Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/27/2015
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz anticipates that Congressional action would be needed before the Department of Energy could begin storing waste at the proposed Waste Control Specialists spent fuel/high-level waste interim storage facility, he told reporters after a hearing this week before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Moniz indicated this week that Congressional approval would likely be necessary, for example, to access to the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for shipment and storage fees. “My guess is, in the end, there would need to be some legislative approach, because we are the customer,” Moniz said. “For example, would there be access to the Nuclear Waste Fund? If so, that requires Congressional action. So we’ll talk to them, and then we’ll talk to Congress. There are no plans [to talk], but I’m hoping to sooner rather than later.”
WCS earlier this month announced its intentions to construct a private, consent-based interim storage facility at its Andrews, Texas compound, pending the approval of a license application by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and an indication from Congress that DOE could move forward with shipping waste to a location other than Yucca Mountain. During a press conference announcing its plans, WCS said that according to the company’s understanding, it could accept waste under the current legislation, but WCS would like confirmation from Congress on this interpretation.
This week Moniz expressed interest in the private approach to interim storage. “I think it’s very interesting,” he said. “As I said in the hearing, we are looking forward to getting together with them to understand exactly what their plans are. It was a pretty general announcement with their letter of intent to NRC. Clearly, up until now, our plans and our demonstration plan for interim storage were based around the idea of a federal facility. But this could be a very interesting dynamic. We are very interested, and we look forward to talking with them, which we have not done yet in terms of what exactly their plan of construction is.”
A consent-based pilot consolidated storage facility is DOE’s preferred strategy to satisfy the nation’s spent fuel disposal needs, but due to language in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Department cannot consider other sites beyond Yucca Mountain in Nevada without congressional approval. In its Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request, earlier this month, the Department requested a reform that would enable it to move forward with its waste management strategy, but it remains to be seen whether that language will make it into the final bill.
House E&W Approps Chair Supports Interim Storage
Meanwhile, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) voiced his support for both Yucca Mountain and interim storage this week during a hearing on DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 request. Simpson mentioned his support when questioning Moniz on consent-based siting. “Consent-based is in the eye of the beholder,” Simpson said. “If you talk to the local county commissioners around Yucca Mountain, it’s consent-based. It’s how you want to define consent-based is the important thing. Secondly, the Blue Ribbon Commission was precluded from looking at Yucca Mountain for anything. So to say we looked all over, and came up with this plan—and, I don’t disagree with what you did. In fact, I support trying to do a pilot program for interim storage, but you were precluded from looking at Yucca Mountain. So to be fair, let’s admit that Yucca Mountain and the decision not to proceed with Yucca Mountain was a political decision.”
Moniz, though, maintained that Yucca remains “unworkable,” and said consent-based siting is needed throughout the chain of government. “Consent-based means consent all along the chain,” Moniz said. “The chain from community, to county, to state, to federal government. “
Other Texas Group Still Moving Forward
While WCS moves forward with its industry approach to interim storage, another group in Texas continues to make way for some type of federal facility. The Austin-based Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, which has looked at Loving County, Texas as a possible location for interim storage, does not see WCS’ plans as a threat to its own. “We see their efforts as enhancing ours,” AFCI Co-owner Monty Humble told RW Monitor this week. “They make it abundantly clear what we have been saying all along, which is Texas is prepared to host a facility. They will, in the process of seeking a license, inevitability engender a public dialogue that will be beneficial to everybody in terms of letting us see what the public in Texas wants to do.”
Whereas WCS is looking to build its own facility, AFCI plans to work with the federal government to build a facility in Texas. While some roadblocks have emerged, Humble said, the company is still in discussions with various counties on the potential of hosting a facility. “We met with landowners in Loving County last fall, and they had expressed some concerns,” Humble said. “We are committed to addressing those concerns, whether that means by changing what we are doing, by persuading them what we are doing won’t affect them, or by moving to a different county. We are in discussions with different counties, but I’m not prepared to reveal those names. Those talks are progressing though, so we don’t see the discussion with landowners as being a debilitating setback.”
At the Texas state level, former Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus (R) have both voiced their support for looking at the potential of hosting an interim storage facility. Straus has asked state lawmakers to begin considering the logistics and economic impact of potentially hosting a high-level radioactive waste disposal site or interim storage facility, and Perry charged the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to prepare a report looking at the history of spent fuel disposal and lessons-learned from previous attempts.
