Study: Yankee can't afford shutdown
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By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff - Published: November 15, 2007
VERNON — If Vermont Yankee nuclear plant shut down today, or even in 2012 when its federal license expires, there would not be enough money in its decommissioning fund to pay for it to be dismantled and disposed of safely.
The plant would have to be essentially mothballed for 12 to 15 years for its stock market-invested trust fund to build so there was enough money to dismantle it, Entergy Nuclear engineer David McElwee told the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel Tuesday evening.
That conclusion matches a recent study by a Burlington couple, Arnold and Margaret Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates Inc, who once worked as nuclear power consultants, revealing the same thing — that Vermont Yankee's decommissioning trust fund is woefully inadequate to address its needs without a long waiting period.
The news from the Gundersen report has prompted four leading senators to ask Vermont Auditor Thomas M. Salmon to launch an investigation into the decommissioning fund, as well as last week's news of a corporate restructuring of Entergy Nuclear's corporate parent.
This week's developments about decommissioning come at the same time as the Douglas administration changed its mind and finally agreed with anti-nuclear activists that the plant needed an in-depth inspection and analysis before state and federal regulators can sign off on another 20 years of operation.
The Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel voted unanimously to recommend an independent safety assessment. Defining exactly what that inspection would cover is the next challenge, according to state nuclear engineer Uldis Vanags. The panel directed Vanags to work closely with the state's congressional delegation and the public to define the scope of the special inspection.
Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said the company had only learned about the Douglas administration's change of heart on Tuesday and he said the company was declining comment on the matter at this time.
Smith said he was unaware of neither the senators' letter nor the Gundersen report.
Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the commission would be studying the Vermont request once it is made.
Improvements have been made, he said, to the NRC inspection process since Maine Yankee nuclear plant's independent safety assessment. That assessment led to its eventual shutdown and dismantlement.
Salmon said Wednesday he had already asked Entergy Nuclear for information about the decommissioning fund even before the four senators sent him a letter last week.
Salmon said the status of the decommissioning fund, and the financial structure of its parent company, was a nonpolitical issue.
Salmon said the risks associated with power plants and handling of toxic waste was a nationwide concern faced by state auditors in every state.
"It's a fiscal impact and risk issue," he said.
Salmon said it would be premature to call his investigation an audit, noting that his office was in the "high heat of the audit season" until the end of the year, doing the state's own audit.
"In my business, you're always trying to assess the financial risk," Salmon said.
"Vermonters should be concerned. There isn't adequate funds to decommission the plant," said Sen. Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, president pro tempore of the Senate, who was one of the senators who met with Salmon Tuesday. Other senators signing the letter were Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, a member of VSNAP, and a Yankee critic.
"What we've asked for is: What exactly is the status of the fund? Could Entergy simply declare bankruptcy and head out leaving high-level nuclear fuel on the banks of the river?" Shumlin said.
"Vermonters should be startled to learn that the plant may have to sit there for 50 to 60 years before it can be dismantled," Shumlin said.
"That is a very, very frightening thought," he said. "There isn't enough money to take it away."
McElwee said Wednesday that Entergy Nuclear hasn't made any contributions to the fund since it purchased the plant five years ago. The fund now stands at $431 million, he said.
Under two of the leading scenarios outlined by Entergy, the cost of decommissioning the plant would cost anywhere from $804 million if the plant shuts down in 2012, to $991 million for a 2032 shutdown, with both figures depending on when the federal government takes away the high-level nuclear fuel.
McElwee noted that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved immediate dismantlement and mothballing the plant for many years.
Under the long-term dismantlement, the plant and its waste could sit untouched for 60 years, waiting for its trust fund to grow, McElwee said.
Actual cleanup and dismantling the plant would depend on the stock market, where the decommissioning fund is invested. McElwee said there were advantages to a delayed decommissioning including less worker exposure to materials that still have dangerous levels of radioactivity.
So far, McElwee said, Entergy has not had to add any funds to the Vermont Yankee decommissioning funds, and he said federal law prohibits the company from withdrawing any money.
But Gundersen, who used to work as a nuclear consultant for other nuclear plants, including Vermont Yankee, said that Entergy's own 2006 annual report states the company's overall decommissioning fund had been drained of $26 million.
Gundersen said he and his wife, Margaret, a paralegal, started studying the Vermont Yankee decommissioning reports and became alarmed that there wasn't enough money in the fund to cover decommissioning and there wasn't a specific analysis of any potential problems.
Gundersen, who was one of several authors of the Department of Energy's first decommissioning manual, said that a more detailed examination of Entergy Nuclear's Vermont decommissioning plan showed it full of what he called arbitrary decisions.
"There's nothing site specific," he noted. "And the scariest thing is they have no place to send the waste if they do dismantle it," he said, noting the Texas low-level waste compact was in limbo, and there was no federal waste site for high-level waste.
Margaret Gundersen said the costs of dismantling Connecticut Yankee recently almost doubled from $500 million to $900 million, when extensive radioactive contamination was found on the site.
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.
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