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Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, shuttered in 2014. / Entergy

Able to be made in a factory and much more affordable than the typical power plant, small modular reactors have been identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce as a poten- tial product for a “significant export market.” These small reactors could even be used to replace existing coal-burning plants, according to a study by the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago. While small modular reactors are expected to emerge as a piece of the domestic nuclear market, the present is domi- nated by decommissioning. The latest plant to close down was Vermont Yankee in 2014. At least three were decom- missioned in 2013. And over the next few years, Fitzpat- rick and Pilgrim in the northeast, Clinton and Quad Cities in Illinois, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, and Diablo Canyon in California, are set for decommissioning. As nuclear contin- ues to compete – and in the case of unregulated merchant plants, oftentimes unsuccessfully – with natural gas and re- newables, more plants are likely to follow, according to in- dustry experts. And therein lies a long-term opportunity for engineers. As is the case with Vermont Yankee, decommissioning could last as long as 60 years and is expected to cost around $1.2 billion. Decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management are the big issues with closures, and servic- ing those steps, and innovating along the way, should spell good times for industry firms. “The companies that are in the business of decommission- ing plants will get more work,” McCullum says. “There are

new careers opening up in those areas.” Decommissioning unfolds as the Nuclear Regulatory Com- mission, the government agency that monitors plant clo- sures, tries to figure out a cogent process for closing plants. Closures are also taking place as the proposed national re- pository for spent fuel, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, remains unbuilt. Nuclear fuel is stored in dry casks at decommis- sioned plants across the country, and is kept under high se- curity. “The companies that are in the business of decommissioning plants will get more work. There are new careers opening up in those areas.” Tony Leshinskie, a nuclear engineer who worked for West- inghouse Electric Co. for more than 27 years, is now the state nuclear engineer and decommissioning coordinator for the state of Vermont. He took the job in 2014 to oversee the closure of the Vermont Yankee plant. The industry, he says, must ask and answer critical ques- tions. Is there a way to mothball a plant in bad times and open it up again when the market is ripe? Should the gov- ernment grant subsidies for large nuclear power plants?

See NUCLEAR, page 8

R July 25, 2016, ISSUE 1161

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