The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants a subsidiary of nuclear services provider EnergySolutions to explain an apparent $15.2 million shortfall in the decommissioning trust fund for the Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois.
ZionSolutions is the NRC licensee for the retired two-reactor facility while it carries out decommissioning for owner Exelon Generation Corp.
In its March 2019 decommissioning funding status update, ZionSolutions told the NRC the aggregate trust fund for decommissioning both reactors had a negative balance of $8.5 million. On top of that, the company projected it would need $6.7 million more to wrap up its cleanup mission, which would encompass management of the plant’s radioactive spent fuel.
“Therefore, when considering the negative [nuclear decommissioning trust] balance, the licensee has a total shortfall of approximately $15.2 million,” according to a request for additional information sent May 22 by John Hickman, project manager for the NRC’s Reactor Decommissioning Branch, to John Sauger, president and chief nuclear officer for EnergySolutions’ reactor decontamination and decommissioning business.
As of Dec. 31, 2018, $651.5 million had been spent on decommissioning Zion since September 2010, more than 12 years after its closure. In its last press statement on the project, from October 2016, ZionSolutions said decommissioning was 88% finished and ahead of the 10-year schedule for completion.
ZionSolutions expects to finish by Sept. 1, 2020, at which point it would return the decontaminated property and spent fuel storage pad, plus their NRC licenses, to Exelon Generation Corp.
“Since the time of the last estimate … the cost and funding estimate have been adjusted for market value changes in the decommissioning trust fund (DTF), refinement of the cost and schedule estimate reflecting more mature knowledge gained from the new cost-significant contracts for various decommissioning and fuel management activities, and more developed cost allocations among the activities for radiological and non-radiological work,” Gerard van Noordennen, EnergySolutions vice president for regulatory affairs, wrote in the introductory letter to the March 26 trust fund update.
In a footnote to its March report, ZionSolutions said its parent company’s resources, along with a $98 million letter of credit from Exelon, would ensure funding for completion of decommissioning. In its response this month, the NRC emphasized a specific line in that footnote, that the cited backup funding sources are “available but are not relied upon here.”
The agency also noted that ZionSolutions’ 2018 decommissioning funding status update indicated the trust fund would have a $5.7 million surplus when the project ended.
Sauger requested that ZionSolutions answer three specific questions within 14 days of receiving his letter: Explain “how and why” the trust fund has dipped into the red; submit a listing of costs paid out of the fund since the 2018 filing, including whether any radiological decommissioning funds were directed to other operations; and deliver documentation and other proof of funds that would be used to pay for remaining decommissioning and spent fuel management.
An NRC spokesman said Wednesday that ZionSolutions asked for clarification regarding one of the questions, though it was not immediately clear which one. The company is not expected to meet the 14-day deadline, the spokesperson said.
