The Department of Energy formally published its reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in Monday’s Federal Register.
As telegraphed for months, and officially announced on June 5, DOE now interprets that the existing HLW definition in the Atomic Energy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act means not all wastes from spent fuel reprocessing are highly radioactive.
The existing definition says HLW is highly radioactive material resulting from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, which requires permanent isolation.
This reconsideration means some material on the less radioactive end of the traditional high-level spectrum could conceivably be disposed of at sites licensed for low-level radioactive waste or transuranic waste.
The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York are DOE locations where HLW is currently stored on an interim basis. The Energy Department is legally required to permanently dispose of the material.
There is an estimated 90 million gallons of solids, liquids, and sludge left over from decades of nuclear weapons production, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future said in 2012. Without a federal HLW repository, the material has no place to go, industry officials say.
In the notice, the Energy Department answered some the questions and criticisms lodged during the public comment period on the reinterpretation.
It is “well established” that the Administrative Procedures Act gives federal agencies authority to issue “interpretative” rules, the Energy Department said. The agency also pushed back on those who say it the public needed to be more involved in the process.
As evidence of this, DOE said it revised the proposal based on input from the 5,500 comments in received since announcing the planned revision in October.
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and other critics say the move could open the door for the federal government to walk away from its obligation to clean up millions of gallons of toxic radioactive waste at Hanford and elsewhere. The Energy Department says existing legal commitments will be followed.
The Energy Department’s reinterpretation is backed by directors of a half-dozen DOE national laboratories.
“The proposal would shift the definition from a source-based definition to a risk-based interpretation consistent with the radiological characteristics of the waste,” according to a March 25 letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, made public recently, from directors of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The reinterpretation would still require geologic disposal for waste from spent fuel reprocessing with high levels of radiation and long-lived radionuclides, the laboratory chiefs said.
Hanford Challenge, a citizens’ watchdog group for the Hanford Site in Washington State, was unimpressed with the letter. “So, let us see if we understand this correctly: ‘DOE supports DOE idea.’ Got it,” the group said in a weekend tweet.
Energy Department Plans NEPA Process at Savannah River
In connection with the HLW definition, DOE on Monday published plans for an assessment, under the National Environmental Policy Act, to consider disposal options for as much as 10,000 gallons of grouted or vitrified wastewater from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.
The wastewater, produced through operation of the DWPF, is currently returned to the SRS tank farm for volume reduction by evaporation or is beneficially reused on-site. The current process is expected to end in fiscal 2024 as the agency accelerates tank closures.
The Energy Department will use the environmental assessment to decide if the recycled water would be suitable for disposal at commercial low-level waste sites operated by EnergySolutions in Utah or Waste Control Specialists in Texas.
The environmental assessment will also include a no action alternative.
