DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa.– EnergySolutions, Inc. has signed a contract with FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiaries GPU Nuclear, Inc., Metropolitan Edison Company, Jersey Central Power & Light Company, and Pennsylvania Electric Company to acquire all licenses and assets of Unit-2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (TMI-2) located near Middletown, Pennsylvania. Under the agreement, the facility would be transferred to a subsidiary of EnergySolutions known as TMI-2 Solutions, LLC. The agreement also facilitates applications to the NRC and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for approval of the transfer, followed by decommissioning of TMI-2.
“We are excited for the opportunity to safely decommission Unit-2 at Three Mile Island and restore the area to its natural state,” stated Ken Robuck, President and CEO of EnergySolutions. “We currently have four decommissioning projects, two of which will be completed in the next six months. Every project has provided valuable experience with best practices and lessons learned that we will incorporate into this project to safely decommission the facility.”
In 1979 TMI-2 experienced a partial meltdown which resulted in permanent closure of the facility. In the early 1980’s 99% of the nuclear fuel was removed from the plant, packaged and shipped to a storage facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The facility has remained in a safe and stable storage condition known as Post Defueling Monitored Storage (PDMS) for the past 26 years.
“Every decommissioning project we have performed comes with a commitment to keep the public fully informed of the progress being made and to answer questions that members of the community may have,” added Robuck.
To perform the decommissioning work on this project EnergySolutions and Jingoli, a construction company headquartered in New Jersey, formed a joint venture called ES/Jingoli Decommissioning, LLC. Jingoli successfully managed and executed nuclear projects on behalf of numerous utilities in the United States and Canada with experience in the nuclear field from pre-construction, construction management, project controls and decommissioning.
Current decommissioning projects EnergySolutions is performing include the Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois and the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin, both are expected to be complete in the spring of 2020. EnergySolutions is also decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant in Southern California and the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska. In May of this year EnergySolutions completed decommissioning the SEFOR Test Reactor in Arkansas.
SOURCE: EnergySolutions
