Published: 9/28/2018 11:25:55 PM
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A federal decision on the planned sale of Entergy Nuclear’s shuttered Vermont Yankee facility should be settled in the next week or two, the company’s decommissioning director told the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel this week.
Corey Daniels presented an update to a dozen members of the state advisory board Thursday at its first meeting in four months.
Entergy filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Feb. 9 to transfer its license to NorthStar Group Services Inc., with which it has negotiated a sale to carry out decommissioning of the shuttered facility. The federal regulator is widely expected to approve the license transfer, which is needed to move forward with the sale by the agreed to Dec. 31 deadline.
NorthStar, a large industrial demolition company based in New York City, plans on having the nuclear plant — which operated from 1972 until the end of 2014 — demolished, with cleanup completed by 2026, That’s decades ahead of Entergy’s original timetable of 60 years.
Daniels also said that with all of the highly radioactive spent fuel removed from the fuel pool atop the reactor building and now placed in 58 storage casks on a spent fuel storage facility, the staff of 150 to 160 workers is scheduled to be reduced to about 100 on Oct. 31.
The Vermont Public Utilities Commission, which also must approve a Certificate of Public Good to approve the license transfer, issued a procedural order in July postponing its decision until after the NRC decision. Daniels said he expects that agency will make its ruling shortly after the federal decision is handed down.
Daniels said an NRC inspection of the Vernon site, where the only remaining function is providing security for the fuel storage casks, is planned for next week.