Entergy, the Louisiana-based company that owns the Vernon reactor, released the highest cost assessment yet to tear down the plant. The company announced in December that it would close the plant by the end of 2014 for financial reasons. Its agreement with the state required a decommissioning study that projected the total cost of closing the plant.
The company has selected the SAFSTOR method of decommissioning, a process that federal regulators allow to take 60 years to complete. The company’s decommission cost report estimates it will begin decommissioning by the mid-2060s.
But the company expects the Vermont Yankee plant to be decommissioned much sooner than the report’s projections.
Marty Cohn, an Entergy Vermont Yankee spokesman, said many factors can affect the duration the plant’s decommissioning and the company cannot say with certainty how long the plant will sit before it is torn down.
“We’re trying to keep our commitment that we outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding in December 2013. We’re trying to complete the decommissioning prior to maximum SAFSTOR,” he said.
He said the timeline depends on when the Department of Energy removes spent nuclear fuel from the site. Entergy expects the the federal government will begin removing the fuel by 2025, though there is currently no place to take it.
The company will let the plant sit under security while a trust fund used to be used to decommission the plant grows. Only after the fund reaches the amount needed to complete the decommissioning process will the company begin to remove the plant.
As of Sept. 30, the fund had grown to $642.6 million, according to company reports. The fund is managed by a trustee and is invested in a stock index fund that fluctuates with the market, the company said.
Cohn said the fund has grown historically at about 6 percent annually — not the 2 percent as estimated in the report. The company used a conservative estimate in projecting the fund’s growth.
The company reached an agreement with the state in which it said it would apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to begin decommissioning 120 days after it has enough money in the trust fund to complete decommissioning — sooner than required under federal regulations.
Department of Public Service Commissioner Chris Recchia said the state knew it was going to take “decades” to decommission the plant. However, he said he is optimistic that the decommissioning would occur sooner than Entergy’s projections.
“We expect that these cost estimates will enable us to move forward with full decommissioning in the 2030s or perhaps late 2020s timeframe, depending on growth in the Decommissioning Trust Fund,” he said in a statement.
On-site storage
The spent nuclear fuel will be stored on site indefinitely. The report states there are 368 spent fuel assemblies in the reactor, 2,628 assemblies in a cooling pool and 884 assemblies already placed into 13 steel-reinforced concrete casks.
The company has applied to state regulators to a permit to build a second storage site to hold spent nuclear fuel in dry casks. By 2020, the company hopes to have all 3,880 spent fuel assemblies placed into 58 dry cask storage, where it will remain until the federal government removes the fuel from the site.
Storage of spent fuel in the cooling pool “has a significant impact on the schedule and cost of decommissioning the station,” the report states. Holding spent fuel in the pool requires additional staffing and resources that the company plans to draw from the decommissioning fund.
It will cost $140 million to build a second storage pad and purchase the load casks, according to the company draft Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report. It will cost $368 million to move the fuel from the cooling pool into dry casks. The company will sue the Department of Energy to recover those costs. These amounts are included in the total decommissioning cost estimate.
“We’re prepared to help them negotiate with the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice to get fair reimbursement for these expenses,” Recchia said.
Entergy said it plans to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to draw money from the decommissioning trust fund for spent fuel management in about 120 days, Cohn said. However, he said this would reduce the ability of the fund to accumulate interest. He said the company is considering an alternative way to finance its management of the spent fuel.
State officials, including Attorney General Bill Sorrell, and nuclear safety advocates have warned that taking money out of the fund to pay for spent fuel management will delay the decommissioning timeline.
Entergy will work with the state to develop agreeable site restoration standards for the property after the plant is torn down. The company will keep the spent nuclear fuel on-site until the federal government is able to remove it.
Cohn said it will take longer for the plant to begin decommissioning if the state sets higher site restoration standards. These costs must be matched by the decommissioning trust fund, he said.
The company is posting public information related to the decommissioning of the power plant on a website.
“Entergy stated with the signing of the MOU that they were entering into a period of transparency and openness. This site assessment is proof that we are standing by that commitment,” Cohn said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:53 a.m. and 5:40 p.m.
