- The owners of a third of the nation's nuclear plants,
including the damaged reactor at Three Mile Island, aren't setting aside
enough money to dismantle the plants when they close, according to a new
federal study.
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- That could mean higher electric rates for some Pennsylvanians
if companies increase their annual contributions to catch up.
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- If the companies don't close the shortfall, the study
warns, taxpayers may face billions in cleanup costs when the plants' useful
lives are ended, most likely decades from now.
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- Owners are required to make payments into a trust fund,
based on the estimated cost of decommissioning their plants. Thirty-three
owners who control all or part of 42 nuclear stations are behind in those
payments, according to the General Accounting Office, the nonpartisan investigative
arm of Congress.
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- The total decommissioning bill for all plants is estimated
to be $33 billion.
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- The lifetime of a nuclear power plant is estimated to
be 40-60 years.
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- At that age, industry experts say, facility wear and
fatigue can make continued operation unsafe. The plants are licensed by
the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 40 years, with the opportunity
to apply for extensions.
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- Under federal law, decommissioned plants must be dismantled
and the land returned to pristine condition.
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- Pennsylvania plants that are under-funded, according
to the GAO report, are Limerick 1 and 2 in Montgomery County; Peach Bottom
1 in York County; Three Mile Island 2, and Susquehanna 1 and 2 near Berwick.
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- The TMI-2 unit, closed since the 1979 accident at the
plant, is in "monitored storage" status. It will not go through
the decommissioning process until the adjacent TMI-1 unit closes.
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- TMI-2 is jointly owned by Metropolitan-Edison, Pennsylvania
Electric and Jersey Power and Light, which are subsidiaries of First Energy
Corp.
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- The GAO said the companies' payments to the trust fund
were up to 25 percent below what is needed.
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- Declining investments for First Energy's trust fund diminished
its value in recent years, spokesman Scott Shields said. But the fund was
not in danger, he said.
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- "We are aware of our commitments [to save for decommissioning]
and are taking the necessary steps to do that," Shields said.
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- The GAO report was sharply criticized by the NRC and
by Exelon Nuclear, which owns controlling interests in the undamaged TMI-1,
and the Peach Bottom and Limerick stations.
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- "All of our sites are fully funded for decommissioning,"
said Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbitt. "They are on track to be fully
funded now, and they will be fully funded when the time comes to decommission."
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- The operating license for TMI-1 is scheduled to expire
in 2014; Exelon has not announced a decision on seeking renewal.
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- Nesbitt said the GAO report failed to account for the
fact that companies vary their funding strategies, depending on the makeup
of their plants. For example, he said, most plants have two or more reactors
that share equipment. Plus, two-reactor plants will not be decommissioned
until both units are spent.
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- The GAO used the contributions made by nuclear plant
operators for 1999 and 2000 to calculate how the funds would accumulate
by the time each plant's license expired, said Tim Guinane of the GAO.
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- The agency found that nuclear plant operators had set
aside about $26.9 billion as of 2000, about 47 percent more than needed.
But the total was misleading, the report said, because many companies were
underfunded and the money is not transferable.
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- The GAO findings were disputed by the NRC, which reported
in 2001 that owners' contributions were on track to meet their financial
obligations. The NRC used a different method of assessment, and did not
accept the GAO's version, said William D. Travers, NRC executive director
for operations.
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- The GAO said the NRC's method of tracking owner contributions
was ineffective because they were based on financial pledges and not on
actual dollars.
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