The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel met Monday evening to hear updates on the status of decommissioning the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
The power plant in Vernon was shut down at the end of 2014 and a multi-decade process to dismantle and clean up any nuclear material has been underway.
While the Citizens Advisory Panel does not direct the decommissioning, it receives updates on the progress and then reports to the governor, legislature and state agencies. On Monday, NorthStar Senior Decommissioning Manager Corey Daniels used a Power Point presentation to update the panel on the plant’s deconstruction.
“This is the project schedule overview. It effectively demonstrates that all the significant large component removals and then buildings will be taken down pretty much through the end of next year and then all the site restoration through 2026.”
Daniels says the safety record is acceptable with zero reportable lost time accidents.
“Our regulatory performance remains very good with no cited violations. We just had a triennial security inspection with the NRC wrap up last week and we continue that record. I’m very proud of the team for making that happen. Production definitely on track.”
Daniels noted that while there are a number of parallel projects, the current priority is dismantling the turbine buildings.
“All the piping, equipment components got removed from these structures. About one-third of the turbine building superstructure is down in this photo. And then in this photo we’re down to the last, I’ll call it, three frames of the turbine bay superstructure and those all came down just the way they were planned with no incidents. And then you can see the large machines go to work starting to remove the remainder of the steel so we can get to the massive amounts of concrete. All the turbine building structural steel was brought down and set aside and we’re doing everything we can to recycle all of it. Obviously requires a significant amount of surveying activity to make sure that it’s all clean to do so. But so far we’re able to recycle all of it.”
Vermont Department of Public Service attorney Eric Guzman explained that the department monitors all costs and oversees any spending and use of the decommissioning fund by NorthStar.
“Our consultants conducted a site visit in June of this year which included observation of work activities in the turbine building, reactor building, refueling floor and external areas. No conditions observed during that June site visit were inconsistent with project progress as reported by NorthStar in its May report. Our consultant will be conducting another site visit this month to confirm our most recent progress reports. Based on the monthly and annual financial reporting that we’ve received to date NorthStar appears to be on course to complete the project with available funding.”
Since the federal government has not designated a national repository for such waste, what to do with the spent nuclear fuel has been an ongoing concern. A subcommittee of the Citizens Advisory Panel has been monitoring federal activity and Chair Lissa Weinmann says they have held a series of workshops to examine options.
“In June of this year we had a really interesting discussion on recycling and reprocessing of spent fuel, which the Department of Energy is reconsidering now after a long period of not really touching that issue. So I think that the committee’s really been keeping on top of this issue as best we can. Our next meeting we’re going to be discussing current plans for transportation of spent fuel. Even though we don’t know where it’s going, there’s still a lot of planning that’s going on and there’s been some preliminary analysis of how transport would occur from Vermont Yankee that we will discuss.”
The Federal Nuclear Waste Policy Committee of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel will meet virtually at noon on Monday, September 25th.
