Dry casks for storing spent nuclear fuel rods at Vermont Yankee in Vernon. 2014 photo courtesy of Entergy
Concerns over Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning plan have led a nuclear watchdog group to ask State Auditor Doug Hoffer to find a way to provide public oversight of the $665 million trust fund to be used to dismantle the defunct plant.
That amount is about half the estimated cost to decommission the nuclear plant, and the work will not commence until the fund has grown enough to cover the full costs.
The Vernon facility, owned by a subsidiary of Louisiana-based Entergy Corp., ceased to operate at the end of last year after a more than 40 years.
Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education Corp. presented a 35-page report outlining concerns about the fund at a public forum Wednesday night in Montpelier. He raised questions about whether Entergy will use a limited liability corporation to shield the company from liability.
When Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power sold Vermont Yankee to Entergy in 2002, the license to operate the plant was issued to a limited liability corporation, not to Entergy Corporation.
Gundersen has approached Hoffer about investigating the issue, but his statutory authority is limited.
Hoffer said concerns outlined in a 35 page report by Fairewinds, a Burlington-based nonprofit, are legitimate, but he would not be able to obtain corporate decommissioning fund documents. The state would only be able to see documents “related to the expenditure of state and federal funds.”
State Auditor Doug Hoffer. Photo by Roger Crowley/for VTDigger
“This LLC was created in large part to shield Entergy from liability for decommissioning costs,” Hoffer explained. “Although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says the parent (Entergy) is responsible for cleanup, it remains to be seen whether the NRC could require the parent of an LLC to cover any gaps.”
Because the plant is owned by a limited liability corporation as opposed to utilities, which are overseen in Vermont by the Public Service Board, Hoffer said, “I can’t reach them.”
The fund was built by ratepayers, and Hoffer said, “It’s our money and it’s intended for decommissioning … [Gundersen] is perfectly right to raise this question.”
“There are a couple of issues here,” Hoffer said. “First, Entergy claims that it will not be responsible for cleanup costs beyond what’s in the fund at the end of the 60 year SAFSTOR period.”
Under SAFESTOR, spent fuel waste is stored on the Vermont Yankee compound in casks. It is an intermediate decommissioning, as opposed to a rapid dismantlement or permanent entombment, the two other options permitted under federal regulations.
That means taxpayers “will be obligated to cover the difference,” Hoffer said. “Thus, the health of the fund is critical. So when Entergy takes money out of the fund for interim steps [like fuel management, $40 million so far, according to Fairewinds], it depletes the fund and makes it harder for the fund to grow fast enough to cover actual decommissioning costs within the 60 years,” Hoffer said.
Energy facilities set up as LLCs, also referred to as “merchant plants,” are not subject to regulatory authorities like the Vermont Public Service Board.
“If Vermont Yankee runs out of decommissioning funds, Vermonters will be left holding the bag. We have lost the right to audit how Vermont Yankee is spending the decommissioning money because it is not regulated as a traditional ‘utility’ but rather is a ‘merchant plant’ selling power where and when it could,” Gundersen said Thursday.
Vermont Yankee’s response
Martin Cohn, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, said Thursday the Fairewinds report is “filled with misinformation.”
Cohn said a longer process will allow the decommissioning fund to grow, and it will also allow the natural reduction of radioactivity in the plant system.
“One of the things that we’re committed to is we are going to commence the decommissioning within 120 days after it’s been determined that there are enough funds in the decommissioning trust,” Cohn said of the company’s decommissioning agreement with the state.
There are a number of things that affect that timeline, including that Vermont Yankee has to wait for the Department of Energy to remove the spent fuel from the site, Cohn said.
The Fairewinds report was delivered in late April to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, and Entergy was not invited to give testimony, Cohn said.
The fund is managed by Mellon Bank and has been growing at an approximate rate of 6.5 percent annually, Cohn said. Entergy projects the plant may be decommissioned as early as 2040.
“Here’s the big piece that’s not discussed and that is that we have committed to taking out a $145 million credit line for our spent fuel management program; what that means is that we are going to use a credit line to build a pad and to buy the dry casks, and what that allows us to do is not touch the nuclear decommissioning trust,” Cohn said. “We’re committed to safely decommissioning the site.”
The state auditor has no authority to investigate the fund, according to Cohn. “This is an agency that is regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state has no standing,” he said.
Fairewinds report
Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and safety advocate for Fairewinds, was one of the two featured speakers at Wednesday’s forum, along with Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project for the group Beyond Nuclear.
Before the pair spoke about concerns specific to Entergy Vermont Yankee, they showed a 51-minute film, “Decommissioning Our Nuclear Power Stations: Mission Impossible?” produced in 2012 by Bernard Nicolas for France’s Arte TV network.
Arnie Gundersen (right) of Fairewinds Energy Education Corp. and Paul Gunter of the Beyond Nuclear organization attend a meeting about nuclear power plant decommissioning held this week in Montpelier. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
The film documented efforts to contain and store nuclear waste in France and Germany, as well as Maine. The film included a visit to Vermont Yankee, which was still in operation when it was recorded.
“It doesn’t matter what state you’re in, or what country you’re in, the problems are long-lived and dangerous,” Gunderson said.
Fairewinds, in its report, “came to the conclusion that the Vermont Yankee carcass could be gone in 2032. Entergy is saying 2065, that’s a 30-year difference.”
If at the end of the decommissioning process of the plant there is money left, ratepayers would get half of it back, Gundersen said.
“We need to ask Doug Hoffer [the state auditor] and we need to ask the state Legislature next year to allow Doug to go in and set financial controls so that we’re sure that the fund is being competitively bid.” Gunderson said.
Gundersen said Entergy is “raiding the fund, and giving that money to their own subsidiaries,” referring to TLG Services, a for-profit decommissioning entity.
Leslie Sullivan Sachs of Brattleboro speaks about concerns with the decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee plant at a forum this week in Montpelier. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Brattleboro resident Leslie Sullivan Sachs said she was surprised by the lack of money for decommissioning available.
“We have no leverage in this situation,” she said. “Without money, we’ve got nada. I knew we had no say, I knew we’d have no voice, but for some reason, I always assumed there would be some money.”
Anthony R. Leshinskie, the state nuclear engineer and decommissioning coordinator, who attended Gundersen’s talk, said structures at Vermont Yankee are being investigated by the Agency of Natural Resources, for non-radiological contamination.
“This has been an industrial site for 40-plus years,” Leshinskie said, explaining that PCBs and asbestos are concerns.
The state Department of Health is involved in oversight of the property, as well, he said.
“The state is standing up and saying, ‘Hey look guys, we have a say in this.’ We’re fighting and we’re putting our input as much as we can in that arena, as well,” he said, saying the state is hard at working ensuring proper cleanup standards are followed at Vermont Yankee, where a half-dozen buildings have come down.
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