STARS representatives are beginning a plan for joint procurement of nuclear fuel.

One of the most expensive purchases a nuclear plant makes is the fuel to operate it. Several hundred million dollars of fuel and fuel-related services are needed each year to operate the 7 reactors across STARS.

We believe we can optimize our fuel procurement if we work together to strategically plan how and when we purchase nuclear fuel components, so we are taking the legal and organizational steps to form a nuclear fuel procurement group.

STARS received approval from our Board of Directors on March 31st to begin the formation of this group. The initial areas of focus will be on the purchase of uranium concentrates, conversion and enrichment services as procurement of these components is allowed under the current STARS operating agreement.

The 4 STARS station’s fuel managers and legal counsel have been meeting to recommend:

• Goals
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Processes
• Change Management
• Resources for the new group

When STARS was originally set up we sought a Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division (DOJ) “Safe Harbor” letter to protect STARS from Anti-Trust actions by the DOJ.

In the original “Safe Harbor” letter, the DOJ specifically excludes STARS from engaging in joint fuel fabrication activities. However, with changing market forces we now see the value in joint fuel fabrication efforts.

Key Players and Next Steps

Tom Cannon is leading the group formation efforts and the Engineering Vice President Board Subcommittee is providing oversight for this endeavor.

On May 25th Joe Fortman, Steve Coppock and lawyers from Morgan Lewis met with the DOJ in Washington, D.C. to discuss our plans to begin joint procurement of fuel fabrication services.

The meeting resulted in an open exchange of information, and we expect feedback in the next couple of weeks in the form of information requests.

Once the feedback is received we will formally submit our plans in a letter to the DOJ for their review.

Although the review process will take several months, we expect a positive outcome and plan to explore options to jointly purchase fuel fabrication services starting in 2018.

In the future, we hope our 4 sites will work together on all aspects of nuclear fuel procurement, but getting started working together on joint procurement of uranium, conversion and enrichment is a great first step.