PHOENIX – Another company indicated Monday it would be prepared to bid on an anticipated procurement from the Department of Energy to design a facility for interim storage of nuclear waste.
“We are interested in interim storage,” Rod Baltzer, chief operating officer for Deep Isolation, told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. “With our design, we do think you could call it interim storage. … It is retrievable, so you could take the canister down, place it deep underground, and then you could retrieve it back up if you need to.”
Testifying last week before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Assistant DOE Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal said the agency had drafted a request for proposals for basic design of an interim storage facility. She did not discuss a timeline for issuing the procurement notice.
The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy would in the upcoming fiscal 2021 receive $27.5 million for an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program, under the Trump administration federal budget request issued in February. The program replaces the White House’s efforts in three prior spending plans to fund resumption of licensing for the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada. Congress rejected each request.
The new funding is intended to “develop and implement a robust storage program,” starting Oct. 1, covering operations including early design and development of measures to identify possible storage locations.
“We do think this is an innovative design, we’d love to participate in some of those programs,” Baltzer said on the sidelines of the annual Waste Management Symposia.
Deep Isolation, based in Berkeley, Calif., offers “directional drilling” that would place waste canisters deep underground – at 1,000 feet or deeper. The company is still working on its initial contracts, which it anticipates securing this year.
Two companies have already designed more-traditional means for storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Both have applied for 40-year licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for their facilities. Interim Storage Partners plans above-ground storage of up to 40,000 metric tons of waste in Andrews County, Texas. Holtec International would place potentially more than 100,000 metric tons in underground storage in Lea County, N.M.
A Holtec spokesman last week said the company would also be interested in bidding on the eventual Energy Department RFP. Interim Storage Partners has not publicly discussed its plans.
