On Friday the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it will allow Progress Energy to transfer indirect control of its nuclear plants to Duke Energy as part of their proposed merger.
The license transfer doesn’t affect day-to-day plant operations but allows the utilities to check off another approval from a long list of state and federal agencies scrutinizing the merger. If it goes through, Duke Energy would become the ultimate parent corporation on licenses for the Brunswick 1 and 2, Shearon Harris and H. B. Robinson reactors currently operated by Progress Energy Carolinas. Likewise, Duke would become the parent company of Progress Energy Florida, which operates the Crystal River 3 reactor.
The Progress subsidiaries will continue to be responsible for running the plants, and the license transfer won’t affect their financial qualifications, decommissioning funding or technical qualifications, according to the NRC.
Duke operates seven reactors at the McGuire, Catawba and Oconee plants. Progress and Duke hope to complete the merger in January. If they are successful, their combined company will own about 9,500 megawatts of nuclear generation, which represents about 17 percent of the merged company’s capacity.