nuclear-news

Entergy will sell nuclear power plants in Massachusetts and Michigan to a New Jersey firm that’s promised to knock years off a lengthy shutdown process, a move that hints at the company’s plans for Indian Point.

Entergy announced last week that it has agreed to sell the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., and the Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Mich., to Holtec International, for what will be the company’s first decommissioning venture.

The announcement, coupled with Entergy’s decision to sell its Vermont Yankee plant to NorthStar Groups Services, a New York-based industrial demolition firm, is the latest indication that Indian Point could be sold once it powers down.

……. Decommissioning of nuclear power plants typically extends for decades.

But in recent years, as more than a dozen nuclear power plants have announced plans to close, firms like Holtec and NorthStar have jumped into decommissioning, promising quick turnarounds.

n the case of Pilgrim, Holtec would begin decommissioning in 2020 and wrap up the work in eight years, Entergy officials say.

Palisades is slated to shut down in the spring of 2022 when the timetable for its dismantling would be announced. In both cases, spent nuclear fuel will be moved into cement casks on the site within three years of the shutdown, Entergy says.

“Transferring our Pilgrim and Palisades plants to Holtec, with its vast experience and innovative use of technology will lead to their decommissioning faster than if they were to remain under Entergy’s ownership,” said Leo Denault, Entergy’s chairman and CEO.

While these will be Holtec’s first decommissionings, the company has years of experience with dry cask storage on nuclear power plant sites, including Indian Point. The work will be carried out by Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a newly-formed Holtec subsidiary based in Camden, New Jersey.

Storing nuclear waste

Holtec currently has an application pending before the NRC to operate the nation’s first interim storage facility for nuclear waste in the New Mexico desert.

……. The decommissioning of Pilgrim and Palisades will include the dismantling of reactors and cooling towers, while spent fuel assemblies will remain on each site in cement casks until the federal government can develop a site to store the nation’s nuclear waste…….  When Indian Point is shut down, some 4,000 spent fuel assemblies will be stored in 125 steel-reinforced cement casks on the property, according to a state consultant’s report. ……..https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2018/08/06/could-indian-point-next-entergy-power-plant-up-sale/915308002/