ADP on track to complete major D&D work at Crystal River-3 this summer

Advanced Decommissioning Partners, a joint venture of NorthStar Group Services and Orano USA, is set to complete major decommissioning activities at Crystal River-3 nuclear power plant in Florida this summer, according to the license termination plan (LTP) the company submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC is currently reviewing for approval ADP's LTP for Crystal River-3, and the agency is holding a hybrid public meeting this evening in Crystal River and online to describe the license termination process and accept comments on the plan.

The LTP provides details about the known radiological information for the Crystal River-3 site, the planned demolition and decommissioning tasks to be completed, and the final radiological surveys and data that must be obtained for termination of the NRC's license for the nuclear power plant.

Background: A pressurized water reactor, Crystal River-3 permanently ceased operations in 2013. The reactor had been inactive since September 2009, when it was placed in a refueling outage. During the outage, workers attempted to cut an access hole into the reactor containment building to replace the reactor's steam generators. Parts of the concrete building wall delaminated, and Progress Energy, the licensee at the time, was unable to repair the damage.

Duke Energy, which acquired Progress Energy in 2012, announced that it would retire Crystal River-3 in February 2013, and in April 2020 the NRC approved the transfer of the reactor's license from Duke to ADP for decommissioning.

Duke continues to hold ownership of the site and control of the decommissioning trust fund, while ADP serves as the licensed operator responsible for carrying out decommissioning activities in accordance with all federal and state regulations.

The plan: ADP submitted its LTP to the NRC in October 2025, and it was supplemented in December 2025 and February 2026.

Although the site is located in an industrial area, ADP has chosen the NRC's conservative "resident farmer" scenario in developing the radiological release criteria for the plant.

According to the LTP, as of February 2025, only Crystal River-3's reactor building remains within the plant's former power block. All other buildings have been demolished to ground level. Demolition of the reactor building is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.

Site restoration activities are scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2027, and final site survey activities, which are ongoing, are to be completed in the third quarter of 2027.

Meeting details: Tonight's NRC meeting will be held at 5:30-6:30 p.m. (ET) at the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, 915 N. Suncoast Boulevard, Crystal River, Fla.

The public can participate in person or via Microsoft Teams. Comments may be submitted through the federal rulemaking website. Details on how to submit comments can be found in the Federal Register notice. The deadline for filing comments is June 23.