NextEra sets Duane Arnold D&D at $1 billionRadwaste SolutionsWaste ManagementJune 23, 2020, 11:55AM|Radwaste Solutions StaffDuane Arnold is to shut down in October. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/AsNukeNextEra Energy is estimating that it will cost just over $1 billion to decommission its Duane Arnold Energy Center over a period of 60 years, including spent fuel management and site restoration costs, according to a post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR) and a decommissioning cost estimate the company submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April. The NRC, with publication in the June 19 Federal Register, is requesting comments on the Duane Arnold PSDAR until October 19.NextEra intends to permanently shut down the nuclear power plant, located near Palo, Iowa, on October 30. A single-unit, 622-MWe boiling water reactor, Duane Arnold began commercial operation in February 1975. Although the plant is licensed to operate until February 2034, NextEra announced in July 2018 its plans to cease operations at Duane Arnold well before then. NextEra, which shares ownership of the plant with Central Iowa Power Cooperative (20 percent) and Corn Belt Power Cooperative (10 percent), made the announcement after agreeing to end its power purchase agreement with utility Alliant Energy by 2020.The details: According to the PSDAR, NextEra intends to decommission Duane Arnold using the NRC’s SAFSTOR method, in which the plant is maintained in a safe, stable condition for up to 60 years before decommissioning is completed. The current decommissioning schedule calls for the plant to be placed in a dormant state until 2073, followed by a 7-year dismantling and decontamination period. NextEra intends to complete the transfer of Duane Arnold’s spent nuclear fuel to dry storage by August 2023.NextEra is estimating that it will cost about $725 million to decommission Duane Arnold and terminate its NRC license. The company also estimates it will spend $259 million in spent fuel management costs and $38 million to restore the site to greenfield status and decommission the plant’s independent spent fuel storage installation. NextEra based its spent fuel management cost estimate on the presumption that the Department of Energy will assume ownership of the spent fuel starting in 2030. According to NextEra’s 2019 decommissioning funding status report to the NRC, Duane Arnold had about $472 million in its decommissioning trust fund at the end of 2018.NextEra found that the environmental impacts of decommissioning Duane Arnold are bounded by the NRC’s generic environmental impact statement for decommissioning nuclear facilities and concluded that a new environmental review is unnecessary.Comments: Can be submitted through the federal rulemaking website with a search for Docket ID NRC–2020–0148. Comments can also be mailed to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN–7–A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555–0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.Tags:decommissioningduane arnoldnexterapsdarwaste managementShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
Closing Duane Arnold puts Iowa at a disadvantageOsterbergAn op-ed published in The Gazette, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa–based newspaper, laments the early closure of the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in 2020. Author David Osterberg, a former Iowa state legislator, contrasts what happened in Iowa with Illinois and three other states, whose governments "decided that heading off climate damage and the loss of good union jobs was worth keeping nuclear plants there alive." The economic calculation in Duane Arnold's case treated its electricity the same as that from coal or natural gas plants. However, Osterberg states that “when it comes to global warming and local air pollution, they aren’t the same.”Go to Article
Texas congressman weighs in on Yucca MountainBurgessThe U.S. Congress has failed to uphold its promise to fully fund Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel, Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R., Texas) writes in an op-ed article published on December 8 in the Dallas Morning News.More than three decades after passing the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress has yet to fully fund the Yucca Mountain Project. Burgess points out that while some countries have found success with reprocessing spent fuels, the fission process will always produce some amount of material that must be safely disposed, making it necessary to find a permanent solution.Go to Article
NRC issues draft decommissioning guidance for commentThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the draft report, Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance, Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria (NUREG-1757, Volume 2, Revision 2), with a request for comments by February 8.NUREG-1757, which is intended for use by applicants, licensees, and the NRC staff, was last updated in 2006. This latest revision addresses lessons learned and experience gained from the review of license termination plans, decommissioning plans, and final status surveys for licensees undergoing license termination since then.Notice of the draft NUREG was published in the December 8 Federal Register.Go to Article
Siphoning D&D lessons from the oil and gas industryThe Deepsea Delta oil-drilling platform in the North Sea. Photo: Wikimedia CommonsNuclear decommissioning projects can benefit from the lessons learned in the fossil fuel industry, according to a December 8 Reuters Events post that draws heavily from an article published in the ANS magazine Radwaste Solutions.Reuters reporter Paul Day interviewed the authors of “Tapping Nonnuclear Knowledge,” which appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of RS and examines research being done on cross-sector learning between nuclear and oil and gas decommissioning projects, particularly the mega projects of decommissioning nuclear power plants and offshore oil rigs.Go to Article
Orano, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to cooperate on nuclear D&DOrano's Alain Vandercruyssen signs a cooperation agreement with KHNP on December 4. Photo: ORANOWith the signing of a cooperation agreement by Orano and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power at KHNP’s headquarters in Gyeongju on December 4, France and South Korea are poised to enhance collaboration in the decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear facilities, particularly in South Korea and Europe.Orano said that the collaboration will give it access to the expertise of KHNP engineers, as well as to KHNP’s network of providers of nuclear engineering services, particularly in the fields of robotics, process industrialization, and quality.KHNP, in return, will benefit from Orano’s experience in preparing and carrying out nuclear dismantling, with the company providing technical assistance and supplying skills and training. South Korean engineers will be included in the Orano dismantling and services teams.Go to Article
NRC approves TMI-2 license transfer to EnergySolutionsThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the transfer of the license for Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant from FirstEnergy Companies to TMI-2 Solutions, a subsidiary of Utah-based EnergySolutions. The approval, announced on December 2, is effective immediately, and the license will be amended to reflect the new ownership once the sale of TMI-2 is completed. Go to Article
Finland’s Onkalo repository a “game changer,” says IAEA’s GrossiOnkalo, Finland’s deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel, has been characterized as a game changer for the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy by Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.“Finland has had the determination to move forward with the project and to bring it to fruition,” Grossi said during a November 26 visit to Olkiluoto, Finland, where the repository is under construction. “Waste management has always been at the center of many debates about nuclear energy and the sustainability of nuclear activity around the world. Everybody knew of the idea of a geological repository for high-level radioactive nuclear waste, but Finland did it.”Posiva Oy, the Finnish company tasked with researching and creating a method for the permanent disposal of spent fuel from Finland’s Olkiluoto and Loviisa nuclear power plants, obtained a license to construct the Onkalo repository in 2015, marking the first time that a construction license for a geological disposal facility was issued anywhere in the world. The site near the Olkiluoto plant was chosen following several years of screening a number of potential sites.Go to Article
New Mexico denies authorization extension for WIPP utility shaftConstruction of a new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant transuranic waste repository may be put on hold after the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) denied a request by the Department of Energy and its contractor to extend state authorization of the project. The shaft is part of WIPP’s Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, a $300-million project intended to allow simultaneous mining and waste emplacement activities in the geologic repository by increasing ventilation to the underground.The NMED in April 2020 approved a request by the DOE and WIPP operator Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) for temporary authorization to begin construction of the utility shaft while the state reviews a modification to WIPP’s permit allowing the addition to the repository. That authorization expired on October 24, and the DOE and NWP asked for an extension of the authorization for an additional 180 days while the permit modification process continues.Go to Article
NUREG published on high-burnup spent fuel storage and transportationA final report on the dry storage and transportation of high-burnup spent nuclear fuel (NUREG-2224) has been issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NUREG-2224 provides a technical basis in support of the NRC’s guidance on adequate fuel conditions as it pertains to hydride reorientation in the cladding of high-burnup spent fuel (over 45 gigawatt-day per metric ton uranium).NUREG-2224, “Dry Storage and Transportation of High Burnup Spent Nuclear Fuel,” was made publicly available on November 23 on the NRC’s ADAMS website with Accession No. ML20191A321.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