nuclear-news

Money mess in escalating costs of dismantling Michigan nuclear facility

Exelon: Company dismantling Zion nuclear plant is running out of money By Julie Wernau Chicago Tribune, 9 Jan 12 contact the reporter The company dismantling the closed Zion nuclear plant on Lake Michigan is running out of money to finish the job, according to the site’s owner, Chicago-based Exelon.

The project, paid for with $800 million collected from state electric ratepayers over decades, is being closely watched by nuclear plant owners around the country who hope to replicate the arrangement. It was the first time regulators allowed a nuclear power plant owner to transfer a plant’s operating license and liabilities to a third-party decommissioner.

Utah-based EnergySolutions, the company dismantling Zion, wants to become the go-to decommissioner around the world. In the U.S., about 6 percent of nuclear plants face possible closing, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In Illinois, the Zion dismantling has taken on added significance as Exelon, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, has said three of its six nuclear plants in the state could be closed. ……….

Residents in Zion who learned of the shortfall from EnergySolutions at a December community meeting were alarmed about the possibility of getting stuck with a scarred lakefront.

“That lakefront is key to any future development,” said Christopher Fischer, who is running for Zion city commissioner. “We want the lakefront to be a point of attraction, to bring visitors, to try as much as possible to make it a showpiece for the area. Having a bunch of empty buildings and the storage pad there is a hindrance.”

The EnergySolutions spokesman said the company will finish the project early and as promised. Its contract with Exelon requires that all buildings be removed………..

After decommissioning, control of the fuel-filled casks and the plant land, 257 acres sandwiched between the northern and southern stretches of Illinois Beach State Park, would revert to Exelon. The company hasn’t said what its plans are for the site.

The dismantling of nuclear plants poses huge liabilities for nuclear plant owners. About 40 percent of the costs are in shipping and disposing of low level radioactive waste such as the reactor core that houses the fuel and the inner shell of the reactor building. Nuclear plant owners have calculated that decommissioning funds aren’t always adequate to cover such costs.

As a result, there is little incentive for power plant owners to do that work, and that has left communities waiting dozens of years for closed plants to be decommissioned.

Zion is illustrative of the situation. The plant’s 1,500 tons of nuclear waste have sat for a quarter-century on what otherwise would be prime real estate on Lake Michigan………

To get the job done, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission made the unprecedented decision to allow Exelon to temporarily transfer the facility’s license and liabilities to EnergySolutions. Energy Solutions is only required to report to the NRC on the status of the decommissioning fund once a year, and the NRC doesn’t scrutinize how the money is spent, as long as the site is decommissioned safely. As of the most recent report March 27, the company did not report any shortfalls.

The lack of governmental or public oversight over how the money is being spent triggered a lawsuit against EnergySolutions subsidiary ZionSolutions. The lawsuit was rejected by a federal appellate court early last year.

By law, ratepayers who paid into the Zion fund before Illinois deregulated its electricity market are entitled to any money left after the project is completed. But experts say the company will likely take for itself any leftover money, if there is any, as profit……….http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-zion-plant-111-biz-20150109-story.html#page=1

January 12, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes