The Department of Energy and Battelle Memorial Institute are calling it quits on their $35 million contract for a deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, after failing to gain public support and secure two separate sites in North Dakota and South Dakota.
“We wanted to let you know that the Department of Energy and Battelle Memorial Institute have mutually agreed to walk away from the current Deep Borehole Field Test contract,” DOE Legislative Affairs Specialist Patricia Temple wrote in an internal email that Weapons Complex Morning Briefing obtained Wednesday evening. “The Department will issue a new competitive solicitation in the coming weeks with modified requirements, taking into account the lessons learned from our efforts thus far.”
Temple said DOE “remains committed to completing a Deep Borehole Field Test because, while this field test will not involve any radioactive waste, it will increase our scientific understanding of the potential uses for crystalline rock formations and help determine whether a borehole is a feasible option for radioactive waste disposal.”
Originally scheduled to break ground on Sept. 1, the estimated five-year project would produce data on whether 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations are suitable for DOE-managed high-level radioactive waste. DOE and Battelle in March canceled plans at their original site near Rugby, N.D., where the Pierce County Commission shared residents’ concerns that a successful field test would eventually lead to actual nuclear waste storage in the state. DOE and Battelle then eyed a site in Spink County, S.D., but canceled those plans in June after the Spink County Commission and residents aired the same concerns as their neighbors to the north.
