If the licence transfer is approved, New Jersey-based Holtec would assume ownership of the site and decommissioning would begin. Holtec estimates decommissioning would be completed in the 2030s.
In April, Entergy Corporation agreed to sell its subsidiaries that own Indian Point to a Holtec International subsidiary for decommissioning.
The sale, which will be effective after Indian Point-3 has been shut down and permanently defueled, includes the transfer of the licences, spent fuel, decommissioning liabilities, and nuclear decommissioning trusts for the station’s three units.
Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a joint venture between Holtec and Canada’s SNC-Lavalin, plans to begin decommissioning work at Indian Point decades sooner than if Entergy had continued to own the units.
SNC-Lavalin said in April that it expects the value of the contract to exceed $750m.
If the deal is finalised, Indian Point would join Holtec’s growing fleet of decommissioning plants.
The NRC has already approved licence transfer applications for the single unit Oyster Creek nuclear station in New Jersey from Exelon to Holtec and for the single-unit Pilgrim nuclear station in Massachusetts from Entergy to Holtec. Both plants have already been permanently shut down.
