Customers to cover Pilgrim host payments
By Christine LegerePosted Mar 21, 2019
$13.5M due to Plymouth will come from fund supported by ratepayers.
PLYMOUTH — The $13.5 million set to be paid to Plymouth for hosting Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will come from the pockets of utility ratepayers rather than the wallet of the corporation hoping to buy the plant after it closes.
That was one of the few revelations that came from a meeting Wednesday between a representative of Holtec International and the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.
Holtec plans to buy Pilgrim from its current owner, Entergy Corp., and decommission it after permanent shutdown May 31. The license transfer from Entergy to Holtec is under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
As part of the change of ownership, Holtec will get the plant’s decommissioning trust fund containing $1.03 billion, supplied by ratepayers during the 25 years Pilgrim was owned by Boston Edison before Entergy bought it in 1999.
Holtec plans to tap that trust fund for the host payments to Plymouth due over the next two years as well as several other expenses.
The company already has asked for an exemption from federal regulations that limit trust fund use so it can cover construction of a massive spent fuel storage pad, the dry casks to house the fuel, and fuel transfer from a storage pool to the casks.
The decommissioning fund is just one of two public money sources Holtec will have available.
The company has said it also will target a federal nuclear waste fund that contains about $40 billion in taxpayer money set aside to pay for a permanent nuclear waste storage solution such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Since a solution has yet to be found, plant owners have successfully sued the Department of Energy and secured money from that federal fund as reimbursement for the costs of storing spent fuel on their plant sites.
During the discussion with Holtec representative Andrea Sterdis, citizens advisory panel members barely contained their frustration over her refusal to provide answers, saying the information was proprietary, confidential or would require speculation on her part.
“The lack of transparency is appalling,” panel Chairman Sean Mullin said after Sterdis dodged several of his questions. “If Holtec is seeking a license transfer, we should know what we’re buying. The fact Holtec refuses (to answer) gives me pause.”
Sterdis would not say how much Holtec planned to pay for Pilgrim or where the money to buy the plant would come from, replying “transaction details are confidential.”
Although Plymouth officials want Holtec to donate to the town 1,500 undeveloped acres included in the sale, Sterdis would not make any commitment.
The company is focused solely on transfer of the license, she said, and a decision on the fate of the 1,500 acres is years in the future.
“It would be irresponsible of me to speculate,” she said.
Sterdis frequently replied that answers could not be provided to the citizens panel because Holtec is not yet the license-holder for Pilgrim. “We don’t own the plant.”
The response angered Mullin.
“I have grown weary of this one-foot-in-and-one-foot-out routine from Entergy and Holtec that we’ve been hearing for the last several months,” he said.
State officials and regional leaders are looking for Holtec to commit to a level of site cleanup beyond what is federally required. For example, lingering radiation may be no higher than 25 millirems after site cleanup under federal standards, but the state wants it brought down to no more than 10 millirems.
Better standards are being sought for other contaminants as well.
Sterdis said Holtec is committed to meeting the federal standard but is in discussion with state officials regarding stricter requirements.
Although answers were hard to come by during Wednesday’s meeting, members of the citizens panel continued to voice their expectations.
Pine duBois, executive director of the Jones River Watershed Association and a panel member, expressed hope that Holtec’s cleanup plan would protect nearby Cape Cod Bay.
“Does the company have a moral ethic that includes the environment, or is it just about the money and you’re going to walk away?” asked duBois, expecting, and getting, no answer from Sterdis.
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