NRC Approves License Transfer for Oyster Creek Plant
The commission's order approving the license transfer takes effect immediately, but the license transfer won't be finalized until the successful completion of the transaction involving Exelon, OCEP, and HDI.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced June 20 that it has approved the transfer of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station license from Exelon Generation Co. to Oyster Creek Environmental Protection, as owner, and Holtec Decommissioning International, as decommissioning operator. The facility is a boiling water reactor located in Lacey Township, N.J. It permanently ceased operations in September 2018.
The three companies requested the license transfer in August 2018. Once the purchase is finalized, as previously announced, OCEP and HDI plan to expedite decommissioning and dismantling of the plant. The license transfer includes the dry cask spent fuel storage installation at Oyster Creek.
The commission's order approving the license transfer takes effect immediately, but the license transfer won't be finalized until the successful completion of the transaction involving Exelon, OCEP, and HDI. At that point, NRC will issue a license amendment reflecting completion of the transfer.
The NRC staff considered OCEP's and HDI's technical and financial qualifications, as well as the adequacy of Oyster Creek's decommissioning trust funds to complete the radiological decommissioning of the plant and the adequacy of plans to manage the on-site storage of spent nuclear fuel until it can be removed for storage or disposal elsewhere, in reviewing the license transfer application. NRC's news release said the staff concluded OCEP and HDI met the regulatory, legal, technical and financial requirements necessary to qualify as licensees; the commission on June 18 denied two requests for an adjudicatory hearing challenging the license transfer.