DEAL STRUCK ON NUCLEAR PLANT SALE
Holtec to take over in 2019
As it winds toward its scheduled May 2019 closure, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s parent company this week announced plans to sell the Plymouth plant by the end of 2019 to a company that specializes in “accelerated decommissioning.”
After their shutdowns and reactor refueling Entergy Corp. plans to sell Pilgrim and the Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Mich., to a Holtec International subsidiary. The sale is subject to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approvals and includes transfers of licenses, spent fuel and Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, according to Pilgrim.
“Holtec expects to initiate prompt decommissioning of Pilgrim in 2020, with the expectation that all major decommissioning work will be completed in approximately eight years,” Holtec and Entergy said in a joint statement. Holtec expects to move all of the spent nuclear fuel out of the spent fuel pools at Pilgrim and into dry cask storage within three years of the plant’s shutdown, the company said.
“Transferring our Pilgrim and Palisades plants to Holtec, with its vast experience and innovative use of technology, will lead to their decommissioning faster than if they were to remain under Entergy’s ownership,” Entergy Chairman and CEO Leo Denault said in a statement.
“We look forward to engaging with representatives of the Pilgrim and Palisades communities and with the appropriate state and local government officials in Massachusetts and Michigan about site restoration standards and effective coordination during the decommissioning process. We intend to deploy cutting-edge technologies to carry out the deconstruction of the plant structures with minimal impact on the environment and maximum personnel safety which are our core competencies,” said Holtec CEO Kris Singh. “As a growing company, we look forward to exploring employment opportunities for Entergy employees dislocated by the plant’s decommissioning.”
Pilgrim, which began generating power in 1972, employs about 600 people and generates 680 megawatts of electricity. Entergy bought Pilgrim from Boston Edison in 1999. Holtec International has operating centers in Florida, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.