All spent fuel at the retired Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station has been moved to dry storage, owner Entergy announced Thursday.
The transfer campaign, conducted by Holtec International, began in June 2017. It involved removing nearly 3,000 sent fuel assemblies from wet storage and placing them in 45 storage casks, which were then transported to two on-site independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSI).
An existing storage pad held 13 casks from prior transfers. Holtec built a second ISFSI, and the two pads together now hold 58 casks filled with 3,880 used fuel bundles.
In all, the project came in within its $143 million budget and earlier than the target date at the end of 2018, Joe Lynch, Entergy’s senior government affairs manager for decommissioning, said by email.
Entergy closed the single-reactor site in Vernon in 2014 and plans this year to sell it to New York City-based NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning. Completing the fuel transfer is part of the deal, which still awaits federal and state regulatory approval. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to issue its decision by the end of September, and the Vermont Public Utility Commission has said it would rule afterward.
In its press release, Entergy highlighted upcoming changes at Vermont Yankee that will reduce security, personnel, and maintenance costs. As many as 50 of the remaining 60 employees at the plant will be let go by the end of October, Lynch said.
“In the past few months, construction has taken place that is installing additional security measures around the ISFSI. The construction is preparing to establish the security boundary around the ISFSI, with the required regulatory approval,” he stated. “Now that all the spent nuclear fuel is on the pads, this ‘protected area’ is expected to be operational within several weeks, with a robust security presence. Later in the year, Vermont Yankee’s staffing will move to an ‘ISFSI only’ SAFSTOR 3 staff configuration, with 10 employees.”
The revised financial settlement for expenses connected to the premature closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California received final approval Thursday by the parties to the deal, plant majority owner Southern California Edison announced.
The decision came a week after the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the settlement plan, which cut $775 million from the $3.3 billion in closure costs previously assigned to ratepayers in the original 2014 settlement. That was out of the total $4.7 billion cost estimate.
Parties to the settlement included lead SONGS owners Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and a number of California advocacy groups.
“Today’s decision means we can begin delivering the benefits to customers that settling parties proposed seven months ago,” said SCE President Ron Nichols said in a press release. “We’re pleased to bring closure to this issue following the diligent efforts over many months by the parties.”
Residential ratepayers should on average receive an $11 one-time credit in an upcoming bill, plus about $2 in monthly savings starting next month.
The San Diego County plant’s two remaining operational reactors closed permanently in 2013 following installation of faulty steam generators. The California Public Utilities Commission reopened the first settlement in 2016 after determining that former commission President Michael Peevey had conducted ex-parte talks on the matter with an SCE executive in 2013. That led to mediation among the parties and a new settlement proposal early this year.
Meanwhile, SCE is waiting on regulatory approval to begin major decommissioning operations at the plant. An AECOM-EnergySolutions team will manage the project, which has a projected price tag of over $4 billion.
From The Wires
From KPBS: Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko questions whether spent nuclear fuel being moved into storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will ever be removed.
From the Carlsbad Current-Argus: New Mexico agencies provided answers to six of 57 questions from a state lawmaker regarding Holtec International’s planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility.
From the Australian Broadcasting Corp.: Australia ships another tranche of spent nuclear fuel to France for reprocessing.
