(Host) Will Vermont Yankee have enough money to dismantle and clean up its site when the plant shuts down?
That’s one of the big questions facing lawmakers and regulators as they consider whether the plant should operate for another 20 years.
And the answer depends on how the cost of clean-up is defined, and who will ultimately pay to store the reactor’s spent fuel.
VPR’s John Dillon reports:
(Dillon) You could call it the $400 million question.
That’s roughly the difference between what Vermont Yankee has set aside to pay for decommissioning, and what the company’s own experts have said could be the final bill for completely cleaning up the site and removing the tons of spent, radioactive fuel.
Jay Thayer is a vice president for Entergy, the company that owns Yankee. He says the company does not face a major shortfall in its decommissioning fund. Thayer says that’s because the federal Department of Energy is legally required to remove the spent fuel.
So far, the feds have reneged on their obligation. But Thayer says federal courts have already begun to force DOE to pay companies for the money they’ve spent to store their fuel on-site.
(Thayer) "I am very confident because we live under the rule of law. The courts have decided that it is in fact a true breach of contract, and that damages should be awarded to cover those costs."
(Dillon) Thayer says you have to break down decommissioning costs into three main areas. Part one is what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires. That’s decontamination of the site. And the NRC says the company must have $440 million dollars in the fund by 2012, when the license expires.
Part two is the additional clean up the state of Vermont requires to restore the site to an open field. Thayer says the state requirements will add another $42 million to $47 million in costs. He says the additional $400 million in spent fuel storage costs is not ultimately the company’s responsibility.
(Thayer) "You have to take it apart in the three components, and figure out which ones are really the responsibility, or have a high probability of being the responsibility of the company, and which ones have a high probability of having some other funding sources. And that’s where I would submit to you that potential $400 million is not a direct liability of the company right now."
(Dillon) But if and when the Department of Energy will pay for the fuel bill is one of the huge variables in decommissioning cost estimates. The state says that if Yankee has to keep the fuel near its Vernon reactor for decades more, it could end up spending roughly $200 million to $400 million to pay for storage. The numbers vary on when the government would take the fuel.
David O’Brien is commissioner of the Department of Public Service, the state agency that represents ratepayers.
(O’Brien) "Entergy may have to have the resources – may have to commit the resources to meet that … bill, until such time as they get reimbursed by the Department of Energy. So I want to be clear that the ultimate responsibility is the federal government’s, but as the licensee of the plant, the company until further notice holds this responsibility."
(Dillon) And East Montpelier Democrat Tony Klein says it’s Entergy’s responsibility to cover all the costs, including paying for the spent fuel storage. Klein chairs the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
(Klein) "There is a shortfall, and any reasonable human being can look at what the costs are going to be, what the money looks like is now, and what the prospects for growth for it in the market is going to be, and there is a shortfall."
(Dillon) But Thayer of Entergy says he anticipates the company will start collecting money from the Department of Energy sometime next year.
For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.