The Department of Energy plans to take bids on the design of a facility for interim storage of used reactor fuel from nuclear power plants, a senior official said Tuesday.
Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal discussed the upcoming procurement in a hearing on the Energy Department’s latest budget proposal before the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee.
“One of the specific actions that the department is planning to carry out is to issue a request for proposal, which has been drafted, and the intent is for the basic design of an interim storage facility,” Baranwal told the panel. “What we are looking forward to in the future is that there are developments in the technology space that have occurred over the past several years, and we are hopeful that those will manifest themselves in the responses to the RFP.”
Baranwal did not elaborate on the request for proposals, which seemingly had not been filed at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor. The Energy Department did not respond to queries on the matter.
The assistant secretary was responding to a question from subcommittee Chairwoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who asked for details on activities to be carried out the Energy Department’s proposed Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program.
The agency requested $27.5 million for the program in fiscal 2021 under the Office of Nuclear Energy to lay the groundwork for centralized, temporary storage of what is already over 80,000 metric tons of radioactive used fuel rods dispersed at 76 sites in 34 states. Such facilities could help DOE meet its legal mandate to remove that waste from power plants in the absence of a permanent disposal space.
For the first time in four budget plans, the Trump administration in February did not request any funds to resume federal licensing of the geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev.
In its budget justification for the spending year beginning Oct. 1, the Energy Department said its new Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight approach would “develop and implement a robust interim storage program, support the Department’s fiduciary responsibilities for Yucca Mountain, and continue oversight of the Nuclear Waste Fund.”
That would cover scoping, planning, and development to establish the program, including measures to identify possible storage locations, development of initial design concepts, and other activities, the justification says.
However, Kaptur and other lawmakers have been frustrated by the lack of details about this program in early hearings on the DOE budget.
Kaptur asked whether the Energy Department has any specific locations in mind for interim storage. Identification of potential sites will be part of the procurement process, according to Baranwal.
“To succinctly answer your question, no, we don’t have a potential location in mind at the moment,” she said. Baranwal said she also could not immediately answer Kaptur’s question regarding the categories of stakeholders that could apply for the design contract.
There was no mention in the discussion of two corporate teams that are already seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses for consolidated interim storage facilities: Holtec International, for a site in Lea County, N.M., with maximum storage exceeding 100,000 metric tons; and Interim Storage Partners, for up to 40,000 metric tons of storage in Andrews County, Texas.
Holtec’s HI-STORE consolidated interim storage facility would hold the used fuel rods just below ground level in stainless-steel canisters within a steel liner and concrete casing.
“Holtec looks forward to participating in the possible RFP,” Joe Delmar, a spokesman for the Camden, N.J., energy technology company, said by email Thursday. “Holtec’s HI-STORE CISF will provide a significant step on the path to resolve the nation’s long standing used nuclear fuel storage problem by providing a safe, secure, temporary, retrievable and centralized facility for the storage of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.”
Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture of radioactive-material disposal provider Waste Control Specialists and nuclear firm Orano, did not respond to a query regarding its potential interest in the procurement. Its design calls for storing the canisters in above-ground concrete modules on the Waste Control Specialists’ property near the Texas-New Mexico border.
The Energy Department has long since missed the Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin disposal of used nuclear fuel and high-level waste from defense nuclear operations, as set in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Congress amended the law in 1987 to direct that the waste go only to Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The Energy Department filed its license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008, during the George W. Bush administration. But the Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later, and that is where things stand – despite its successor’s funding requests for 2018, 2019, and 2020.
The Obama administration eventually embarked on a “consent-based” approach for storage and disposal of nuclear waste in willing communities, based on 2012 recommendations from its Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Future. While that program died when President Barack Obama’s term ended, some aspects appear to have been picked up by the Trump administration – In one 2021 budget document, for example, the White House focused on deploying waste management systems “where there is a willingness to host.”
In three Capitol Hill appearances over two weeks to discuss his agency’s $35.4 billion spending plan, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette has characterized the new focus on interim storage as realpolitik – Congress was simply not to get behind Yucca Mountain, so another strategy was necessary for DOE to meet its legal directive.
Brouillette’s interlocutors in Congress have called the change political. President Donald Trump announced the move away from Yucca Mountain on Feb. 6, just over two weeks before the Nevada Democratic Party caucuses and ahead of what could be a tough electoral battle for the state in November.
In one hearing Wednesday, Brouillette said Wednesday he is ready to work with two key Senate appropriators to establish a pilot program for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants.
Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) noted he and panel Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have proposed the pilot program in seven consecutive budget bills. The subcommittee writes the first draft of the Senate funding bill for DOE, the NRC, and other agencies.
The upper chamber’s energy and water appropriations legislation for the current fiscal 2020, crafted by Alexander and Feinstein, would have authorized the Energy Department to establish a pilot program for licensing, building, and operating at least one federal facility for consolidated interim storage of used fuel. The legislation would also have given the energy secretary up to 120 days to begin procurement for cooperative agreements to build one or more such facilities.
Such language is necessary for an interim-storage program, as the Nuclear Waste Policy Act otherwise prohibits the Energy Department from taking title to used fuel until the repository is available. However, that measure did not make it into the minibus spending bill covering DOE for the budget year ended Sept. 30, 2020, which was signed into law in December.
In a Capitol Hill appearance last week, Brouillette said the Energy Department would not seek licenses for the Nevada repository or a federal interim storage site. But he said the 1982 law does not prohibit early stage research and development on temporary storage.
“If we’re able to get our friends in the House of Representatives to agree with us to include Senator Feinstein’s pilot program in our final bill, could you implement it as it’s currently written?” Alexander, who is not seeking re-election this year, asked Brouillette during a hearing on the Energy Department’s $35.4 billion budget request for fiscal 2021.
“Yes, we could,” responded Brouillette, who became energy secretary in December after more than two years as DOE deputy secretary.
A spokesperson for Alexander on Thursday declined to say whether the pilot program language would be in this year’s budget from the subcommittee, or when the legislation would be issued.
Similar language on a used-fuel pilot storage program is featured in separate bills still being considered by Congress, including the 2019 Nuclear Waste Administration Act headed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and co-sponsored by Alexander and Feinstein. Earlier versions of that bill have already died twice in previous Congresses.
Even with their focus on interim storage, both Alexander and Feinstein expressed dismay at the turn away from Yucca Mountain.
“The administration proposes to abandon Yucca Mountain and move ahead with some unknown alternative for storage of nuclear waste,” Feinstein said. “Now, the abandonment without a replacement is what concerns me.”
