Decommissioned Too Late for the Sixth Seal (Rev 6:12)

Entergy announces plan to sell Indian Point by 2021 to Holtec decommissioning unit
Under the terms of the sale, Holtec will gain access to funds in a decommissioning trust Entergy invested in during the years it owned the plant. That trust is nearing $2 billion.
THOMAS C. ZAMBITO | ROCKLAND/WESTCHESTER JOURNAL NEWS | 1:57 pm EDT April 16, 2019
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• The sale will bring to six the number of nuclear reactors Holtec owns at facilities in four states.
• Buchanon’s mayor hopes the announcement will allow the property to re-open for other uses sooner

Theresa Knickerbocker, the mayor of the Village of Buchanan, talks about the Indian Point Energy Center closing and what lies ahead for the village.
MARK VERGARI, MVERGARI@LOHUD.COM
Entergy will sell Indian Point to the New Jersey subsidiary of a company that has promised to cut decades off the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant, the company announced Tuesday.
Entergy announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to sell its three reactors and spent fuel to a subsidiary of Holtec International when the last of its working reactors powers down in 2021.
“The sale of Indian Point to Holtec is expected to result in the completion of decommissioning decades sooner than if the site were to remain under Entergy’s ownership,” said Entergy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Leo Denault. “With its deep experience and technological innovations, Holtec’s ability to decommission Indian Point will benefit stakeholders in the surrounding community.”
Under the terms of the sale, Holtec will gain access to funds in decommissioning trusts for each of three Indian Point reactors, which Entergy acquired after purchasing the plant 18 years ago. During that time, the trust has grown from $738 million to $1.85 billion at the end of 2018, company officials say. They say ratepayers have not been required to contribute towards those funds while Entergy has owned the plant.
The announcement did not come as a surprise since Entergy officials, in a February earnings call, said the deal would come this year.

Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, viewed from Tomkins Cove on Tuesday, April 2, 2019.
JOHN MEORE/THE JOURNAL NEWS
But the selection of Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a jointly-owned Holtec subsidiary based in Camden, was uncertain.
Last year, Entergy received federal approval to sell its Vermont Yankee power plant to New York-based NorthStar, leading some to believe the company would do the same with Indian Point.
With the announcement, Entergy has now agreed to sell off its remaining fleet of nuclear reactors to decommissioning firms.
The sale will bring to six the number of nuclear reactors Holtec owns at facilities in New Jersey, Michigan, New York and Massachusetts.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will need to approve the deal.
How we got here
In 2017, Entergy announced that it would shut down Indian Point as part of a deal reached with the state of New York and the environmental group Riverkeeper.
The shutdown is expected to have a lasting impact on Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt and the Hendrick Hudson School District, each of which has relied on Entergy property tax revenue to balance its budgets for decades.
Local officials are hopeful the 240-acre property will be opened up to re-use in the years after the plant’s reactors are dismantled and spent fuel is stored away in dry casks or sent off to a federal repository.
“Studies have shown that there is property on the Indian Point campus that could be developed,“ said Joseph Hochreiter, the superintendent of the Hendrick Hudson schools. „Entergy made it clear that they were not interested and were going to leave that to the decommissioning company. Now that the company has been identified, I’m hopeful we can revisit the development issue and turn around some of that property.“
Holtec officials say the deal announced Tuesday could make that possible.
“Our industry-leading expertise and deep experience permit us to complete decommissioning at Indian Point decades sooner than if Entergy remained the owner and performed decommissioning itself,“ said Kris Singh, the president of Holtec International.
„The potential for the site to be released decades sooner for redevelopment could deliver significant benefits to local community stakeholders and the local economy,“ Singh added.
Buchanan and Cortlandt recently formed a citizens advisory panel to address issues raised by the decommissioning.
“This announcement is a reality check for those that still don’t believe Indian Point Energy Center is closing,” said Buchanan Mayor Theresa Knickerbocker. “This is happening. It’s very sad for the local communities. Entergy was a good corporate neighbor.”
Knickerbocker hopes the announcement means the property will be opened up for use sooner than anticipated.

Theresa Knickerbocker, the mayor of the Village of Buchanan, stands is pictured outside the Indian Point Energy Center, Dec. 5, 2017.
MARK VERGARI/THE JOURNAL NEWS
“Entergy is in the business of producing energy not decommissioning,” Knickerbocker said. “With Holtec this gives our communities hope that the decommissioning can be done quicker and the property can be returned for redevelopment sooner, which of course is critical for our tax base.”
Entergy said it would have taken the company decades to decommission the plant. The work involves dismantling the plant’s three reactors — two of which are currently in use — and transferring spent fuel to steel-and-cement dry casks housed on concrete pads the size of football fields.
There currently is no federal repository for spent nuclear fuel, leaving towns and cities across the United States to act as de facto storage facilities while more and more nuclear power plants announce plans to shut down.
Separately, Holtec is developing an interim facility to store spent fuel in New Mexico, but it could be several years before the company receives the necessary state and regulatory approvals.
The company has plans to keep on Entergy employees who qualify to work on the decommissioning but it’s unclear just how many workers will remain with the company at the time the transaction is completed.
Cortlandt Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi said she’s pleased by the announcement and hopes it will bring new jobs to the site sooner than expected.
“It will benefit our community to bring in future industry to that site and hopefully to provide jobs for people who will be losing jobs when Entergy closes,” Puglisi said. “Doing it sooner once they get through all the regulatory permits will be a benefit to our community.”