The Energy Department this week published a long-awaited environmental review that paves the way for the agency to accept more than 450 casks of spent nuclear fuel from Germany for processing and storage at the agency’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.
The spent fuel contains U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium, which was shipped to Germany from 1965 through 1988 as part of the Atoms for Peace program started by the Dwight Eisenhower administration. The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates it will take about three-and-a-half years and 30 shipments to deliver the 900 kilograms of the weapon-grade material by sea from Germany, according to a summary of the “finding of no significant impact” posted online Wednesday.
“The potential environmental impacts associated with the transport, storage and processing of SNF from Germany using any of the proposed alternatives, options, or technologies evaluated in the Spent Nuclear Fuel from Germany [Environmental Assessment] entail minor impacts and low risks, and do not constitute a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment” relative to U.S. environmental law and regulations, the finding reads. “Therefore, based on the analysis in the Spent Nuclear Fuel from Germany EA, an environmental
impact statement is not required.”
The document, signed by acting DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management James Owendoff, notes that the finding does not commit the department to accept the German spent fuel.
In a statement Thursday, DOE said it could be four years or more before shipments start. The agency first must develop and install new equipment at the Savannah River Site (SRS) to break down the German spent fuel, which also contains low-enriched uranium and thorium and is in the form of many tennis-ball-sized graphite spheres, with uranium cores.
“Additional technology maturation must be achieved before the Department can proceed to make any decision to accept spent nuclear fuel from Germany,” a DOE spokesperson wrote in a statement emailed to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. “DOE will not make a decision to accept graphite spent nuclear fuel from Germany until after the technology is successfully matured.”
The additional technology required at SRS is “carbon digestion equipment,” according to Wednesday’s environmental assessment. The equipment, to be installed at either the site’s H-Area fuel-storage facility or its L-Area chemical-separation facility, is required for the early phases of spent fuel processing, DOE said.
If the department does decide to accept the spent fuel, Germany would ship 455 CASTOR storage casks to Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina. After that, filled fuel casks will be sent by rail to SRS.
The Energy Department would store the repatriated material at H- or L-Area until it can install the new carbon digestion equipment, according to the final environmental assessment.
Germany would pay to ship the material to the U.S., and reimburse DOE for the processing at SRS, the agency said in the document. Germany asked the U.S. to take the material back in 2012.
The Savannah River Site generally processes foreign nuclear material at its H Canyon facility and stores it on-site until it can be shipped to a repository. Sometimes, the material is converted to reactor fuel and shipped off-site.
In September, the DOE-chartered Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board voted 10-9 to oppose sending the highly enriched uranium to SRS.
