Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some other updates from around the civilian nuclear power space that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week:
Humboldt Bay’s License Terminated as Decommissioning Wraps Up
A former California nuclear power plant had its federal operating license terminated this week as decommissioning activities drew to a close, according to a press release from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The site that once hosted Humboldt Bay’s Unit 3 reactor has been released for unrestricted use and its license ended, NRC announced in the Thursday press release. The agency Nov. 2 approved final site surveys from Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the plant’s owner and decommissioning manager. PG&E initially requested license termination for Humboldt 3 in October.
The Eureka, Calif., plant’s 390 spent fuel assemblies will be stored onsite at an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI), the press release said. PG&E will operate the ISFSI under a separate license and is required to maintain an insurance fund of around $50 million for the site until spent fuel has been removed from the premises. The utility got a 40-year extension on the ISFSI’s license from NRC back in May 2020.
Humboldt 3 shut down for good in 1976. The plant’s Units 1 and 2 were fossil-fuel power plants which have also been decommissioned, NRC said.
Meanwhile, PG&E is also working on a decommissioning plan for California’s Diablo Canyon plant, the last nuclear power site in the state. A company official said Nov. 1 that more information on the project should be available within the next 90 days or so.
NRC Awards over $5M in University Research Grants
Nearly a dozen university research projects covering nuclear power and waste will get substantial cash prizes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency announced this week.
Eleven universities across the country will split around $5.4 million in research grants from NRC, coming in at about $500,000 each, according to a Monday press release from the agency. The commission gives out these awards to “develop a workforce capable of supporting the design, construction, operation and regulation of nuclear facilities, and the safe handling of nuclear materials,” the press release said.
Among the programs receiving NRC grants is the University of Texas at Austin team looking into advanced monitoring methods for dry-cask spent fuel storage systems. Virginia Commonwealth University also got funding for its research into fuel cladding degradation in dry storage.
Money for these research grants is allotted to NRC by Congress each fiscal year under the University Nuclear Leadership Program (UNLP). The funds for fiscal 2021 that remain in UNLP following the disbursement of these grants, about $10 million, will be used for “scholarships, fellowships, trade schools/community colleges and faculty development,” NRC said. That money should be distributed by May 2022.
No Major Violations at Palisades, Indian Point, NRC Says After Inspections
Operations at two nuclear power plants, one in the midst of decommissioning and the other slated for closure, are still in line with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s guidelines, the agency said in inspection reports recently.
NRC documented “no findings or violations of more than minor significance” at Palisades Nuclear Generating Station’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI), according to a Monday letter to Entergy, the plant’s current operator. The commission conducted an inspection of the Covert, Mich., plant’s 21-cask dry storage pad Oct. 21, the letter said.
New Jersey-based nuclear services company Holtec International is planning to take over Palisades’ license from Entergy when it shuts down in 2022. A Holtec official said Nov. 1 that the company expects NRC to approve the sale by January and to have “a detailed transaction” with Entergy ready by June.
The companies first agreed to the sale in 2018.
Meanwhile, NRC told Holtec in a Nov. 9 letter that it hadn’t uncovered any violations at another of the company’s decommissioning projects: Indian Point Energy Center in New York. The agency conducted a hybrid inspection of the Buchanan, N.Y. plant Sep. 30 consisting of site observations, interviews with personnel and a review of regulatory procedures, the letter said.
The decommissioning process is moving along at Indian Point.
Holtec said at the end of September that it had moved a little over half of the plant’s spent fuel inventory into dry storage, about 54 canisters. A company spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor at the time that that figure should be up to 58 by the end of the year. Indian Point’s ISFSI will eventually store 147 dry storage casks: 125 for spent fuel and another 12 for Greater-Than-Class-C waste.
Indian Point shut down for good April 30 after its previous owner Entergy wrapped up operations at its Unit 3 reactor.
Nuclear Waste Fund Assets Increased by Just Over $1M in FY2021, DOE Audit Says
The nation’s piggy bank for nuclear waste disposal only gained a little over $1 million over the last fiscal year, according to a Department of Energy financial report published this week.
Cash in the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) rose to around $46.7 million in the 2021 fiscal year, up around 3% year-over-year from around $45 million, according to DOE’s audit published Monday. The main source of that increase was intragovernmental investments, which increased to around $44.3 million from $42.7 million. Dues paid into the NWF by utilities remained relatively stable in fiscal 2021 at roughly $2.4 million.
The NWF was originally intended to fund the construction of a federal permanent repository for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, namely, Nevada’s Yucca Mountain site. Despite that, successful political opposition during the Barack Obama administration from state stakeholders like former Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) halted the project’s development — something the Donald Trump administration tried, and failed, to reverse. The Joe Biden administration has committed not to fund anything more than physical security at Yucca Mountain.
