The Vermont Yankee Announcement
Neil Sheehan
Public Affairs Officer, Region I
Yesterday,
Vermont Yankee became
the fifth U.S. commercial nuclear power reactor since the beginning of
2013 to announce plans to permanently cease operations. Earlier closure
declarations this year involved the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, in
Wisconsin; the two-unit San Onofre facility, in California; and Crystal
River, in Florida.
Of those plants, Vermont Yankee’s decision has the most in common
with Kewaunee, in that a primary determining factor, according to its
operator, was changes in the electricity marketplace — particularly an
abundance of low-cost natural gas — that impacted the plant’s economic
competitiveness.
Given the plant’s satisfactory safety performance, it is currently under the normal level of oversight from the NRC.
For residents of Vermont and neighboring states, one of the first questions that may come to mind is what comes next?
Going forward, the NRC will continue its rigorous oversight of the
Vernon, Vt., plant through the remainder of its operation and then into
and through the decommissioning process. Once the final operational
cycle concludes for the single-unit boiling water reactor, the
facility’s owner, Entergy, would have to formally notify the NRC of the
permanent cessation of power production within 30 days. Subsequently,
Entergy would have to formally let us know once the fuel had been
removed from the reactor.
There
are numerous steps that would then follow in the decommissioning review
process, including holding a public meeting near the plant to discuss
the company’s plans. The company will outline its plans in a
Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR), which is to be
submitted within two years after the certification of permanent closure.
The PSDAR would provide a description of the planned decommissioning
activities, a schedule for accomplishing them, and an estimate of the
expected costs.
After receiving a PSDAR, the NRC publishes a notice of receipt in the
Federal Register, makes the report available for public review and
comment
More information about the decommissioning process is available in an NRC
fact sheet and on the agency’s
web site.
The
NRC issued two important documents this week that mark significant
milestones in the agency’s oversight and inspection of the Tennessee
Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry plant in Alabama.
