NRC to conduct meeting in Aug. 28 re: Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear plant decommissioning plans

FYI: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, Aug . 28 in Hershey, Pa. regarding the eventual decommissioning plans for the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear power plant. Unit 2 was the site of the March 1979 accident at the site and never operated again after that event.

Within two years after submitting the certification of permanent closure to the NRC, nuclear power plants are required to file a post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR). GPU Nuclear Inc., the plant’s owner, neglected to do that by the required date of Sept. 14, 1995. Last February, after reviewing the circumstances for the company’s failure to submit a PSDAR by the deadline, the NRC issued a non-cited notice of violation to GPU Nuclear for not doing so (attached). One of the mitigating factors was the company’s plans to address the deficiency, which included the submittal of a PSDAR in June 2013 (attached). That report will be the subject of discussion at the Aug. 28th meeting.

A PSDAR provides a description of the planned decommissioning activities, a schedule for accomplishing them and an estimate of the expected costs.

The current decommissioning plan for TMI-2 calls for maintaining the plant in the post-defueling monitored storage state up to an additional 20 years to coincide with the end of the TMI-1 Operating License in order to synchronize the decommissioning of TMI-1 and TMI-2. The NRC approved a 20-year extension to the TMI-1 Operating License in October 2009. As a result, the TMI-1 Operating License has been extended until April 19, 2034. The TMI-2 PSDAR establishes the schedule for the
decommissioning of TMI-2 to commence following the expiration of the current TMI-1 Operating License.

The schedule for decommissioning of TMI-2 has been developed in order to achieve the termination of license by September 14, 2053.

If you need additional information, please let me know
 

 
Neil Sheehan
NRC Public Affairs Officer
Region I
 

Download Meeting Notice PDF

Download Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report PDF

Download Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report Violation PDF