Kennett Square, PA-based Exelon Generation and Holtec International, a specialist in used nuclear fuel management technologies, announced an agreement for Holtec to purchase Oyster Creek Generating Station.
The plant is about 90 miles east of Wilmington and about the same distance from the nuclear power plant complex near Salem, NJ across the Delaware River from Delaware. Exelon also has an interest in the Salem complex.
Exelon is also the owner of Delmarva Power, which is based near Newark.
Under the terms of the agreement, subject to regulatory approvals, Holtec will assume ownership of the site, real property and used nuclear fuel. Holtec will manage all site decommissioning and restoration activities.
Oyster Creek, the nation’s oldest nuclear plant will close decades ahead of its previous schedule, after it became too costly to operate in the current environment.
Exelon Generation also plans shut down and decommission its Three Mile Island nuclear plant.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019, pending the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s and other regulatory approval, and will not impact the scheduled shutdown of Oyster Creek, as previously announced.
Holtec will be accelerating Oyster Creek’s decommissioning timeline.
“This landmark agreement is good news for Oyster Creek employees, the Lacey community and the state of New Jersey,” said Bryan Hanson, Exelon Generation’s chief nuclear officer. “Holtec’s commitment to the nuclear industry and its presence in New Jersey will allow many of our employees previously facing relocation to continue living and working in the Garden State. Further, with three decades of experience in nuclear fuel technologies and a partnership with global decommissioning leader SNC-Lavalin, Holtec is ideally positioned to complete the decommissioning of Oyster Creek safely and swiftly.”
As the new owner of the plant, Holtec will contract with Comprehensive Decommissioning International, LLC (CDI) to perform the decontamination and decommissioning of the plant.
CDI is a joint venture company of Holtec and SNC-Lavalin.
CDI is equipped to decommission Oyster Creek within eight years, more than 50 years ahead of the industry-allowed 60-year timeline.
As part of the sale agreement, CDI will offer employment to Oyster Creek decommissioning employees, effective upon the transaction closing.
Holtec will submit a new Oyster Creek decommissioning plan, which must be reviewed and approved by the NRC. The process provides opportunities for public review and comment on the plan during the NRC evaluation period.
Holtec recently submitted a license application for an autonomous consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in New Mexico to accept spent nuclear fuel from all nuclear plants in the U.S., including from Oyster Creek.
Once licensed, fuel could be sent to the New Mexico site based upon the established use of interim storage locations by the federal government which would allow Holtec to return the full site to unrestricted use once the fuel has been transported off-site.
