South Dakota-based energy and mining company Respec is attempting to secure a site within the state and submit a proposal for the Energy Department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, joining a handful of other companies preparing bids.
Respec is exploring a private site in Haakon County, which is about 100 miles east of Rapid City. The anticipated $35 million, five-year field test would produce data on the feasibility of storing DOE-managed nuclear waste in 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations. It is one storage method the Obama administration is exploring as an alternative to the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Respec CEO Todd Kenner said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the company has secured letters of support from Gov. Dennis Daugaard, the city of Philip, the town of Midland, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and a handful of major businesses in Haakon County. The company has partnered with the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and representatives were set to meet with the Haakon County Commission on Tuesday.
“We’ve been trying to inform the public and build community support,” Kenner said.
Also bidding for the DOE contract is Georgia-based Enercon Federal Services and Utah-based DOSECC Exploration Services for a site near Nara Visa, N.M. The proposed location, located about 300 miles north of DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, received a resolution of support from the Quay County Commission.
This is the second round of bidding for the contract. After failing to secure community support for two separate test sites in North Dakota and South Dakota earlier this year, Ohio-based contractor Battelle Memorial Institute in this round eyed a property in Newton, Ala., with the support of the owner, regional utility Southern Co. However, Southern Co. withdrew the property from consideration in the face of public opposition to the project. In all three states, Battelle ran into the same issue: residents’ fear that a successful field test would eventually lead to actual nuclear waste storage in their respective areas. DOE and Battelle have stressed throughout the process that the test will not involve actual nuclear waste, but surrogate storage containers instead.
Respec also submitted a bid in the first round, and was later approached by Battelle to collaborate on the failed site in Spink County, S.D., according to Kenner.
DOE expects to award the contract in January, requiring that the awardee secure public support in order to be in consideration, a stipulation the original contract did not include.
