Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/2/2015
The Department of Energy plans to create a new Used Fuel Disposition subprogram that would explore alternative disposal options for DOE-managed high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, according to the Department’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, released today. DOE is seeking only $3 million for the subprogram and its related activities, but the creation of the program could be the beginning stages of separating for disposal DOE-waste/defense waste from commercial high-level waste. Overall, DOE is seeking a total of approximately $108 million for its Used Fuel Disposition Program in FY16, an increase of approximately $37 million from current funding levels.
The issue of co-mingling deals primarily with whether defense-related high-level waste and commercial spent fuel should continue to be managed together. Both types of material had been planned to be co-mingled together in the now shuttered Yucca Mountain geological waste repository, but by separating the two, the Department of Energy would not be limited by the parameters of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and have more flexibility in design and implementation.
Last year, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy released a report on commingling that concluded the two waste streams should go into different repositories. The report said that DOE-managed HLW and SNF should be disposed of first due to the fewer challenges they pose, resulting in a simpler repository design and licensing processes, while engendering confidence in DOE’s ability to dispose of waste and meet its environmental management goals. The report recommends moving forward with a consent-based plan for a repository for the DOE-managed waste while also doing research and development of deep borehole disposal of smaller waste forms.
$18 Million Dedicated to Deep Borehole Disposal Research
In conjunction with the creation of the new subprogram, DOE is requesting $18 million in FY16 for research and development work on deep borehole disposal. The Department is planning to drill a borehole 5,000 meters into the surface for disposal of waste canisters in the lower 2,000 meters, according to the request. DOE plans to conduct a field test at a volunteer site that will include drilling a characterization borehole. “The field test will include the start of drilling an experimental borehole at a volunteer site to be determined. The additional funding is required for drill site preparations, permitting, drilling operations (contractor, equipment, and crew), and down-hole scientific testing,” the request says.
$8 Million for INL Modifications
Also under the Used Fuel Disposition banner, DOE plans to make modifications at the Idaho National Laboratory so it can handle and examine onsite dry storage casks. DOE is requesting $8 million in FY16 for modifications following the completion of the feasibility study and conceptual design in FY2015. “An INL facility is being assessed for the capability to handle those casks. Preliminary analysis of that facility indicates that it would be capable of handle those casks. The feasibility studies and conceptual design studies will be completed in FY 2015, and if successful, it is proposed to move forward to building modifications in FY 2016,” the request says
Integrated Waste Management System Activities Echoes FY15 Request for Reform
The Department also included in its request language that would enable it to restructure the current nuclear waste management funding arrangement so as to enable funds from the Nuclear Waste Fund to go towards activities outside of Yucca Mountain. DOE first proposed such an approach in last year’s budget request, but the language did not make into the final FY 2015 appropriations bill. “An effective, long-term nuclear waste management program requires the restructuring of the current funding arrangement,” DOE’s FY 2016 budget request says. “The Administration recommends the new funding arrangement to include the following elements: ongoing discretionary appropriations; access to annual fee collections provided in legislation, either through their reclassification from mandatory to discretionary, or as a direct mandatory appropriation; and eventual access to the balance or “corpus” of the Nuclear Waste Fund.”
As part of the reform, DOE is also requesting $30 million in FY 2016 for integrated waste management system activities, including $24 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund. These activities would go towards generic processes development for consent-based siting. DOE also requested mandatory appropriations to begin in FY 2019 for annual program costs that would jump start the construction of a pilot interim storage facility. The estimated programmatic cost of this effort over its first 10 years is approximately $5.7 billion, DOE said.
In remarks on DOE’s budget request today, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz reiterated the Department’s commitment to a consent-based process, including the construction of a pilot interim storage facility. “We remain committed to the Administration’s nuclear waste strategy statement as put out in January 2013 that in turn followed closely the Blue Ribbon Commission roadmap and its overarching recommendation being if it’s not consent-based, then you will not get to the end of the road,” Moniz said. “We are limited in what we can do under current statutory restrictions, but what we can do is start some of the generic work in terms of going out and talking with communities about the kinds of approach we will take. This is not a large budget number. One area where we would very much like to move forward with, but again we need statutory authority, is the pilot scale interim storage facility. We believe that remains the most sensible immediate step that we can take, particularly accepting spent fuel from closed own reactors.”
Yucca Left Out Once Again
DOE’s emphasis on a pilot interim storage facility resulted in the Department choosing again to not seek funding for the Yucca Mountain project. Moniz has maintained that the project remains “unworkable,” choosing instead to focus on a consent-based approach to siting a repository. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, found in its Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report that Yucca Mountain meets most regulatory requirements to maintain public safety, but DOE emphasized that Yucca is off the table. Senate Minority Leader and long-time Yucca opponent Harry Reid (D-Nev.) praised DOE for leaving Yucca out of its budget. “In addition, this budget ensures that Yucca Mountain will never see the light of day,” Reid said in a statement. “Yucca Mountain has not received a dime in years, and that will not change. Everyone should accept that and move on.”
