A second round of state depositions has been scheduled for January on the proposed sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Depositions were previously held in October as the Vermont Public Utility Commission considers whether to authorize transfer of ownership of Vermont Yankee from power company Entergy to nuclear decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services. The New York City-based company would then take responsibility for decommissioning, spent fuel management, and site restoration for the power plant, which closed in December 2014.
The depositions are scheduled from Jan. 8 to Jan. 18 in New York City, Boston, and the Vermont capital of Montpelier, according to notices filed on Dec. 15. Those scheduled to answer questions are: Scott State, CEO of NorthStar Group Services; Jeffrey Adix, NorthStar chief financial officer; Joseph Lynch, Entergy senior government affairs manager for decommissioning; Brian Winn, director of finance and economics at the Vermont Public Service Department; and several expert witnesses representing the Public Service Department.
The same executives, officials, and experts participated in the first round of depositions.
In the Public Utility Commission (PUC) review of the sale, the Public Service Department is a statutory party automatically authorized to intervene to represent the public interest. Its attorneys will question executives from Entergy and NorthStar, while the companies’ attorneys will question the Public Service Department’s experts.
The PUC discovery process for the Vermont Yankee deal envisioned two rounds of depositions, which allow the parties to clarify details about the sale ahead of technical hearings due later in January before the commission itself. Those sessions, scheduled for the weeks of Jan. 22 and 29, will allow commission members and their experts to question parties and intervenors in the sale.
Entergy and NorthStar hope to secure approval for the deal from the Public Utility Commission in 2018, along with authorization from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for transfer of Vermont Yankee’s operations and spent fuel storage licenses.
The Public Service Board has requested a hearing before the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, raising concerns including financial assurance for completion of Vermont Yankee decommissioning and the lack of an environmental report in the license transfer. NorthStar has expressed confidence that it can complete decommissioning at a cost of about $811 million as early as 2026 – decades earlier than Entergy had planned.
Separately, the Public Service Board has scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 4 on the proposed ownership transfer. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Brattleboro Union High School, 131 Fairground Road in Brattleboro. Representatives for Entergy and NorthStar will be available starting at 6 p.m. to answer questions about the sale.
Half of the spent fuel at the Wylfa nuclear power plant in the United Kingdom has been extracted from its two reactors, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Thursday.
The Wales facility held 100,000 fuel elements prior to its closure at the end of 2015. They will all ultimately be shipped to the Sellafield site for reprocessing, at which time more than 99 percent of the radiological danger at Wylfa will have been eliminated, according to an NDA press release.
Wylfa is one of 11 Magnox nuclear power plants now being decommissioned in the U.K.
“This is a proud moment for the site in its vital contribution to closing out the Magnox fuel cycle,” Tim Dunham, nuclear operations chief at decommissioning contractot Magnox Ltd., said in the release. “My congratulations go to the team for safely reaching this point. We envisage that the defuelling programme will complete in mid to late 2019 with everyone working hard to achieve this target.”
New AREVA said Monday that in recent months it has secured three contracts valued at 9 million euros ($10.7 million) for processing and disposal of radioactive waste at two French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission sites.
The French company will provide treatment of liquid chemical wastes, “of varying radiological intensity … ranging from very low level to medium activity,” at the commission military research-focused facility in Fortenay-aux-Roses, according to a New AREVA press release.
The second contract, good for at least five years, extends AREVA’s existing deal to manage the waste treatment plant at the Caderache civil research center. Waste package management and general maintenance is covered under the contract.
Finally, New AREVA has also been assigned to provide maintenance at the Caderache facility’s former effluent treatment plant for 40 months, the release says.
New AREVA, formed during the 2016 restructuring of Paris-based AREVA, offers nuclear life-cycle services including mining, enrichment, spent fuel recycling, and dismantlement.
Cavendish Nuclear has been awarded a £95 million ($127 million) contract to design and build 45 glove boxes for safe handling of nuclear materials at the Sellafield site in the United Kingdom.
The company will provide the glove boxes, used for managing sensitive materials in an enclosed space, under a 10-year contract from the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which manages operations and environmental remediation at Sellafield.
The glove boxes will be installed in two new facilities used for treatment and management of nuclear materials: the Replacement Analytical Services Facility, which is to be built by 2025 and house 26 glove boxes; and the Sellafield Product and Residue Store Retreatment Plant, which is due to be operational by April 2022. Delivery of the initial glove boxes is anticipated early in the next decade, Cavendish said.
“Safe and secure clean-up of the nuclear legacy at Sellafield is our number one priority. Treatment and management of nuclear materials in the appropriate environment is vital,” Martin Chown, supply chain director at Sellafield, said in a prepared statement in both releases. “Placing this contract with Cavendish Nuclear – a highly respected nuclear services provider – is an important step in our mission.”
Cavendish Nuclear is a wholly owned subsidiary of Babcock International, and is licenses to operate 13 nuclear sites in the United Kingdom. It is one of the parent companies to Cavendish Fluor Partnership, which holds the contract to decommission the nation’s 12 Magnox reactor sites. The U.K. government in September formally issued a notice of termination of the Magnox contract on Aug. 31, 2019, nine years earlier than previously scheduled. The move came after the NDA was broadly criticized for its handling of the contract and paid out more than £97 million to two companies that had unsuccessfully bid on the work.
Sellafield, a massive facility in West Cumbria dating to the 1940s, remains home to spent fuel reprocessing operations, but is largely the focus of a large-scale waste management and environmental remediatoin progam.
The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission (TLLRWDCC) has canceled its Jan. 11 meeting due to a lack of new business for the agenda.
The commission announced the cancellation in a recent email to stakeholders. The next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 22 in Austin, Texas. Texas and Vermont are members of the compact devoted to management and disposal of low-level radioactive waste.
From The Wires
From The Associated Press: An investigation by the Better Government Association determine the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission plays down safety concerns raised by its officials and nuclear plant employees.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: San Juan Capistrano City Council member Pam Patterson has been removed from the Community Engagement Panel for the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
From the Cape Code Times: Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves exception for implementation of cybersecurity requirements for the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Massachusetts, which is scheduled to close in May 2019.
