DEP Told Citizens Advisory Council No Decisions Yet On How To Decommission Damaged Unit 2 At Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant

On July 21, DEP told the Citizens Advisory Council decisions about the process for decommissioning the damaged Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Dauphin County are still being considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to David Allard, Director of the Bureau of Radiation Protection.

At the meeting, Allard reviewed the concerns DEP expressed in an April letter to the NRC about the plan to rapidly decontaminate the damaged Unit 2 reactor by TMI-2 Solutions/ EnergySolutions and the proposed transfer of responsibility and the facility’s permit from GPU Nuclear.  Read more here.

Allard said one of the primary concerns was whether there will be enough money to fund decontamination given the many unknown conditions inside the damaged reactor.

There is now $800 million in a decontamination fund set aside for Unit 2.  He noted an earlier analysis by GPU Nuclear found it may cost as much as $1.2 billion for decontamination.

Allard said he could not talk about all the details of the proposed decontamination for Unit 2 because of a non-disclosure agreement he signed with TMI-2 Solutions/ EnergySolutions and GPU Nuclear.

With respect to the undamaged Unit 1 at Three Mile Island owned by Exelon that was just shutdown recently, Allard said a decommissioning plan was filed in April of 2019 with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission saying it would not begin dismantling Three Mile Island Unit 1 for 55 years to allow for radioactivity to decay.

Spent radioactive fuel onsite would be moved from wet storage to a new dry cask storage facility by the end of 2022.

At a House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee hearing on the issue in April of 2019, DEP presented a white paper on how DEP would be involved in the decommissioning of the Unit 1 reactor.  Read more here.

Eric Epstein of Three Mile Island Alert expressed concern about the delay in starting decommissioning and the storage of highly radioactive spent fuel in the site.  Read more here.

Allard said DEP will continue its environmental radiation monitoring program around Three Mile Island during decommissioning activities.

For more information and available handouts, visit the DEP Citizens Advisory Council webpage.  Questions should be directed to Keith Salador, Executive Director, 717-787-8171 or ksalador@pa.gov. 

NewsClip:

AP: Regulators, Others Fear Plan To Dismantle Damaged Three Mile Island Reactor

[Posted: July 21, 2020]  PA Environment Digest