Wolf Creek nuclear power plant seeks 20-year license extension

? The owners of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant have applied for a 20-year extension of its operating license, which would extend the plant’s use from 2025 to 2045.

Extending the plant’s license should keep electricity rates down for southern Kansas, said consumer advocates, who support the application. The plant provides most of the electricity used by customers in Wichita and other areas served by Westar Energy’s southern division, formerly known as KGE.

Rejecting the extension almost certainly would increase power costs, because the $3 billion cost of building the plant would have to be paid off in 40 years rather than 60, said Niki Christopher, a lawyer for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board, a state agency that advocates for residential and small-business utility customers.

State officials reduced electric rates several years ago in anticipation of Wolf Creek’s service life being extended, Christopher said.

The rising cost of fossil fuels also makes nuclear power more economical compared with coal-fired power used in most of Westar’s northern division, she said.

“Wolf Creek was expensive in the short run, but in the long run, I think it’s going to turn out to be pretty good,” Christopher said. “Every minute we are getting out of that plant is money in the bank.”

Wolf Creek spokeswoman Jenny Hageman said the utility is asking for the extension 19 years ahead of its expiration date as part of an alliance of six similar plants across the country that also are seeking renewals, she said.

The plants can share some of the exhaustive technical work that is part of the renewal process if they apply at the same time, she said.

The application process is expected to take 20 to 22 months, said Hageman and Scott Burnell of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses reactors across the country.

NRC inspections show that Wolf Creek is operating well in all performance areas, and the NRC Web site lists no significant violations since 1997.

The renewal process requires the agency to evaluate Wolf Creek’s plans and procedures to ensure that they will not compromise safety 20 to 40 years from now, Burnell said.

Although Wolf Creek has enough space to store spent reactor fuel only through 2025, that issue will not be considered during the renewal process, he said.

Wolf Creek operators are hopeful, and the NRC assumes, that a national site for nuclear waste will be approved and available before then, Hageman and Burnell said.

A proposal for a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., has been stalled for years by environmental groups and Nevada officials.

If no repository exists for high-level nuclear waste when Wolf Creek runs out of storage space, the plant could switch to dry-cask storage and keep the spent fuel on site indefinitely, Burnell said.

In a dry-cask system, spent fuel is bundled and placed inside sealed steel containers filled with an inert gas. The containers are then placed in concrete bunkers to provide radiation shielding.

Forty-four nuclear plants in the country have sought license renewal. None has been rejected, Hageman said.