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Bill Mohl, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities, Tim Mitchell, Entergy’s Acting Chief Nuclear Officer, and John Dent, site vice president of the Pilgrim plant, answer questions at yesterday’s press conference about the closing of the plant.
PLYMOUTH – Entergy could spend 60 years and over one billion dollars to decommission the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
With the news that Entergy is looking to shut down operations at the Plymouth plant in four years, officials with the company fielded a number of questions during Tuesday’s press conference about the decommissioning process.
Bill Mohl, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities, the company that owns the plant, said the company will decide early next year whether to receive its last fuel load this spring.
That will help to determine the timetable of the closure, which the company says will come no later than June 1, 2019.
Mohl cited poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs for the closure. New operational costs include $45 million to $60 million estimated to meet increased inspections by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission due to the plant’s placement in the so-called Column 4—the lowest level—in the federal agency’s Reactor Oversight Process because of its numerous unplanned shutdowns and other operational issues.
Shutting down the plant takes five to 10 years, Mohl said. Federal regulators give the company 60 years to decommission the plant after it shuts down.
In order to begin the decommissioning process, the company needs the estimated funds in place to complete the process. The federal government allows a decommissioning method called SAFSTOR in which the fuel rods are stored in dry casks on the property.
“When we talk about SAFSTOR, everyone has to understand the NRC has a provision that allows for SAFSTOR. So basically it says you have to have that plant dismantled and decommissioned within a 60-year time frame after it shuts down,” he said.
Storing the fuel rods in dry storage casks until a federal storage plan has been determined is part of the decommissioning process.
At this point, Mohl said, Entergy has $870 million in its decommissioning fund for the plant. It will need more than one billion dollars for the decommissioning process.
“You continue to build the trust fund up [until] that fund is adequate to meet the total cost, so where those intersect is basically your high level estimate of when you would begin the detailed, more comprehensive decommissioning process,” he said.
By example, Entergy’s similar plant, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant is in the process of being shut down and the cost is estimated to be $1.25 billion.
“So you pick a date when you have adequate funds to meet the total cost, then you start and that takes five to 10 years, depending on your approach,” Mohl said at yesterday’s press conference, held at the Radisson Hotel Plymouth Harbor.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com News Editor
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