An unused spent fuel storage canister that arrived at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Wednesday will be used to investigate long-term storage solutions for the nation’s nuclear waste, according to a press release.
The 22-ton empty canister will boost a research team at the Tennessee-based Oak Ridge (ORNL) that is “investigating methods to help the nation effectively dispose of nuclear waste for the long term,” the Wednesday press release said. The ORNL team, led by the head of the lab’s used fuel and nuclear material disposition group Rose Montgomery, is investigating ways to optimize existing spent fuel canisters for long-term storage of nuclear waste.
ORNL is one of three national labs the Department of Energy picked to receive unused canisters, the release said. The one that arrived in Tennessee Wednesday was originally intended for use at California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), which is currently under decommissioning. The lab clarified in its press release that the canister was never put to use holding nuclear waste at SONGS.
If the research team can devise a way to use current spent fuel canisters for long term storage, their findings could help avoid the cost and complexity of repackaging spent fuel into smaller purpose-built disposal containers, eliminat[e] the need to dispose of the existing canisters as low-level radioactive waste and potentially decreas[e] the risk to workers who otherwise would be involved in the repackaging,” ORNL said.
Regardless of ORNL’s research, there’s still no permanent repository for the thousands of tons of spent fuel currently stranded at reactor sites across the country. The Joe Biden administration’s proposed 2022 budget, which passed the House in a seven-bill minibus in July and is awaiting a Senate vote, didn’t include any funding to restart construction at the moribund Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nye County, Nev.
Meanwhile, two proposed interim storage facilities for spent fuel are currently under consideration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NRC staff recommended in July that one site, Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) in west Texas, get a federal license. The commission is expected to make a final call on that in September. The other location, Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility in southeastern New Mexico, won’t get a final licensing decision until January, NRC has said.
