Related Company:Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee LLCGovernor Peter Shumlin Friday afternoon expressed his support for the decision of the Public Service Board to approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached between Entergy and the State of Vermont back in December. The decision to approve the MOU keeps in place the overall Settlement Agreement in which Entergy Vermont Yankee (Entergy VY) agrees to advance steps in decommissioning the plant much sooner than otherwise would be required, and to establish a separate $25,000,000 site restoration fund.
“I am pleased that the Board agreed this MOU and the overall Agreement we reached with Entergy is the best path forward,” Shumlin said in a statement. “The decision provides certainty and predictability for the hard workers at the plant, over $10,000,000 of economic development funding for the region, and lets us focus on the important work of transitioning to a future after Vermont Yankee. Our energy future relies on a different path than the past, one of sustainable renewable energy choices that Vermonters embrace and are already seeing the success and benefits of, and I look forward to continuing to move that effort forward” he added.
Public Service Department Commissioner Christopher Recchia also expressed his appreciation for the Board’s endorsement of the MOU.
“We will look closely at the Board’s entire decision of today, but our initial review is that it fully supports the MOU, and by doing so enables us to move forward very quickly with advancing the overall Settlement Agreement, including receiving the initial $2 million economic development payment to the state, and release of approximately $5.2 to the Clean Energy Development Fund.” Recchia said.
The Agreement reached on December 23, 2013 already resulted in the dismissal of then-pending federal litigation, including potential petitions to the US Supreme Court and disputes about Entergy VY’s attorney’s fees.
The Board’s decision today means the other terms of the Agreement will move forward as well, including:
Agreement to resolve Vermont Supreme Court litigation between the parties;
Agreement to the principles that spent nuclear fuel should be moved from the spent fuel pool to dry cask storage in a timely manner and that to facilitate the prompt economic redevelopment of the VY Station site, the decommissioning process should occur without unreasonable delay;
Agreement that Entergy VY will make a filing with the NRC for authority to begin radiological decommissioning within four months after it has made a reasonable determination that the funds in the Nuclear Decommissioning Trust are adequate to complete decommissioning and remaining spent fuel management activities that the federal government has not agreed to reimburse. In addition, once this authority is received from the NRC, Entergy VY will promptly commence, pursue and complete as soon as reasonably possible radiological decontamination and dismantling activities;
Agreement by Entergy VY to prepare two years earlier than required by NRC regulations a site-specific cost evaluation study and site assessment related to all plant conditions and to decommissioning, including an evaluation of the costs of prompt decommissioning;
Acknowledgment of state jurisdiction over site restoration after radiological decommissioning is complete and commitment to negotiate terms of site restoration which address removal of structures and level of radiological exposure after site restoration is complete;
Agreement to seek from NRC the release of portions of the site for reuse as appropriate, and agreement to give the State a right of first refusal to purchase the site or any portion thereof as may become available;
Payments to the State as follows:
$5.2 million for the Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF), at least 50 percent of which will be used under CEDF criteria for renewable energy projects in or benefitting Windham County
$10 million for economic development in Windham County, payable $2 million per year for 5 years
$5 million for transitional payments to the Tax Department in 2015, after cessation of operations, to ensure that the State has an opportunity to evaluate and implement any appropriate taxation related to the site thereafter; and
Agreement to create a new Site Restoration Trust through initial payments totaling $25 million ($10 million in year one, and $5 million for three years thereafter), plus an additional parent guaranty, to ensure that separate funds are available if needed to return the site to a greenfield so that the site is available for re-use without restriction.
Critics of the agreement say it does not guarantee the plant will have enough money reserved to fully deconstruct the plant in a timely manner. The cost to decommission the plant in 60 years has been estimated at more than $1 billion, according to the company’s 2012 Decommissioning Cost Analysis report.
Entergy has reserved just over $600 million to date, according to the Department of Public Service.
Joint Statementfrom the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC) and Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC):
"The PSB’s decision means the VY plant will be under a legal obligation to cease power generation at the end of 2014. This is good news. The decision also means Entergy must provide $10 million to promote economic development in Windham County and commit to site restoration measures.
"The Vermont Yankee proceedings were long and complicated and addressed many important issues. Vermont Natural Resources Council and Connecticut River Watershed Council were primarily involved in the proceedings to address Vermont Yankee’s discharge of hot water into the Connecticut River.
"The PSB has decided to implement the terms of the MOU between Entergy and the State of Vermont. We recognize that the PSB certainly had the authority to require closed cycle cooling to stop the thermal pollution of the Connecticut River now, but we understand this would have likely violated the terms of the MOU between Entergy and the State of Vermont.
"The MOU and the CPG require the Agency of Natural Resources to pursue issues related to VY’s thermal discharge through the ANR permitting process. The Board stated that the MOU provides a short-term mechanism to address the thermal discharge concerns. It is important to note, however, that the Board also acknowledged that if the VY Station were going to operate for an additional eighteen years, the evidence put forward by CRWC, VNRC and the ANR might have led the Board to “conclude that Entergy VY had not met its obligation to demonstrate that the discharge would not adversely affect the water quality” of the Connecticut River. The PSB therefore recognized that there are concerns with the VY Station’s thermal discharge.
"Updating VY’s discharge permit is long overdue, and we call on the ANR to swiftly implement a revised discharge permit that protects the ecological health of the Connecticut River."
The MOU does not set a timeline for decommissioning. Instead, it states Entergy will draft a decommissioning cost analysis by the end of the year. Entergy will then request to begin decommissioning with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within 120 days after it determines it has sufficient money in its fund to complete the process, sooner than federal regulations require.
But Entergy plans to draw on its decommissioning trust fund – money put away for the plant’s radiological cleanup and dismantlement – to move spent fuel from onsite cooling pools and into dry casks on a cement pad near the plant, where the radioactive fuel will sit indefinitely.
The Vermont Attorney General has said the state opposes the company’s plan because it could delay decommissioning, and has committed to fighting the plan in court if necessary.
Entergy plans to take more than $200 million out of the decommissioning trust fund to move spent fuel, according to a company filing with the NRC in 2009. The decommissioning trust fund grows over time, and drawing on this fund early will slow its growth, which state officials say could postpone the date by which the company begins decommissioning the plant.
The company will have to sue the Department of Energy to have these funds reimbursed. The department would not speculate whether the funds would be reimbursed.
John Herrick of vtdigger.org contributed to this report.