Fort St. Vrain--a DOE success story

The Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Station was a one-of-its-kind High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor located near Denver, CO. Due to operational difficulties, the reactor was permanently shut down in August 1989. Plants to ship the spent reactor fuel to Idaho were thwarted by the Governor of Idaho. The inability to ship the spent reactor fuel offsite necessitated the construction of an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) in order to proceed with the decommissioning of the reactor. After loading the ISFSI, decommissioning of the reactor was initiated and successfully completed. At the same time, the site was repowered using natural gas. As part of a settlement with the owner of the reactor, the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to take title to the spent fuel in the ISFSI and obtain an NRC license for the facility. The license for the ISFSI was transferred to the DOE in June 1999. Day-to-day operations of the ISFSI are accomplished by the DOE's Maintenance and Operations contractor, Bechtel Babcock Wilcox Idaho (BBWI). BBWI also operates the Three Mile Island Unit 2 ISFSI in Idaho for the DOE. This paradigm for ISFSI operations has been highly successful and is expandable to additional ISFSIs that may come under the jurisdiction of the DOE.