It appears that the next incarnation of FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) will have licenses to operate the Davis-Besse, Perry and, for now at least, Beaver Valley nuclear plants, once the company exits its chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, Crain's Cleveland Business reported. The company will operate under a new name, Energy Harbor, while still based in Akron, Ohio. FES announced yesterday that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the transfer of the operating licenses for the plants to units of the newly named and reorganized company. The licenses have been held by FES' sister company, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. "The NRC staff's review of the license transfer application concluded that Energy Harbor Nuclear Generation LLC is financially qualified to own Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse and Perry, and that Energy Harbor Nuclear Corp. is financially and technically qualified to operate the plants," the NRC said in a separate statement on Tuesday. "The NRC staff also concluded that, since the plants' existing decommissioning funds will be transferred, the new licensees satisfy the NRC's decommissioning funding assurance requirements and the facilities are not owned, controlled or dominated by a foreign entity." That last point about decommissioning may be of particular importance in Pennsylvania, where the NRC noted that the Beaver Valley plant's two reactors north of Pittsburgh "are scheduled to permanently shut down in May 2021 and October 2021," as the company previously announced.
