General Information
Future Use
Site Closure
Decommissioning
Fuel Storage
License Termination
Community Board
The purpose of nuclear power plant decommissioning is to reduce the amount of plant related radioactivity on the site to a level that allows the site to be released for future use. It is often called "construction in reverse" because the plant is methodically removed piece by piece.
At Yankee Rowe, decommissioning is now complete. Physical decommissioning of the former Yankee Rowe plant was completed in 2007. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) notified Yankee in August 2007 that the former plant site had been fully decommissioned in accordance with NRC procedures and regulations and formally approved Yankee Atomic’s Final Status Survey Reports in accordance with the License Termination Plan . The federal license for the site was also reduced to the approximately 2 acres surrounding the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation facility. The 2007 milestones marked the full federal decommissioning approvals of the plant site with all plant buildings removed, the site remediated and restoration complete. The final Massachusetts decommissioning related approval necessary to achieve site closure in accordance with the Massachusetts Contingency Plan occurred in 2008 when the state Department of Environmental Protection issued the final Phase II – Comprehensive Site Assessment Report (which consisted of a number of individual reports). The Yankee Rowe decommissioning project was performed safely and complied with the all the radiological and environmental cleanup standards required under the state and federal regulations.
Below are links to the final federal and state site decommissioning approval documents from the NRC and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the Yankee Rowe site.
Since the start of physical decommissioning in 1993, more than 21 miles of piping and tubing, 1071 valves, 8,569 pipe hangers, 321 pumps, and 33 miles of conduit and cable tray have been removed. In addition, six large components weighing a total of more than 500 tons were also removed. Some of the material, including the large components, was sent to the Barnwell, S.C. low-level radioactive waste disposal facility for permanent disposal. Some of the metal was sent to a processing facility in Tennessee.
Safe storage of the used fuel and GTCC waste at the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation facility in accordance with all applicable federal regulations is now the primary focus at the Yankee Rowe site until the U.S. government meets its statutory and contractual obligation to remove the material.