In 2013, a fleet operator announced the early permanent shutdown of their first nuclear power plant.  The owner engaged TLG to develop additional detail for the first five years of the decommissioning cost estimate based on the actual work that would be performed to transition to the plant from operation to SAFSTOR Dormancy.  TLG staff conducted numerous interviews with the station staff to ensure all costs associated with the site specific plan would be captured.  TLG developed site specific costs for the following major cost elements of the DCE:

• Security – TLG incorporated the site specific Security staffing and modifications plans into the DCE and noted the variation from the TLG DECCER model for use in future DCE preparation.
• Emergency Planning – TLG developed a new cost model for shutdown plants based on USNRCs draft rulemaking for decommissioning. Several license exemptions that were required under the existing rulemaking would not be required when rulemaking was finalized.  To account for a delay in USNRC publishing final rules, TLG adjusted the contingency for Emergency Planning to account for the possibility of having to file exemption requests.
• Institutional Overtime – The client’s Security and Operations staffing model during the wet fuel storage period resulted in the creation of institutional overtime to meet minimum staffing levels. TLG assessed the client plan and developed a means of inserting the institutional overtime into the DECCER inputs for the DCE.  The result was a more accurate cost estimate for the wet fuel storage period.

Several additional changes were made to the TLG model based on our experience working with this client.  Additional detail can be found here in Chapter 19 of the Vermont Yankee Experience.