North Wind Site Services has won an $11.8 million contract to remove the largest building at the radioactively contaminated Luckey Site in Ohio, under the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
In a press release Friday, the Army Corps said the Production Building must be taken out to allow for remediation of the soil below, which is contaminated by beryllium, radium-226, thorium-230, uranium-234, uranium-238, and lead.
“The removal of this hazard is something the community has been requesting for a long time,” Lt. Col. Eli Adams, commander of the Army Corps’ Buffalo District, said in the release. “During the deconstruction of the building, the protection of human health, including our site workers and the community, and the environment will be our highest priority.”
The Army Corps projects deconstruction should start early next year and wrap up in roughly 12 months.
Additional information about the contract was not immediately available.
North Wind Portage is the current cleanup contractor for the overall Luckey Site, about 20 miles outside of Toldeo, which from 1949 to 1961 provided beryllium processing for national defense. The Army Corps is in the process of hiring a new contractor to finish the job, which primarily involves removal and disposal of contaminated soil and other materials. Remediation is 39% complete, the release says.
The Production Building generated beryllium for nine years ending in 1958, via a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission, the Army Corps said. As of this year, it is starting to collapse.
FUSRAP cleans up properties contaminated by nuclear weapons and nuclear power operations from the 1940s to 1960s under the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission. In 2019, there were 23 active sites in 10 states.
Orano USA’s new transport cask is being put to use for shipment of low-level radioactive waste generated by decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The first rail shipment of reactor internals from the plant within a MP197HB transport cask arrived recently at the Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas, according to an Orano press release.
This is not the first shipment of parts from the reactor vessel – two-thirds was previously cut up, packaged, and sent to Texas. But this was the first transport involving use of the NUHOMS radioactive-waste canister held within the MP197HB cask.
“The precision work to dismantle and remove the reactor vessel and its internal components continues to progress ahead of schedule,” the release says. “Orano is deploying state-of-the-art underwater cutting technology in a highly controlled environment to safely remove the activated parts, and package and transport them to Waste Control Specialists in Texas for disposal.”
Then-owner Entergy retired Vermont Yankee’s single boiling-water reactor in December 2014, after more than 42 years of service. New York City-based demolition specialist NorthStar Group Services bought the plant in January 2019, assuming all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management. It is supported by Orano and Waste Control Specialists.
Last November, Orano announced that it had delivered the transport cask to the Vermont Yankee site in the town of Vernon.
Orano and NorthStar also formed Accelerated Decommissioning Partners to acquire and decommission other nuclear power plants. It is finalizing a deal to decommission the Crystal River nuclear power plant, though that is effectively a work-for-hire job under a $540 contract with Duke Energy, which retains ownership of the facility.
Decommissioning of Vermont Yankee is planned to be complete no later than 2030, and potentially as early as 2026.
Holtec International is seeking approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a new quality assurance program for its current and future fleet of nuclear power plants in decommissioning.
The fleet decommissioning quality assurance program (DQAP) from subsidiary Holtec Decommissioning International would replace separate programs in place at the retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey and the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. It would also be applied to facilities acquired by the New Jersey-based energy technology company going forward.
“The intent of the Fleet DQAP is to describe appropriate and sufficient requirements to establish how the quality assurance program meets 10 CFR 50, Appendix B criteria while allowing flexibility in how QA requirements are met,” Andrea Sterdis, vice president for regulatory an environmental affairs for Holtec Decommissioning International, wrote in an Aug. 27 letter submitting the program document to the federal regulator.
Appendix B of Part 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations addresses criteria for mandatory quality assurance programs at nuclear power plants and fuel reprocessing facilities. It defines quality assurance as “all those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a structure, system, or component will perform satisfactorily in service.”
Among the long list of quality assurance measures in the 33-page corporate document, the program lays out the chain of command for quality assurance at Holtec. At the top are Holtec International’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer and Holtec Decommissioning International’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, followed by the subsidiary’s vice president for quality assurance and nuclear oversight and site vice presidents for each facility.
The document then breaks down the component parts of programs including design control; procurement document control; control of purchased material, equipment, and services; control of special processes; inspection; handling, storage, and shipping; and corrective action.
Holtec is asking that the NRC complete its review and sign off on the quality assurance program by Feb. 28, 2021. That would be followed by a 60-day transition to the new program, Sterdis wrote.
“Our reactor decommissioning branch, assisted by quality assurance specialists in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, will carry out the review,” NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said by email Wednesday. “The decommissioning branch will make the final decision. As long as the request has all the information the staff needs and there are no technical issues requiring additional information, the staff expects the review can be completed as requested.”
Holtec acquired the Oyster Creek plant from owner Exelon in July 2019, then bought Pilgrim from Entergy less than two months later. In both deals, it has assumed all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management of the facility. The company also has announced plans to in coming years acquire the Indian Point Energy Center in New York and Palisades Power Plant, both owned by Entergy.
From The Wires
From Bloomberg: Internal Revenue Service finalizes rules on nuclear decommissioning funds.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issues $368,656 in fines against two companies for the illegal deposit of 2.5 million pounds of radioactive waste in a commercial landfill.
