Duke Energy Florida asks to speed up Crystal River nuclear decommissioning

CRYSTAL RIVER — Duke Energy Florida will ask regulators for permission to speed up its Crystal River nuclear plant decommissioning, the utility announced Thursday. Instead of being dismantled by 2074, the plant will now be fully decommissioned by 2027. It has not produced power since 2009.

The primary driver for the shorter timetable was cost, said Duke spokeswoman Heather Danenhower. When the shutdown was announced in 2013, decommissioning was too costly to do quickly. But the utility finalized a contract with Accelerated Decommissioning Partners on Wednesday, locking the cost of the entire process in at $540 million. That will be covered by Duke's $717 million decommissioning trust for the plant, which was funded by ratepayers between 1977 and 2001.

Customers will not see an increase on their monthly bills for the process.

"It gives us a crystal ball into the future of the nuclear plant decommission," Danenhower said. "We know what that cost is today, and we are going to do the work in the next decade instead of waiting."

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/business/duke-energy-florida-asks-to-speed-up-crystal-river-nuclear-decommissioning-20190601/