SUNOL, California — A huge East Bay property where a nuclear power plant had operated for decades has been bought by a titan in the environmental remediation and nuclear decommissioning business.

The GEH Vallecitos Nuclear Center near Sunol and Pleasanton has been bought by an affiliate of Northstar Group Services for $7 million.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, which had owned the property through an affiliate, disclosed in 2023 that it had struck a preliminary deal to sell the site to NorthStar Group Services.

“Nuclear decontamination, decommissioning and environmental site restoration” were the purposes that GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy gave in 2023 for the sale of the property to Northstar.

The remediation timeline wasn’t immediately clear in the wake of the property purchase.

What is certain, however, is that NorthStar is one of the top companies in the field of environmental remediation and nuclear and factory decommissioning endeavors.

New York City-based NorthStar generates more than $700 million in annual revenue, the company states on its website.

The deal structure enables NorthStar to become the Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed owner of the East Bay nuclear research reactor complex.

“Our team has developed deep experience in the safe and efficient decontamination, decommissioning, and restoration of former nuclear reactor sites across the country,” said Northstar Chief Executive Officer Scott State.

The Vallecitos Nuclear Center deal is modeled along the lines of NorthStar’s acquisition of the former Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vermont, which the NRC and state regulators approved in 2018.

In November 2023, NorthStar marked a major milestone by completing the removal of the boiling water reactor from the Vallecitos Nuclear Center and shipping it for safe disposal at the facility operated by NorthStar affiliate, Waste Control Specialists in Texas.

“As with its other ongoing nuclear decommissioning projects, NorthStar will dispose of additional low-level radioactive waste from the Vallecitos decommissioning at the (Texas) facility,” NorthStar stated.

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