Power Plant Decommissioning Shortfalls

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, after seeing the results of its biannual checkup on decommissioning funds, is sending letters to 18 plant owners that are short. The plants listed are stationed from Vermont to Alabama, but locally hit was the Beaver Valley Power Station. NRC Spokesperson Scott Burnell says the letter is not a bill. Rather, it is asking how the plant owners are going to cover the remaining funds. Those with discrepancies includes 18 nuclear plants with 26 nuclear reactors total, and estimated remaining costs range from $12 million to $204 million. Burnell says this means that in a calculation between the amount of money in the fund, estimated gains in the fund, along with when the plant expects to close, are all calculated in the formula. There are currently 104 reactors in the process of decommissioning, and all of those funds add up to approximately $41 billion.