change the regulatory requirements for the site, but the state of Vermont has tried to slow that process. Entergy has filed all the necessary paperwork to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for exemptions to security and emergency preparedness requirements. The NRC currently does not have a rulemaking that reflects the decreased risk of accident at a shutdown plant, so to better reflect that level of risk, it issues exemptions to licenses. Vermont, though, has filed against many of the exemption requests for fear that the decreased regulations only increase the risk for harm to the public and environment. “One of the things we have been doing is that we filed all of the necessary exemptions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Cohn said. “We are awaiting decisions by them. As you have probably have read, the state of Vermont has filed interventions with all of our filings, so that just delays the process. Nonetheless, all the filings have been made.”
Entergy announced in 2013 that it would be entering premature shutdown of the Vermont Yankee station at the end of 2014, despite receiving a 20-year license extension from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company cited economic factors as the basis for the shutdown, although Entergy and Vermont had been engaged in a contentious court battle over its licensing. The state and Entergy have been at odds for a lot of the decommissioning process, including how and when Entergy dips into its decommissioning trust fund to pay for activities at the site.
Pad Construction Next Big Contracting Opportunity
The next area where Entergy foresees as a larger contracting opportunity is the construction of a second concrete pad for the dry cask storage canisters. Entergy is seeking a Certificate of Public Good from Vermont’s PSB that would enable construction to begin. Should regulatory approval move forward as planned, Entergy said, the new pad could be completed by 2017. “The next big contracting opportunity will be the building of the pad,” Cohn said. “We are hoping to do that by 2017. By the schedule, we should know by May 2016. So if you’re in that line of work, that’s when we will be exploring that. That’s really the next big thing.” Vermont and Entergy are holding a public hearing next week on the utility’s proposal so as to better engage the public on Entergy’s dry cask storage plan.
Construction funds for the new pad would come from Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning funds. Entergy said it would seek an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that would enable Vermont Yankee to tap into that fund for spent fuel pool management, similar to the exemptions granted to the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California. Holtec International provided the casks for the first pad, and Cohn said they would be handling the casks for the second pad as well.
