Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/5/2014
SUMMERLIN, Nev.—EnergySolutions received a two-month extension in the state of Utah’s review of the company’s performance assessment for the disposal of depleted uranium at its Clive, Utah, disposal site. Utah’s Division of Radiation Control originally planned to release on Sept. 8 the Safety Evaluation Report for its evaluation of the PA, but EnergySolutions needed more time to officially document its answers to some of the state’s questions. “We did ask for a two month extension,” EnergySolutions Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Dan Shrum said here this week at this year’s RadWaste Summit. “Since September of 2013, the state of Utah has done an excellent job of keeping the entire project on track, but right at the end, in the last month we kept going back and forth on some issues,” Shrum said. “There were significant concerns for us, not that we weren’t answering the questions, but that we needed to make sure we were documenting our answers. The state has a process for an appeal, and whatever is in the final document, is what can be appealed. We can’t add to that after the submittal. We made a conscience decision to step back, make sure this final report has every questioned answered and every question has been documented with the proper references and things like that.”
A seven-week public comment period would have followed the Utah SER release, with an expected decision date by early December. Now, the timeline remains a little unclear. The state and EnergySolutions need to reschedule two public comment meetings before any final decision can be made. According to Utah’s Division of Radiation Control Director Rusty Lundberg, the extension should make for a better final decision. “From our standpoint, the Utah Division of Radiation Control, it’s an important opportunity to re-evaluate some of the key issues that will inform our final decisions,” Lundberg said at the RadWaste Summit. “Since they have requested this delay, I think it’s prudent for us to recognize that and to be able to have the time. I think it will improve what the public will see to comment on, as well.”
EnergySolutions submitted Clive’s performance assessment for DU back in 2011 following the Utah Radiation Control Board’s 2010 decision to require a quantitative compliance period for DU out to 10,000 years, with a second qualitative review out to peak dose (approximately 2.5 million years). Subsequently, the state required additional information and a revised design for a DU disposal cell, which EnergySolutions resubmitted this summer. According to Shrum, the company expects to be able to begin DU disposal in late 2015. “We believe the public comment period will end at the beginning of 2015,” Shrum said. “The decision will most likely will be appealed, so that should be about a six month process towards the end of 2015. We believe that fall of 2015 we should be able to take depleted uranium.”
