Project Delays Plague Company To Buy Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant | Science & Environment

But last month, EnergySolutions requested another year to complete the transfer after the NRC sent a 38-page letter requesting additional information about unexplained radioactive contamination at the site.

The cleanup has cost at least $ 658 million so far, leaving only $ 5.3 million in the decommissioning trust fund according to a filing in 2020.

The company began work on the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor (LACBWR), a small demonstration reactor in Genoa operated by the Dairyland Power Cooperative, in 2016. The plant, which was shut down in 1987, has already been partially shut down.

EnergySolutions announced that the site was cleared in 2019 and the NRC conditionally approved the return of the license to Dairyland as soon as EnergySolutions can demonstrate that the site is free of contamination. The NRC later granted two six-month extensions to complete this process.

In August, the company requested another extension to address unspecified issues and potential issues from NRC employees. The NRC has now extended the deadline to September 24, 2022.

Dairyland does not believe the delay will cause “significant problems” for the La Crosse-based utility company, which is demolishing a neighboring coal-fired power plant that closed in June and is investigating new uses for the 104-acre site, to which also owns a nuclear waste storage facility, said spokeswoman Katie Thomson.