Nuclear Matters & NFRC Support Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear Matters announced today that 15 organizations have joined the campaign as Partners, coalescing in their support for existing nuclear energy plants and the need to ensure they are preserved. The diverse cross-section of voices includes environmental, consumer and academic groups, among others. They will work alongside Nuclear Matters’ Leadership Council to raise awareness around the value of the existing nuclear fleet for their benefits in terms of reliability, carbon-free generation, and economic impact.

“In my role as co-chair of Nuclear Matters, I’ve heard first-hand from a range of organizations and individuals who are in strong support of our existing nuclear fleet,” said former Senator Evan Bayh. “The fact that many of these organizations have joined Nuclear Matters as Partners is representative of the serious and growing desire that exists across the country to do everything we can to ensure that these plants are preserved.”

“As an organization whose mission it is to apply practical environmental solutions to ensure a cleaner energy future, our partnership with Nuclear Matters is well-suited,” said Norris McDonald, President of the African American Environmentalist Association. “Given that our existing nuclear energy fleet provides 63 percent of the nation’s carbon-free energy, it plays a key role in helping to address environmental challenges, including meeting proposed rules laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon emissions.”

Below is a complete list of the organizations that have partnered with Nuclear Matters and will join the campaign in various events and initiatives across the country:

• African American Environmentalist Association
• Carolinas Nuclear Cluster (CNC)
• Center for Environment, Commerce and Energy
• Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness
• Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA)
• Energy for Carolinas (E4C)
• Energy Information Center
• Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy - USA
• Go Nuclear
• Illinois Clean Energy Coalition
• National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
• North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN)
• Nuclear Advocacy Network
• Nuclear Fuels Reprocessing Coalition
• U.S. Women in Nuclear

About Nuclear Matters

The mission of Nuclear Matters is to inform the public about the clear benefits that nuclear energy provides to our nation, to raise awareness of the economic challenges to nuclear energy that threaten those benefits, and to work with stakeholders to explore possible policy solutions that properly value nuclear energy as a reliable, affordable and carbon-free electricity resource that is essential to America’s energy future.

Supporters of Nuclear Matters include a range of companies and organizations in the energy industry, including Ameren Missouri, American Nuclear Insurers, Arizona Public Service Company, AREVA, Black & Veatch, POWER Burns and Roe, Centrus Energy Corp. Dominion, Duke Energy, Energy Future Holdings Corporation, Energy Northwest, Entergy Corporation, Exelon Corporation, FirstEnergy Corporation, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Lightbridge Corporation, Nebraska Public Power District, NextEra Energy Inc., Omaha Public Power District, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company, Southern Company, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Media Contacts

For Nuclear Matters:
Alexandra Meredith
(212) 446-1887
AMeredith@SloanePR.com

Joe Germani
(212) 446-1899
JGermani@SloanePR.com

Entergy Borrows to Pay for Transfer of Nuclear Waste

Entergy Nuclear is taking out lines of credit totaling $145 million to help pay for the transfer and storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The move will decrease its request to pay for the work from the plant’s $642 million decommissioning trust fund.

Vermont public service commissioner Christopher Recchia praised the decision during a hearing at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. , Barrett Green is the chief financial officer of Entergy Wholesale Commodities and head of the Vermont Yankee decommissioning project for Entergy. Recchia participated in the meeting from Montpelier via conference call.

Entergy is preparing a formal request to the NRC to use a portion of the $642 million for moving, storing and handling its 42 years of accumulated nuclear waste, largely highly radioactive spent fuel rods. It needs an exemption from NRC regulations to do that.

In October, Entergy released its latest estimate of how much it will cost to decommission the Vernon reactor, which shut down permanentlyon December 29, 2014.  Of the total estimated cost of $1.24 billion, $817 million will be needed to “terminate” its license and dismantle the plant, and $368 million will be needed to handle the spent nuclear fuel. Entergy plans to mothball the plant for decades, waiting for the radioactivity in the plant to abate and the trust fund to grow.

That $368 million breaks down to $143 million to transfer the fuel out of the reactor and spent fuel pool to an expanded dry cask storage facility, and $225 million for operating such a facility.

Despite its decision to seek the two lines of credit totaling $145 million, Entergy still wants an exemption from NRC regulations to tap the decommissioning trust fund to help pay for the remaining cost of transfering the spent fuel out of the reactor and the spent fuel pool, and its handling.

NRC staff members have said federal law prohibits the use of the decommissioning trust fund for any spent fuel activity. The fund is supposed to be just for the decommissioning of the plant.

The NRC has granted exemptions to two nuclear power plants to do just that, and Vermont Yankee and Crystal River in Florida are seeking similar exemptions.

The issue goes back to the fact that the federal Department of Energy has not taken ownership of the spent fuel at the country’s 100 commercial reactors and has not built a national depository for spent nuclear fuel.

While a federal court decision earlier this fall has renewed the NRC’s study of the abandoned Yucca Mountain site in Nevada, Congress still has to come up with money for the renewed study, Sheehan said.

Recchia told NRC staff members that the $642 million fund had been funded entirely by ratepayer money, and the state of Vermont was making sure there was a “ratepayer benefit” to the use of the fund.

Since Entergy bought Vermont Yankee in 2002 from a group of New England utilities led by Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and Green Mountain Power, Entergy has not contributed a penny to the trust fund, instead allowing it to grow via investments.

Recchia said the Vermont Yankee trust fund documents “need to be looked at” to determine what is allowable and not allowable. He said the state of Vermont would not be making a comment yet on Entergy’s request for the exemption.  (Times Argus, 12/9/2014)