The state regulator tasked with approving the proposed sale of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant was scheduled Wednesday to discuss the transaction, according to a new meeting notice from the organization.
If the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (WPSC) during its Wednesday meeting approves the sale of Kewaunee Power Station, decommissioning company EnergySolutions will be one step closer to finalizing its plan to purchase the plant from current operator Dominion Energy. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the transaction in January. EnergySolutions and Dominion agreed to terms on Kewaunee’s sale in May 2021.
A spokesperson for WPSC didn’t immediately return a request for comment about whether the commission would make a final decision on the plant’s sale Wednesday.
A decision from WPSC would put an end to a months-long review process that included some controversial cross-examination from a competing decommissioning company. New York-based NorthStar was allowed to intervene in the commission’s proceedings in September despite protests from EnergySolutions.
NorthStar has complained that the process for selecting Kewaunee’s decommissioning contractor had not been competitive, and that the company could dismantle the plant for around $500 million — significantly less than EnergySolutions’ quoted $724 million for the job. NorthStar also suggested that WPSC implement a fixed-price contract to decommission Kewaunee, and that the contract include financial assurances that would protect against misuse of decommissioning trust funds.
EnergySolutions, for its part, has called NorthStar’s claims “misleading” and said that its competitor hadn’t provided any evidence that it could decommission the plant at a lower cost. The company also pushed back on NorthStar’s suggested fixed-price plan, saying in a March brief that such a contract “would serve nothing more than NorthStar’s commercial interests and potentially shift risks back onto ratepayers.”
As WPSC nears its decision on Kewaunee’s sale, the rest of the nuclear decommissioning industry looks on. Sam Shakir, president of Westinghouse’s environmental services division, told Exchange Monitor in an exclusive interview in March that the company was following the Kewaunee proceedings “with some interest and curiosity.”
