The board of directors of the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), owners of the retired Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska have investigated the option of moving decommissioning to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission designated Decon approach, foregoing the Safstor option it had previously indicated would be the approach to take.
The board reviewed the benefits of a Decon approach at its September board meeting and will decide next month which of the two options to pursue, Nuclear Engineering International reported.
The Decon approach involves immediate dismantling of the plant, while the Safstor system, as the name implies, allows for decades of storing radioactive material before dismantling and decommissioning begins. Plant owners have two years from the time of a plant's shutdown to submit its decommissioning plan and cost estimates to the NRC. The OPPD has $449 million in its decommissioning fund and could save about $200 million if it opted for the Decon approach, NEI reported.
The savings would come largely from reduced maintenance and security costs associated with the Safstor option. There would also be greater efficiency in decommissioning operations with the faster, Decon option.
Fort Calhoun was a 482-Mwe pressurized water reactor. The plant consisted of just one reactor, which for decades was the smallest nuclear power plant in the country. Commercial operations began in 1973, but the plant was closed in 2016 due to the shifting energy market that made the plant uneconomical.