Notes of Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast – 5/15/12015 – The Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP)

Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast, May 15,  2015, Gibson-Aiken Center  

The Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP)
Kate O’Connor, Chairperson  oconnorkatevt@gmail.com

Note: The Next NDCAP Meeting will be held  May 28, 2015, 6pm – 9pm, Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS),  multipurpose room.

The 19 member panel includes six citizen representatives, two Entergy reps, representation from the  Vermont agency and department heads as well as reps from NH and MA.  Since it’s organizational meeting last September 14th, it has met regularly, more often than the legislatively mandated quarterly meetings.  Kate acknowledged Martin Langeveld, of Vernon, also a citizen member of the panel, and elected Vice-Chair.

The panel’s  purpose, succinctly put, is that it can tell VY what to do; just they don’t have to do it. It is a mechanism for shining the light on what is happening at VY and the panel can advise the Legislature.

In December 2014, VY stopped operating. Some may mistakenly believe that the story ends there. There is still fuel rods in the spent fuel pools and the needs to build a concrete slab to contain more spent fuel pools and building which need to come down.

Entergy-VY’s plan calls for waiting 60 years before taking the buildings down. There are three types of decommissioning from which VY can choose: [1]

1. DECON – within five years 

2. SAFSTOR – in a 60 year time frame

3. ENTOMB – burying the plant under concrete

VY has chosen SAFSTOR – it will take five years to move fuel rods into dry cask storage, then the waiting begins.

There is not enough money in the decommissioning fund to do the work now. It is estimated that $1.2 billion will be needed and only $650 million is in the fund currently. If the fund remains invested at 2-3% interest for 40 years, it is hoped there would be sufficient monies for decommissioning.
The fuel rods need to be moved to dry casks, concrete and steel storage containers. Presently there are 13 casks; 58 casks in total will be needed to contain 3,000 rods. By 2020 all fuel rods will be moved to dry casks. How long they sit there is up to the Federal government. While there is a “promise” to move them out by 2052, the Yucca Mountain site identified for permanent storage has not opened and will not open. We need to pay attention to where the fuel will go; likely the casks will remain there for a look long long time. The dry cask issue will come up at NDCAP’s next meeting on May 28, as VY has applied for a permit to build another concrete pad to accommodate additional casks.

While there are rules for running a nuclear plant, there is no rule book for decommissioning. Typically, VY will ask the NRC for exemptions from operating rules on the grounds that the plant is no longer operating. For example, if a certain number of  staff are required to be on duty to watch the fuel rods when the plant is operating, although the fuel is still there, VY will ask for an exemption for a lower staffing ratio as the plant is now shut down. cf: Entergy VY Staffing projections here.

There is continuing talk about the EPZ (Evacuation Planning Zone). After 2016, there will be no more drills as the radiation from VY will not be as high. The EPZ will be reduced to the footprint of the plant.

The State keeps suing but it is unlikely it will prevail except by keeping the issues at the forefront.

The NRC held its last hearing early last year and that was presumably the last opportunity for the public to file comments. The NDCAP gives the opportunity to speak directly to Entergy and to try to get the information out.  For the State, the only issue is that Vernon and Windham County will be the host community for spent fuel for the foreseeable future.

The VT Congressional delegation needs to pay attention to these issues and they can tell the  NRC what to do. VY is not the only nuclear plant to be decommissioned. If the issues are not resolved, all other plants “will follow the same non-rules.”

Summary of Questions & Answers:

• Separate from the lack of money for decommissioning, there is no answer for availability of funding for radiological monitoring, time spent by the Public Service Department attorney, etc. VY would argue that is not needed anymore.

• The pressure points to change the process is found in the fact that VY is following the (no) rules set up by the NRC on decommissioning. The authority for new rules must be set by Congress. Rather than it being a matter of being pro or anti nuclear, it’s a matter of (a) making the case to decommission safely; (b) looking at our common interests: and (c) forming coalitions and (d) taking the issues to Washington DC. We all need to be in this together.

• Martin Langeveld mentioned that Jeffrey Lewis has started an Institute for Nuclear Host Communities and has reached out to to similarly situated communities in Japan and Europe. [2]

• What if the decommissioning fund disappears due to economic factors such as inflation? if it never reaches $1.2 billion? if Entergy is not around anymore?  There are no firm answers. Martin Langeveld offered  that Entergy already outsources and insources decommissioning functions; NDCAP is keeping an eye on how the fund is invested and a $1.2 billion level is based on a conservative growth rate.

• We have learned and are still learning from prior plant closings. David Mears, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation is in touch with CT, ME and MA.

• Clay Turnbull of the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution (NEC) made the following observations:

  • Entergy could improve the level of the fund by putting money into it.

  • The building contain other contaminants, such as asbestos.

  • The State has not sued Entergy; Vermont has defended its right to enforce State laws.

  • The NEC intervened in the PSB docket in order to look at the economics

Footnotes:

[1] US NRC: Backgrounder on Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/decommissioning.html

[2] “JEFFREY LEWIS & JENNIFER STROMSTEN: THE POST-VY ECONOMY” VT Digger, June 22, 2014
http://vtdigger.org/2014/06/22/jeffrey-lewis-jennifer-stromsten-post-vy-economy/