Searching for lost revenue from shut-down nuclear plants, NY law allows towns to assess waste storageANS Nuclear CafeWaste ManagementJanuary 12, 2021, 9:29AM|ANS Nuclear CafeIndian Point nuclear power plant. Photo: Entergy NuclearCommunities across the United States where nuclear power plants have been shut down face huge gaps in tax revenues, sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars. States such as New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, and California are watching events in New York now that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a new law that says cities can “assess the economic value of storing waste” on sites where nuclear plants once operated, as reported by Bloomberg.Lost revenue: Local administrators have been on the front lines of the missing tax revenue problem ever since Cuomo announced a deal with Entergy to close Indian Point-3 . The local municipalities will lose millions; an article published by a USA Today local affiliate reports that because of IP-3’s expected closure, the village of “Buchanan anticipates losing some $2.6 million in annual property tax revenue … the town of Cortlandt expects to lose $800,000 and the Hendrick Hudson School District roughly a third of its $75 million budget.” The solution to this loss, aside from the obvious solution of saving an efficient, reliable, and clean power source, is to tax what is left behind.New law: This first-of-a-kind law will be tested in Buchanan and Cortlandt—the site of the Indian Point nuclear plant. “There’s really no prototype for this,” Cortlandt town supervisor Linda Puglisi stated, pointing out, “We will eventually become the example for other communities that have closed nuclear plants.”Theresa Knickerbocker, the mayor of Buchannan, added, “It’s not really fair to the communities not to be compensated for [used fuel] to be stored here. That was not the agreement for the communities.” The value of waste: At present, since the United States does not recycle used nuclear fuel, the on-site waste is not worth anything. Cortlandt tax assessor Thomas Watkins adds, “We have a piece of land upon which we can store nuclear fuel [which cannot be stored elsewhere]. So, what’s [the land] worth?”New York administrators are not yet sure how much they will value the space on which the used fuel is stored, and it could take years before the municipalities come up with a reasonable number. However, David Knabel, the city administrator of Zion, Ill.—where the Zion nuclear plant has been shut down since 1998—has long been considering the question. He thinks that the owners of these sites “should be paying $120 million in property taxes, because there’s only a dozen places where you can store this [waste].” Illinois assessment law, however, does not allow for such an interpretation.Spotlight on: The (sometimes premature) closure of nuclear plants brings two problems to light: the large gaps created in small-town budgets when a plant is shuttered, and the growing need for a national strategy to deal with used nuclear fuel long-term. If there were solutions to both problems, municipalities would not have to try to find value in waste.Tags:andrew cuomobuchanancortlandtentergyexelonindian pointnew yorktaxused fuelzionShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
Fuel innovation: Powering nuclear modernizationToday’s U.S. commercial nuclear power plants are fueled with uranium dioxide pressed into cylindrical ceramic pellets—and have been for decades. These pellets are stacked inside long fuel rods made of a zirconium alloy cladding. Innovation in nuclear fuel, however, can improve safety, reduce operating costs, and further enable the development of a new generation of non-light-water reactors.Go to Article
EIA: Nuclear, coal will account for majority of U.S. generating capacity retirements in 2021According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest inventory of electric generators, 9.1 gigawatts (GW) of electric generating capacity is scheduled to retire in 2021.In total, it appears that 30 plants (nuclear, coal, petroleum, and others) will be retired in 2021. Five nuclear reactors are included in the closure list—Indian Point-3, Byron (two units at the plant), and Dresden (two units at the plant). Those three plants produce 5.1 GW of power, accounting for more than half of the total capacity expected to be retired.Go to Article
The year in review 2020: Power and OperationsHere is a look back at the top stories of 2020 from our Power and Operations section in Newswire and Nuclear News magazine. Remember to check back to Newswire soon for more top stories from 2020.Power and Operations section Defense Department invests in three microreactor designs: Three reactor developers got a boost on March 9 when they each were awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to design a reactor that can fit inside a standard shipping container for military deployment. Read more.Go to Article
Exelon CEO urges Illinois legislators to save nuclear plantsCraneChristopher Crane, president and chief executive officer of Exelon, wrote in a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed, “The failure of national energy markets to support clean energy will soon force the premature retirement of two of [Illinois’s] six zero-carbon nuclear plants, putting thousands of people out of work, raising energy costs, and taking us decades backward in the fight against climate change."Crane urged Illinois policymakers to act quickly, as they face critical decisions about the future of energy that will affect the state’s environment, the economy, and the health of every family for years to come.Go to Article
Palisades license transfer request submitted to NRCThe Palisades nuclear plant will be permanently retired in the spring of next year. Photo: Entergy NuclearEntergy Corporation and Holtec International have jointly submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval of the transfer of the licenses for the Palisades nuclear plant, in Covert, Mich., to Holtec, following the plant’s permanent shutdown and defueling in the spring of 2022.The application, dated December 23, also requests approval of the license transfer of Entergy’s decommissioned Big Rock Point facility near Charlevoix, Mich., where only the independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) remains.Go to Article
Game-playing AI technique may lead to cheaper nuclear energyIn this AI-designed layout for a boiling water reactor, fuel rods are ideally positioned around two fixed water rods to burn more efficiently. MIT researchers ran the equivalent of 36,000 simulations to find the optimal configurations. Colors correspond to varying amounts of uranium and gadolinium oxide in each rod. Image: Majdi Radaideh/MITResearchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Exelon show that by turning the nuclear fuel assembly design process into a game, an artificial intelligence system can be trained to generate dozens of optimal configurations that can make each fuel rod last about 5 percent longer, saving a typical power plant an estimated $3 million a year, the researchers report.The AI system can also find optimal solutions faster than a human and can quickly modify designs in a safe, simulated environment. The results appear in the journal Nuclear Engineering and Design.Go to Article
Study completed on BWRX-300 deployment in PolandThe completion of a study assessing the feasibility of deploying a fleet of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH) BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Poland was announced recently by the Polish firm Synthos Green Energy (SGE). The feasibility study, which was prepared by Exelon Generation, was not made publicly available by SGE. The study covers the analysis of key aspects of SMR technology implementation, including cost issues, personnel policy, regulatory and security issues, construction models, and operational issues, according to SGE.SGE is a subsidiary of Synthos S.A., a manufacturer of synthetic rubber and one of the biggest producers of chemical raw materials in Poland. According to SGE, it views SMR technology as an opportunity for the deep decarbonization of Polish industry and the country's heating sector.Go to Article
Local leader speaks out to keep Byron nuclear plant openChesneyAn Illinois lawmaker is hopeful that legislation is coming in the state that would benefit nuclear power plants. “I believe we’re going to have an incentive program that will be in partisan legislation,” said Andrew Chesney, Illinois state representative for the 89th District.Chesney’s comment was included in a video story that aired on a TV news channel in Rockford, Ill. The news story focused on the negative financial impact that would result if the Byron nuclear power plant were to close in 2021.Go to Article
ANS leaders’ op-ed urges New York Gov. Cuomo to keep Indian Point-3 operatingDunzik-GougarPiercyThe scheduled premature shutdown of Indian Point-3 will all but guarantee a massive increase in fossil fuel use, according to an op-ed written by American Nuclear Society President Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar and Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy that was published in the New York Daily News on November 30.Indian Point-3 is slated to be shut down in April 2021, four years before its operating license expires.Go to Article
Indian Point licenses to transfer to Holtec for decommissioningIndian Point’s licenses will transfer to Holtec for decommissioning after the plant shuts down in 2021. Photo: Entergy NuclearThe transfer of the Indian Point nuclear power plant licenses from Entergy to Holtec International, as owner, and Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI), as decommissioning operator, has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The license transfers follow the transfer of the licenses of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant from Exelon and the Pilgrim plant from Entergy to Holtec in mid-2019. As with the Oyster Creek and Pilgrim plants, Holtec and HDI intend to expedite the decommissioning and dismantling of Indian Point.Indian Point’s three pressurized water reactors are located in Buchanan, N.Y., approximately 24 miles north of New York City. Units 1 and 2 have been permanently shut down, in 1974 and 2020, respectively, and Unit 3 is scheduled to be shut down in April 2021. The license transfer also includes the plant’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI).Go to Article