The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have begun early discussions on extending the nearly 2-decade-old license for a spent-fuel storage facility that has not been built at the Idaho National Laboratory.
“This matter is unique in that the facility was never constructed or operated. It’s also the first of a kind in that this is the first time that a [radioactie waste storage] license is coming up for expiration for a facility that has not yet been constructed,” Kristina Banovac, project manager within the NRC’s Storage and Transportation Licensing Branch, said Thursday.
Officials from the two agencies held their first pre-application meeting, joined by representatives from DOE used-fuel storage contractor Spectra Tech, of Oak Ridge, Tenn. The session was conducted via Skype, with in-person meetings still off the table during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At issue is the Nov. 30, 2024, expiration of the 20-year NRC license for the Idaho Spent Fuel Facility. The Energy Department wants to extend that by another two decades, to the end of November 2044.
The agency believes that can be achieved through an amendment to the existing license, under federal Part 72 regulations addressing renewal of NRC licenses, rather than a full renewal request that would entail a more extensive environmental and safety review.
“Because neither the facility nor any Part 72 important to-safety components exist, a license amendment to extend the license term is necessary, a license renewal is not,” according to the DOE presentation for the meeting.
None of the participants Thursday discussed potential plans to build the facility, and DOE’s Idaho Operations Office did not respond to queries by deadline for RadWaste Monitor.
During the discussion, Banovac made passing reference to the possibility that the facility might never be built.
The independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at Idaho would hold three tranches of used fuel already in storage elsewhere at the Idaho National Laboratory: roughly 1,600 elements from the retired reactor Unit 1 at the Peach Bottom power plant in Pennsylvania; about the same count of elements of Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics (TRIGA) spent fuel; and 2,970 fuel rods from the Shippingport facility, also in Pennsylvania and fully decommissioned, the nation’s first full-scale, fully commercial nuclear power plant.
The facility would be built in the southeast section of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, not far from a separate ISFSI for waste from the famously partially melted down Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.
The Spent Fuel Facility would consist of three main sections: an area to receive the used-fuel storage casks for repackaging into new canisters, an area for transferring them to storage tubes, and the storage area itself.
Much of the discussion Thursday involved the schedule for submission and review of the application, and whether a license amendment would be sufficient. Nothing was decided, with at least one further meeting planned before the paperwork is filed.
The package that would be provided to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would include updates to the final safety analysis report for the facility, the environmental report, and other programs impacted by the extended lifetime of the storage facility, according to Brian Gutherman, a consultant with Spectra Tech.
The Energy Department presentation shows the license amendment being filed in the third quarter of 2023, and accepted for full review by the NRC the following quarter. The agency’s requests for additional information would be submitted to DOE in the first quarter of 2024, answered by the following quarter, and the amendment would be issued in the third quarter of 2024.
That nominally leaves at least two months of additional time if the proceeding goes past the Energy Department’s schedule, before the existing license expires.
Banovac said a one-year turnaround is “doable,” but the schedule would be tight. It assumes only one round of requests for additional information, she said.
There is also the potential for outside parties to request intervention and a hearing in the proceeding, which could extend the timeline.
During the call, the DOE and Spectra Tech representatives indicated they are open to delivering the application earlier. One option would be to adhere to the necessary schedule for submitting a timely renewal application, by third-quarter 2022, even if the process involves a license amendment, said Steve Ahrendts, facility director for the DOE Idaho Operations Office.
“Certainly that application date could be adjusted if the NRC believes they need to have more time to consider this” license amendment request, he said . “We could certainly get that in a little earlier.”
