Year: 2019

The winter meeting of the Holtec Advisory Council for SMR-160, held on February 8, 2019 in Jupiter, Florida, was led by the incoming chairman, Michael Rencheck, CEO of Bruce Power, Canada. The meeting was attended by invited industry experts from several leading organizations, including Bruce Power, Energoatom (Ukraine), Entergy, Exelon Generation, Southern, Talen Energy, NEI, SNC-Lavalin, Mitsubishi Electric, and several major suppliers which constituted a robust review team encompassing virtually all aspects of the SMR-160 program. The international contingent consisted of business and technology leaders from Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates. The large contingent of participants (over 40) reflected the growing industry enthusiasm for the SMR-160 technology. Several milestone announcements (noted below) at the conference underscored the growing recognition of SMR-160 as a viable contributor to humankind’s drive for carbon-free energy generation.

At Holtec, 2018 will be remembered as the year when the Company’s four-year quest to launch its decommissioning program reached a successful milestone. Three nuclear power plants, including Exelon’s Oyster Creek Generating Station, and Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, as well as the site of the decommissioned Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant near Charlevoix, Michigan, where only the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) remains, are under purchase/sale agreements to transfer their licenses, spent fuel and Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts to Holtec for accelerated decommissioning subject to U.S. NRC’s concurrence. As of this writing, the U.S. NRC has accepted the License Transfer Applications for these agreements. In another strategic development, Holtec and SNC-Lavalin (Canada) established a joint venture company named Comprehensive Decommissioning International, LLC (CDI) to carry out decommissioning projects around the world. Holtec’s subsidiary, Holtec Decommissioning International (HDI), will hold the Plants’ licenses and manage the Company’s nuclear assets. CDI and HDI are off to a running start, both dedicated to the safe, rapid, and economic decommissioning of shut down nuclear power plants.