Thomas Gardiner
The transfer of spent fuel at the shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is proceeding as planned, a manager for owner Entergy said last week during a meeting of the state’s Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.
“We are transferring an average of one canister per week,” according to Joseph Lynch, the power company’s senior manager for government affairs. “We plan to have all of the spent fuel in dry storage by the end of 2018.”
Entergy began its final spent fuel transfer campaign at Vermont Yankee in June. The plant’s used fuel will eventually fill 58 storage casks spread across two independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSI). A total of 1,224 spent fuel assemblies have been moved out of the cooling pool since December 2014, leaving 1,771 waiting to be transferred to dry storage.
Holtec International, which manufactures the dry storage casks being used at Vermont Yankee, is handling the fuel transfer. Lynch said a brief three-week transfer pause will begin shortly while crews conduct routine maintenance.
Placing the spent fuel in dry storage is a requirement for Entergy’s planned sale of Vermont Yankee to New York City-based NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning. The companies are waiting for approval from state and federal regulators for the deal, which they hope to secure by the end of 2018.
Lynch noted that Vermont Yankee radiological decommissioning trust fund grew by about $1 million to $575.6 million in the last year due to “favorable market gains.” NorthStar would take control of the trust upon acquiring Vermont Yankee. The company estimates it can complete decommissioning as early as 2026 at a cost of $811 million. Some additional funding would be provided by the U.S. Department of Energy through lawsuits filed over its failure to meet the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act mandate to begin removing spent fuel from U.S. power reactors by 1998.
Decommissioning trust activities are regulated by the NRC and require written notice 30 days before funds can be dispersed. On Oct. 17, Entergy notified the NRC of a planned $4 million withdrawal. According to the letter, the funds are planned for decommissioning costs from licensing and emergency planning, insurance, and property tax.
Lynch said Entergy continues to deal with contaminated water at the plant. Vermont Yankee’s turbine rooms, which sit 30 feet beneath the ground surface and about 15 feet beneath the water table, are under constant hydraulic pressure and approximately 500-600 gallons of groundwater makes its way into the rooms each day.
According to Lynch, the structure cooled once electricity production ceased in December 2014. The cooling constricted the facility, leading to cracks in the walls and floor through which water is infiltrating. More than 600,000 gallons of contaminated water have already been extracted and shipped to an EnergySolutions disposal site in Tennessee, but Lynch said test wells around the facility show no current external radiological contamination.
“Actions to mitigate intrusion water are continuing, such as sealing small leaks in the turbine building structure,” Lynch said. “Progress continues to be made and efforts to date have resulted in approximately a 75% reduction in intrusion rates.”
The Oct. 26 NDCAP meeting also offered an opportunity for comment from organizations authorized by the Vermont Public Utility Commission to intervene in its review the sale, including local economic development and Native American tribal representatives. Per the agenda, these speakers were to discuss their filings in the intervention with PUC.
Clay Turnbull, with the nongovernmental New England Coalition, said the roughly 125-acre Vermont Yankee property should be turned into a nature preserve like former nuclear power sites in Maine and Connecticut. “We should strive to return the land to as good as it was before,” Turnbull said. “This is a Native American cultural site with profound ceremonial and ancestral complications.
“What is done is done, we can’t change that now,” said Rich Holschuh of the Elnu Abenaki tribe. He said he expected the entities involved with decommissioning to do due diligence in project oversight. He said he also expects the companies to consult the Native American peoples about decisions to manage or develop the land.
Vermont Yankee is located in Windham County. The executive director of the Windham Regional Commission, a regional governmental liaison group and one of the intervenors in the case, emphasized the importance of the commission’s decision in coming months.
“Ultimately what is determined in this docket will determine how future generations 50 or 100 years from now will be using the site,” Chris Campany said during the meeting.
