NRC: Yankee question remains
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: May 22, 2009
BRATTLEBORO – The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant edged one step closer Thursday to getting its final federal approval for another 20 years of operation.
But while one arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was satisfied with recent additional analyses done by Entergy Nuclear about the effects of metal fatigue on a key safety system, another arm of the federal agency criticized Entergy's plan on how it would handle its high-level radioactive waste and its decommissioning trust fund, saying it was lacking key information and financial analysis.
The issue of metal fatigue in the spray nozzles in the reactor's containment was first raised by the New England Coalition during the appeal process of the NRC's initial approval.
Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, said the issue of the final safety analysis now goes back to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the appeals panel for the federal agency.
"This was the last remaining step, the last contention that was alive," Sheehan said.
In an unusual, early evening news release, the NRC said Entergy had satisfied its questions on the metal fatigue issues raised in the appeals process before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
But the press release stopped short of saying that Entergy Nuclear had its full support for another 20 years of operation.
The decommissioning trust fund has lost significant value in the past year, although it has rebounded in recent months. But the fund, estimated at about $400 million, is far short of the estimated cost of $800 million to $1 billion to tear down and clean up the Vernon site.
The decommissioning fund has been the focus of the Vermont Legislature as well, and there is a bill pending before Gov. James Douglas that would require Entergy to pay into the fund.
The NRC said Entergy's report submitted earlier this spring on the status of its decommissioning plans and the $400 million fund were inadequate and didn't address key questions about how the company planned on coping with the recent stock market decline, which had stripped the decommissioning fund of about 20 percent of its value.
The NRC also said that Entergy had made a potential mistake by including funds it hopes to receive from the Department of Energy toward the costs of storage of high-level radioactive waste, and warned the company that even though it had won a victory in federal court, there was no guarantee it would receive all the money it expected.
"VY's analysis indicates sufficient funds are not available to address the decommissioning costs and spent fuel management costs without the Department of Energy's reimbursement, what mechanism has VY established to address the funding shortfall since the liability judgment does not guarantee the payment of damages in any certain amount or any payment date, and it could be overturned?" NRC regulators asked.
Entergy Nuclear has asked for permission to dip into its decommissioning trust fund to pay for costs of storing the high-level radioactive waste outside the plant. Entergy hasn't filed a formal request yet, according to Sheehan.
The NRC had issued its initial safety evaluation report in May 2008, but there were a couple of outstanding safety issues raised by anti-nuclear groups.
But Thursday's notice said those issues had been resolved satisfactorily, and the new analyses done by Entergy Nuclear had not raised any more issues.
"It's now in the hands of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board," said Sheehan Thursday evening, noting that the ASLB had ordered the additional analysis.
The New England Coalition, a Brattleboro-based anti-nuclear group, had raised the issues a year ago, saying the company hadn't done adequate engineering and safety analysis of the spray nozzles in an emergency cooling system.
"The supplemental safety evaluation report does not identify new open items. There are no new license conditions resulting from this supplement," according to the NRC press release issued after the close of business.
Entergy Nuclear did not respond by press time about the NRC issues.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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