US Entergy Corporation on 14 January completed the sale of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee to subsidiaries of NorthStar Group Services, which will decommission the Vermont Yankee site.
Vermont Yankee, a single unit boiling water reactor stopped operating in December 2014 after 42 years of operation. In November 2016, Entergy announced the sale of the plant to NorthStar for accelerated decommissioning.
In October 2018, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the transfer of Vermont Yankee's operating licences to NorthStar. The Vermont Public Utility Commission issued an order authorising the sale in December.
Entergy described the sale, which involves permanent ownership and licence transfer to a company that is to perform decommissioning and site restoration, as the first of its kind in the nuclear industry.
The NorthStar decommissioning team includes Orano USA, Waste Control Specialists and Burns & McDonnell. Orano will provide reactor vessel segmentation, and support used fuel management; Waste Control Specialists will provide waste management, packaging, transport and disposal; and Burns & McDonnell will offer engineering and regulatory support.
NorthStar said it would start decontamination and dismantling work at Vermont Yankee by 2021 and complete decommissioning and site restoration by 2030. (This excludes the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation which currently stores all of the station's used fuel). Under Entergy's original decommissioning plan the target completion date was 2075.
Photo: Vermont Yankee nuclear plant (Credit: Entergy)
