New York Reaches Deal on Decommissioning Indian Point Nuclear Plant

(Bloomberg) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James reached a provisional agreement with Holtec International Corp. on the retirement and cleanup of Entergy Corp.’s Indian Point nuclear plant upstate.

The agreement still needs to be approved by the New York State Public Service Commission, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement Thursday. Once that happens, Holtec would take over ownership of the power plant and would be responsible for decommissioning and cleaning up the plant and site.

Under the agreement, Holtec has to keep at least $400 million in a decommissioning trust fund for a decade and has to put half of the money it gets from the Department of Energy for spent fuel management costs into that fund.

Decommissioning a nuclear power plant involves decontaminating the facility to reduce radioactivity, dismantling the structures and taking care of used nuclear fuel, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear trade association. In January, James filed a lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to intervene in the decommissioning.

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