The Vermont Public Utility Commission (VPUC) on Friday said it would not issue a final ruling on the proposed sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant until after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides whether to approve the transfer of the site license from owner Entergy to planned buyer NorthStar Group Services.
In a late-June brief to the Public Utility Commission, the companies said they hoped to secure state regulatory approval for the deal within 30 days of the federal OK. Other parties authorized to intervene in the VPUC review did not object to the Entergy-NorthStar request regarding the order of decisions.
“Based on the above considerations and the absence of objection by the parties, the Commission has determined to postpone a decision in this matter until after the NRC ruling on the proposed license transfer,” the state panel said in its order.
Entergy in 2014 closed Vermont Yankee, and announced its planned sale to New York City-based decommissioning specialist NorthStar in 2016.
All but one of the governmental and nongovernmental parties to the VPUC review in March signed a memorandum of understanding setting financial and site cleanup terms for the sale, which the companies hope to close by the end of the year. An NRC ruling is anticipated in the third quarter of the year, which ends on Sept. 30. If the $1,000 sale is sealed, NorthStar would be responsible for decommissioning, spent fuel management, and site restoration at Vermont Yankee. It would keep some portion of the decommissioning trust fund when work is complete, which NorthStar management says could happen as early as 2026 at a cost of roughly $811 million.
The Vermont Public Utility Commission said it could not commit to issuing its decision within 30 days of the NRC ruling. “The Commission anticipates that any remaining process, including, if necessary, any additional evidentiary hearings, would be limited to issues directly relevant to any NRC ruling and supplemental prefiled testimony filed since the evidentiary hearings in May 2018.”
Parties will be invited to submit scheduling proposals following the NRC decision. However, the Public Utility Commission did direct that Entergy and NorthStar to provide a copy of any NRC action within three days. The companies would have within 10 days of an NRC ruling to submit any additional testimony related to that decision, along with a proposed schedule for the remainder of the state review.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May spent $10,789 from the federal fund intended to pay for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, leaving its available balance at $457,235, according to the latest spending update to Congress.
The agency spent nearly all of that — $10,366 – on costs from a February meeting of the Licensing Support Network (LSN) Advisory Review Board and collecting information about possible locations for resumption of hearings in its adjudication of the Department of Energy license application for the disposal site.
“[A] large portion of the May expenditures are for the trailing contract costs from the February 2018 LSNARP meeting, specifically for the contract facilitator and transcripts,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email on June 29. “Also included are agency staff hours spent on items such as the monthly congressional report.”
The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Boards suspended the Yucca license review in September 2011, at the commission’s direction, as the Obama administration sought other means for permanent disposal of the nation’s commercial and defense radioactive waste. The Trump administration has sought to revive the licensing process but has yet to persuade Congress to fund the effort.
Adjudicatory hearings were previously held near McCarran International Airport, but that site has been decommissioned since 2011. The NRC has indicated at least some future hearings could be held in Nevada. But, absent additional congressional appropriations, the agency does not have enough money from the Nuclear Waste Fund to restart the process.
The LSN Advisory Review Panel met earlier this year to discuss options for reconstituting the database of millions of documents related to the Yucca Mountain adjudication. The system was retired in 2011 and more than 3 million documents moved to the NRC’s online documents library. Much like the adjudication, more money from the Nuclear Waste Fund would be needed for the NRC to actually proceed with reviving the Licensing Support Network.
The agency had about $13.5 million available from the fund when a federal judge in August 2013 ordered it to proceed with the licensing process. It has since then spent nearly $13.1 million, with another $29,921 that is unexpended but already obligated.
In a recent update, the Energy Department said it had nearly $38 billion in the Nuclear Waste Fund.
Six hundred sixty-six used reactor fuel assemblies had been moved from wet to dry storage by June 20 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County, Calif., primary owner Southern California Edison said in its latest update on the transfer process.
That translates to 222 fuel assembles moved between May 20 and June 20, according to the June 29 report.
Meanwhile, 1,965 fuel assemblies from reactor Units 2 and 3 were still in the wet storage on June 20, compared to 2,150 assemblies on May 20. Another 37 fuel assembles were in the process of being moved on June 20.
The assemblies were held in 18 storage canisters in dry storage, up from 12 in the prior report. A 19th canister was being loaded on June 20.
Faulty steam generators forced the permanent shutdown of SONGS’ two remaining operational reactors in 2013. The settlement to a lawsuit from a local watchdog group on waste storage authorizes Southern California Edison to move all spent fuel onto an expanded storage pad even as it pursue “commercially reasonable” opportunities to ship the material off-site.
The utility’s latest report on the settlement agreement, also dated June 29, suggests there has been no significant progress since its prior update. A team of expert consultants formed earlier this year is working on strategic and transportation plans for potential off-site shipment of the waste.
Southern California Edison anticipates that contractor Holtec International will finish the spent fuel transfer by mid-2019. It is still waiting on state regulatory approval to begin major decommissioning operations for the plant, which is expected in early 2019. An AECOM-EnergySolutions team won a $1 billion contract to oversee what is expected to be a $4.4 billion cleanup job.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office on June 29 announced a multimillion-dollar settlement of a lawsuit with the operators of the Bridgeton Landfill, where a fire is smoldering underground near radioactive material disposed of at the adjacent West Lake Landfill.
The state in 2013 sued Bridgeton Landfill LLC, Allied Services LLC, and Republic Services Inc., asserting breach of Missouri’s environmental rules and “common-law claims” in connection to the fire that ignited in 2010. As part of the settlement, the plaintiffs must conduct a program of comprehensive maintenance, monitoring, and mitigation, and make several financial commitments, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office.
Over the past five years Bridgeton parent firm Republic Services has already done $200 million worth of work to offset the impact of the landfill fire, including building a technologically sophisticated wastewater treatment site, conducting monitoring, and establishing a cover for odor containment. It will sustain those mitigation operations, and make the following financial commitments: a $26 million bond and $61 million in further funding for mitigation efforts in the event of corporate default. Meanwhile, Bridgeton will establish a $12.5 million community restitution fund and pay $3.5 million to the state.
The Bridgeton and West Lake landfills are both part of the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, not far from St. Louis. The Bridgeton Landfill contains no radioactive material. However, the West Lake site in 1973 received roughly 8,700 tons of leached barium sulfate from development of the atomic bomb in World War II, which was combined with contaminated soil to cover refuse at the landfill. In February, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected partial excavation as its preferred means of cleanup of the contaminated material.
Republic Services is also owner of the West Lake Landfill.
From The Wires
From New Times: California State Assembly committee passes legislation with community impact funding to offset loss of tax revenue from closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
From the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: Empty nuclear fuel skips extracted for first time from First Generation Magnox Storage Pond at the Sellafield site.
From The Associated Press: Japanese energy plan approved this week continues troubled nuclear fuel recycling program.
From The Associated Press: But Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission urges tighter oversight of fuel recycling.
From World Nuclear News: Uranium enrichment provider URENCO signs new nuclear fuel recycling deal with French utility EDF.
