Entergy will draw from a $143 million line of credit to pay for the cost of transferring spent nuclear fuel at Vermont Yankee into temporary storage. Previously, the company had insisted on tapping decommissioning funds. The decision to borrow money for the transfer expenses means the facility could be decommissioned decades sooner than anticipated.
Entergy, the Louisiana-based operator of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, expects to stop generating power on or about Dec. 29. The company will then begin moving spent nuclear fuel from the reactor into a cooling pool.
Before the company moves the spent fuel into steel-reinforced dry casks — where the fuel will remain indefinitely on-site — it must purchase a second storage pad and 45 more dry casks to hold the fuel.
The company told federal nuclear regulators Monday it will seek a $143 million loan to move and store spent nuclear fuel and to purchase the pad and casks. Entergy previously maintained the right to recover the costs from a special fund reserved for decommissioning the plant, an assertion that alarmed state regulators.
Entergy softened its stance in an October site assessment study, saying it might decide to finance the cost of the pad and dry casks. Now, the company says it will do so. That decision will expedite the timeline for decommissioning the plant by about 30 years. Entergy will eventually sue the Department of Energy to recover the costs associated with the nuclear waste storage.
“We’re saving years by allowing the trust fund to grow,” said Marty Cohn, an Entergy Vermont Yankee spokesman. “We’re allowing the decommissioning to take place years sooner than it usually would.”
By the end of 2015, the company plans to have all spent nuclear fuel removed from the reactor and placed into a cooling pool. At that point, there will be 2,996 fuel assemblies in the pool. By 2020, the fuel will be placed into dry casks.
Entergy still plans to dip into trust fund
The company anticipates spending a total of $368 million on spent fuel management, including the up-front cost of the pad and casks. It still plans to use the decomissioning fund to cover $225 million for ongoing spent fuel operations. Entergy will have to petition federal regulators to use money from the fund to pay for spent fuel costs.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has allowed the operators of the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin and the two units of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California to use their decommission trust funds to pay for spent fuel management. Both plants shut down last year and the NRC determined there was enough money in their trust funds to complete decommissioning activities.
The NRC allows 60 years for the decommissioning process. The state is urging Entergy to complete decommissioning as soon as safely possible. Entergy expects the plant could be decommissioned by the 2040s, rather than in 2075 as allowed under federal regulations.
The state urged Entergy to use its own money to cover spent fuel costs, but was unable to prohibit the company from tapping the decommissioning fund in an agreement it reached with Entergy last year. Chris Recchia, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, is pleased the company decided to allow the fund to grow faster, but still has concerns about later costs.
“I think that it’s a very positive development that they are proposing to fund the movement of the fuel from the spent fuel pool through a line of credit and not fight to take that out of the decommissioning trust fund,” Recchia said.
Another disagreement
The company and the state are at odds over another, though much smaller, cost the company seeks to recover from the fund. Entergy asserts it can use the fund to pay for emergency planning after the plant shuts down. The state says these are costs the company should include in its operating budget post-closure.
Before the company announced it would shut down the plant by the end of the year, Entergy made a commitment to deposit $127 million into the decommissioning trust fund in 2026. Under the new plan, Entergy is revoking that promise.
Cohn said keeping more money in the fund early on will allow the fund to accumulate more interest than it would if the money was taken out now.
“By us taking out this credit line up front and not utilizing the nuclear decommissioning trust fund, the monies will grow at a higher rate than if we wait to do all of this in 2026,” Cohn said.
Recchia said he continues to be concerned about the fund’s growth.
The total cost to decommission the plant is estimated at $1.2 billion. The trust fund was worth $665 million as of Nov. 30, according to Entergy.
