NRC reviewing Millstone decommissioning funds Ledyard Town Council sends $60.9M budget to public hearing

Waterford — While Millstone Power Station will remain open for at least another decade following a deal announced by Gov. Ned Lamont last month, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the status of decommissioning funds for the nuclear plant’s two operating units.

Millstone owner Dominion Energy recently filed an update on decommissioning funds as part of required biennial reporting to the NRC. As of Dec. 31, 2018, more than $1.37 billion — $672.5 million for Unit 2 and $704.8 million for Unit 3 — was held in external trusts to carry out future decommissioning of the units. The combined funds exceed NRC minimum requirements by almost $404 million, according to Dominion’s report.

“The NRC will carefully review the submittal to ensure there is sufficient funding to carry out the decommissioning of the plants,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Thursday. Sheehan noted that plant owners must submit updates on decommission funding every two years, while “plants that are within five years of permanent shutdown might submit updates on an annual basis.”

While Millstone Unit 1 permanently ceased operations in 1998, Unit 2’s operating license with the NRC is active until 2035, and Unit 3’s license expires in 2045.

Millstone Unit 1 is undergoing what the NRC classifies as the SAFSTOR method of decommissioning, whereby a nuclear plant is maintained in a condition that allows it to be safely stored and monitored for several years before it is eventually decontaminated to levels that would allow unrestricted use of the site. The time limit for the SAFSTOR process is 60 years, which allows the radioactivity of materials to decrease over time.

“Dominion Energy believes that the amounts (of funds) currently available in the decommissioning trusts and their expected earnings will be sufficient to cover expected decommissioning costs for Millstone,” plant spokesman Ken Holt said Thursday.

For all three units combined, about $1.85 billion is held in trust for decommissioning, with an expected total cost of approximately $1.7 billion in 2018 dollars, Holt said.

Holt said he did not have a breakdown of environmental cleanup and demolition costs involved in the decommissioning process but noted that because Units 1 and 2 were constructed so close together, waiting until Unit 2 “shuts down permanently will make demolition of both easier.”

According to Dominion, there have been no changes to trust agreements established for nuclear decommissioning since the previous report to the NRC on March 30, 2017.

Ledyard — After a series of line-by-line budget workshops conducted by the Finance Committee, the Town Council voted 7-1 Wednesday to send a $60,098,294 budget to a public hearing scheduled for later this month.

The proposed 2019-20 budget includes $27,549,725 for the general government budget and $32,548,569 for the Board of Education. It is a 4.18 percent increase over the 2018-19 budget and would reflect a 0.83 mill increase to 35.12 mills.

Councilor Kevin Dombrowski voted against the motion, and Councilor John Marshall was absent from the meeting.

Councilor Bill Saums, who serves on the Finance Committee, said the increase largely is due to scheduled salary increases and decreased revenues from the state. Through the budget workshops, the committee met with each department and was able to negotiate more than $250,000 in cuts from their proposed budgets.

At the meeting, Mayor Fred Allyn III said the town still was waiting on finalized numbers for health insurance costs. However, the town budgeted for the highest cost within the range given by the provider to create a buffer.

In addition, the council also approved a $1,504,110 water operations budget for the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority. A town ordinance says the water authority’s budget must be approved separately.

A charter revision approved last year also requires the town to have a contingency plan with cuts that could be made in the event of a catastrophic budget change, such as the reduction of state revenues or increase in taxes; the council then would be allowed to reopen the budget and revise it as needed before a new town meeting. Saums said the council and the Board of Education already have recommendations, should they need them.

The public hearing on the proposed 2019-20 budget will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 29, at the Ledyard High School auditorium, where residents and taxpayers will be able to share their thoughts on the budget. The Town Council then can revise the budget if needed before the town meeting, to be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 20, also at the Ledyard High School auditorium.

The town meeting will adjourn to a referendum on May 21, when voters take to the polls between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.