The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week it could not answer a list of questions and concerns raised by three members of Massachusetts’ delegation to Congress regarding the license transfer application for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
“Because the application is the subject of a current adjudication, the Commission must remain impartial during the pendency of the proceeding. Due to the nature of the Commission’s adjudicatory role, I trust that you will understand that it would be inappropriate at this time for the Chairman to discuss or comment on issues involved in this matter,” Annette Vietti-Cook, NRC secretary of the commission, wrote in a March 7 letter to Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Bill Keating (all D-Mass.).
Entergy plans to shut down the single-reactor plant on Cape Cod by June 1. In November, the power company and energy technology specialist Holtec International filed their license transfer application with the NRC. They hope the NRC will by May 31 approve transfer of Pilgrim’s operations and spent fuel storage licenses. The companies would then aim to seal the sale by the end of 2019, at which point Holtec would own Pilgrim’s decommissioning trust fund now at just over $1 billion, and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management on the property.
Holtec would partner with troubled Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin on the actual decommissioning, under the joint venture Comprehensive Decommissioning International. It says it can complete decommissioning by 2027.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and the nongovernmental Pilgrim Watch in February petitioned to intervene in the license transfer proceeding. In her letter, Vietti-Cook noted that the issues raised by the petitioners are similar to those addressed in the three lawmakers’ March 4 letter to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki.
Among their concerns, the Congress members asked Svinicki for assurance that the decommissioning trust would be sufficient to cover the anticipated $1.134 billion price tag for cleanup work, “or, if not, that the licensee(s) will be held solely financially responsible by the NRC.” They also called on the NRC to maintain the 10-mile emergency planning zone around Pilgrim, along with other safety measures, after it closes.
Among the six specific questions that went unanswered: What regulatory or statutory measures are in place to ensure the Pilgrim licensee or licensees cover all decommissioning costs beyond the amount in the trust; Will the licensees be required to refresh the plants’ environmental impact statements to address climate change or other factors from the last 10 years; and will decommissioning cost estimates be required to address the state’s 10 millirem per year exposure limit for nuclear licensees.
The Omaha, Neb., Public Power District has apparently selected a contractor to assist in the decommissioning of the closed Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant.
In a short briefing Tuesday to the OPPD Board of Directors’ Nuclear Oversight Committee, utility officials said they are in negotiations with one potential contractor. They declined to name the contractor in public and did not elaborate on the matter.
The utility plans to be in charge of decommissioning, with the contractor working under its supervision.
Last year, the board unanimously voted to move Fort Calhoun into active decommissioning, reversing an earlier decision to place the single-reactor facility into SAFSTOR, or “safe storage,” following its closure in October 2016. Under the earlier approach, the site would have been monitored and maintained but largely left untouched for four decades before active decommissioning began. The program would have wrapped up by 2066.
But OPPD managers reconsidered that approach, believing expedited decommissioning would reduce financial liability, address climate hazards earlier, and increase flexibility in costs and scheduling. The great majority of the cleanup would be completed by 2028.
Active decommissioning at Fort Calhoun is estimated to cost nearly $1 billion. That compares to just shy of $2.5 billion for SAFSTOR.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has estimated $931 million would be needed for active decommissioning. In 2018, OPPD reported $439 million in its decommissioning trust fund.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday it had promoted a nearly three-decade employee to the position of director for the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS).
Later in March, John Lubinski will formally succeed Marc Dapas, who retired in January after nearly four years in the position.
Acting NMSS Director Scott Moore will return to his position as the office’s deputy director. John Tappert, who filled in for Moore as acting deputy, will resume his role as director of the office’s Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Activities.
The Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards provides regulatory oversight for domestic production, storage, transportation, and disposal of fresh and spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials. Its operations cover licensing, inspections, licensee evaluations, and enforcement, among other work.
That includes ensuring “appropriate standards and regulatory guidance are in place such that licensing review activities for a potential Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository are completed in a timely, thorough and fiscally responsible manner,” according to the NRC.
The NRC adjudication of the Department of Energy license application for the nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., has been frozen for the better part of a decade after being defunded by the Obama administration.
The office has five separate divisions: Safety, Security, State, and Tribal Programs; Spent Fuel Management; Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards, and Environmental Review; Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs; and Rulemaking.
Lubinski has been with the NRC since May 1990, starting as a mechanical engineer for NMSS. His positions since then have included senior enforcement specialist, and chief of the Inspection and Fuel Manufacturing sections at NMSS. Lubinski’s most recent role was deputy director for the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response.
The members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday affirmed an adjudicatory body’s decision not to recuse itself from ruling on petitions for intervention in the licensing proceeding for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Texas.
In their memorandum, the five commissioners said they concurred with the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) that “Moving Petitioners did not provide a valid justification for disqualifying the Board or any of its members, and we affirm its ruling.”
The Sierra Club and a coalition of environmental organizations led by Don’t Waste Michigan are among the groups that have petitioned for hearing and intervention in the NRC review of Interim Storage Partners’ application for a 40-year license to store up to 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel in West Texas. In November, they said all three members of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board should step down because they are also adjudicating intervention petitions for licensing of Holtec International’s planned used fuel storage facility in New Mexico.
The recusal petition says having the same ASLB members rule on interventions in the separate licensings “poses the appearance of bias.”
The board disagreed in December, but by statute was required to kick the matter up to the commission.
The NRC said it generally follows standards applied federal judges on questions of potential recusals for ASLB members. In those situations, federal judges are directed to disqualify themselves if there is a clear conflict of interest or reasonable question about their ability to remain impartial.
The commission was not convinced that those standards applied in this case, according to their memorandum.
“If two proceedings occasionally present overlapping legal issues, then consistency between the legal rulings of the two cases is to be expected, regardless of the composition of the boards. And where the facts and legal issues between the two proceedings are distinguishable, we have confidence in the boards’ abilities to distinguish between them.”
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has not yet ruled on the intervention petitions in either licensing.
The Sierra Club and slightly different versions of the Don’t Waste Michigan coalition have requested intervention in both licensings.
The NRC expects to finish its reviews of both applications in mid-2020.
Entergy on Monday began the last refueling and maintenance outage at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in upstate New York, ahead of the facility’s planned retirement in 2021.
The New Orleans-based power company said the outage for reactor Unit 3 would last several weeks, but did not provide a more specific schedule. It cited a $70 million price tag for the work. The plant workforce of roughly 1,000 Entergy personnel will temporarily be expanded by 900 contract workers, according to an Entergy press release Monday.
Among the planned maintenance work: inspecting the reactor head, along with baffle bolts on a reactor liner; replacing a number of pumps and motors, along with other equipment; and preventive maintenance on the plant’s diesel generator.
“The investments we are making at Unit 3 over the next several weeks demonstrate Entergy’s continued commitment to the highest standards of safety and reliability,” said Tony Vitale, Entergy site vice president for Indian Point, said in the release. “Our dedicated employees, whether they have worked at the site for four years or 40 years, are focused on making the last refueling our best ever. The nearly 60-year history of safe and reliable operations at the site is our legacy.”
Entergy bought the reactors from their prior owners in 2000 and 2001. In January 2017, citing declining revenue and higher operating expenses, it announced plans to retire Unit 2 by the end of April 2020 and Unit 3 a year later.
During Entergy’s quarterly earnings conference call in February, Chairman and CEO Leo Denault said management this year hopes to select a buyer for the facility. The deal would not be completed until after Indian Point closes.
In line with other deals from Entergy and fellow power company Exelon, the new owner would presumably be in charge of decommissioning and spent fuel management at Indian Point. It would also receive its decommissioning trust fund, the source of any profit in the transaction.
Indian Point Unit 1 was retired in October 1974. Unit 2 had its last refueling in 2018.
Columbia, S.C.-based AVANTech recently hired Mark Ping as its senior vice president of business development for utility services.
Ping’s nuclear career spans more than 35 years and includes experience in radioactive water treatment, wet waste processing, and disposal, the company said in a Feb. 19 press release. The company is a provider of industrial water treatment.
Ping will help bring integrated products and services to the nuclear and fossil fuel utility industries, according to AVANTech, which also has locations in Knoxville, Tenn., and Richland, Wash.
“The addition of Mark to our team is a key strategic move for AVANTech,” Gary Benda, AVANTech’s executive vice president of business development, said in the release. “His extensive background with U.S. utilities in waste management and water treatment, and his exceptional reputation within the industry, will significantly enhance our growth.”
Ping joined AVANTech in February after more than a year as vice president of business development for WMG Inc., a software provider for the nuclear industry, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that he spent nine years as a vice president for development and technical sales manager at Salt Lake City-based nuclear services provider EnergySolutions.
In the newly-created post, Ping will work out of the Columbia office and report to Benda.
From The Wires
From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania becomes latest state to consider clean energy subsidies to save nuclear power plants.
From the Denton Record-Chronicle: The Texas Department of State Health Services has authorized a low-level radioactive waste remediation plan for a site in Denton.
