NRC OK with Yankee fund plan
Toolbox
By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: December 9, 2009
BRATTLEBORO — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Entergy Nuclear's plan to make up the $87.4 million shortfall in Vermont Yankee's decommissioning trust fund.
Entergy, the parent company of Entergy Nuclear, has agreed to provide a "guarantee" worth $40 million, and the company says the trust fund has recovered more than $80 million in value since February, but is still $80 million behind original projections.
The most recent figures released by the Department of Public Service put the fund at $428 million as of the end of November.
The fund had hit a high of $440 million in September 2007, and projections then said it would hit $500 million by November 2009.
"The NRC staff determined that the trust fund balance, projected to the time of permanent cessation of operations in 2012, plus the parent company guarantee will cover the projected shortfall," wrote James Kim, project manager for Vermont Yankee for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kim's letter to Entergy Nuclear was released late Tuesday afternoon by the NRC.
Kim added that Entergy had until Dec. 31 to establish the $40 million guarantee fund, and that the NRC staff would verify "that adequate financial assurance was established."
"It's in everyone's best interest to ensure that decommissioning is adequately funded," said Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear.
"The further guarantee that we will have in place is the direct result of effective federal oversight of decommissioning and an example of our commitment to meeting the regulator's expectations," he said.
According to Williams, it will cost $440 million to decommission Vermont Yankee to NRC standards, and an additional $42 million to $47 million to return it to the promised "green field" standard. Another $400 million will be needed to store the old, highly radioactive fuel, but he said those costs would eventually be reimbursed by the federal government.
Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer who is working for the Legislature on various Vermont Yankee issues, said the NRC formula for determining decommissioning costs was "very simplistic" and only covered half of one page.
"It is not site specific and only includes 'radiological decommissioning' down to 25 milirem," he said in an e-mail.
"There are hundreds of millions more to be concerned about," said Gundersen, noting that Entergy's own expert had testified before the Legislature that decommissioning would be at least $900 million.
"The real question is who pays if it costs more than the NRC formula," Gundersen said.
He said in the case of Connecticut Yankee, which shut down a few years ago, its decommissioning cost Connecticut ratepayers an extra $500 million to clean up radioactive contamination.
Williams said Entergy agreed with the $900 million figure, but said $400 million of that is for the storage of high-level radioactive waste. The federal Department of Energy was supposed to take control of the high-level waste about 10 years ago, but so far it hasn't, largely because it has no place to put the waste. The proposed nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain, outside Las Vegas, Nev., has been stalled.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
3