LICENSE TERMINATION PLAN FOR YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
TO BE DISCUSSED AT PUBLIC MEETING ON JUNE 24
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The License Termination Plan for the Yankee nuclear power plant will be the subject of a public meeting to be conducted by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on June 24 in Shelborne Falls, Mass. The Yankee plant, which is located in Rowe, Mass., was permanently shut down in October 1991.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Mohawk Trail Regional High School, 26 Ashfield Road in Shelborne Falls. Members of the public will be able to offer comments about the plan and ask questions of NRC staff and representatives of the plant’s owner, Yankee Atomic Electric Company.

"This is another important step in the decommissioning process,” said John Hickman, the NRC’s project manager for the Yankee plant. “We welcome input from the public at this meeting as this process continues to move forward."

Decommissioning work at the plant is currently in its final phase. In addition to physically dismantling the facility, that work includes surveys of the site to check for any residual radioactivity as well as the activities necessary to complete remediation of the property. Yankee Atomic has said it expects that process to be substantially completed by 2005.

A License Termination Plan must be submitted by a plant’s owner within two years of the expected license termination. Yankee Atomic submitted its plan for the Yankee plant last November. The document addresses the following: site characterization; identification of remaining site dismantlement activities; plans for site remediation; detailed plans for final radiation surveys for release of the site; method for demonstrating compliance with the radiological criteria for license termination; updated site-specific estimates of remaining decommissioning costs; and a supplement to the environmental report that describes any new information or significant environmental changes associated with the owner's proposed termination activities.

The plan must be reviewed and approved by the NRC staff. Before approval can be given, a notice of the opportunity for a hearing is published and a public meeting is held near the plant site. Once approved, the plan is incorporated into the facility’s NRC license by an amendment.

If the remaining dismantlement and decommissioning work has been performed in accordance with the approved License Termination Plan and the survey of residual radioactivity demonstrates that the facility and site meet the Commission’s cleanup criteria, the NRC will terminate the operating license.

A copy of the report is available on the company’s web site at: http://www.yankee.com/siteclosure/index.htm .

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Last revised Monday, June 28, 2004