Decommissioning board also discusses data centers, project funding

The board overseeing the decommissioning of the shuttered Indian Point nuclear power plant south of Philipstown moved its Dec. 11 meeting from Cortlandt Town Hall to the Buchanan-Verplanck Elementary School, about a mile from the facility.

The venue change was notable because Michael Tromblee, the superintendent of the Hendrick Hudson school district, spoke to the board, outlining the financial pressure the district faces without the payments in lieu of property taxes paid by the plant, which closed in 2021.

The shutdown resulted in the loss of nearly one-third of the district's annual operating budget, he said, "a financial hit that no school district is built to withstand."

Tromblee said that, while the district is grateful for state grants it has received, "these targeted, specific acts of aid do not address the long-term consequences of our district hosting over 1.7 million kilograms of spent nuclear fuel stored on tax-exempt land that cannot be repurposed for economic development."

Although state and federal lawmakers have allowed municipalities to tax spent nuclear fuel as property, Tromblee urged the board to lobby for the proposed federal STRANDED Act (Sensible, Timely Relief for America's Nuclear Districts' Economic Development) and other legislation that would increase the compensation that municipalities would receive until the U.S. government builds a permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

If the legislation were to pass, Tromblee said that the federal aid coming to the district would make up for the budget shortfall caused by the Indian Point closure. Without it, the district will have to raise taxes by 5 percent to 8 percent every year, or make drastic cuts, such as eliminating sports programs, severely reducing arts programs or merging with another district.

"That is not meant to scare people," he said. "It is meant to provide a stark reality of what the shutdown of Indian Point has caused."

Fund factors

Board members asked representatives from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at the Dec. 11 meeting about their oversight of a $2.1 billion fund that is paying Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI). While Indian Point was operating, a small portion of each customer's payments went into the fund.

HDI hired its parent company, Holtec International, for some waste disposal and fuel storage work. Noting that some projects have cost much more than estimated, board members accused Holtec of overcharging itself and essentially "double-dipping" from the fund.

NRC representatives said they had determined that Holtec had not done anything to "impede" the timely decommissioning of the plant. "If they're overspending, it ends up being an impediment to decommissioning because they run out of money, right?" asked board member Richard Webster, from Riverkeeper.

"Our focus is not on whether they went over or under their budget," said Elise Eve of the NRC. "It's that they have sufficient funds to complete decommissioning." She noted factors that can affect the budget, such as inflation. She said the NRC would continue to review the fund annually to ensure it has sufficient funds.

"The question is: If Holtec International charges HDI twice the price per cask as they charge any other [decommissioning] site, is that acceptable to the NRC?" asked Webster. Eve replied: "That's not something that we're going to be regulating."

What next?

Holtec is finishing an extensive analysis of the area around a former training building that was discovered last year to be unexpectedly contaminated with cesium-137. The company has theorized that the low-level radioactive contamination may be from soil near the first reactor that was excavated and deposited at the edges of the property when the site's second and third reactors were built in the 1970s.

Once the contamination is cleaned up, Holtec plans to apply for a "partial site release," which would...