SUMMERLIN, NEV. — EnergySolutions’ radioactive waste disposal site in Clive, Utah, may be able to accept depleted uranium from the Department of Energy early next year, a company executive said here this week.
EnergySolutions has worked with DOE Office of Environmental Management waste director Doug Tonkay “to come up with an MOU [memorandum of understanding] for disposal of depleted uranium” at Clive, David Campbell, EnergySolutions executive vice president of business development, said during the Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit 2.0 here.
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality’s Waste Management and Radiation Control Division could hold public comment this September on the permit modification for the low-level waste disposal site in Utah’s west desert, an EnergySolutions spokesperson said. No public hearing has been scheduled yet for the requested permit modification, according to Utah. The company is hopeful to have the permit modified in early 2024.
“The department has plenty of depleted uranium [and] they wanted multiple options in terms of how to dispose of depleted uranium,” Campbell said Tuesday during a presentation.
Once the state gives its approval, the EnergySolutions site could accept uranium-oxide storage cylinders from DOE’s depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) plants at the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, Campbell said.
In April, Waste Control Specialists’ commercial disposal site in Andrews County, Texas received 60 such cylinders from the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Once EnergySolutions’ Clive site gets state approval, DOE would then have two commercial disposal sites to serve the DUF6 plans run by Mid-America Conversion Services, a partnership of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor.
There are about 800,000 metric tons of DUF6 at Portsmouth and Paducah left over from decades of uranium enrichment at DOE’s gaseous diffusion plants. Mid-America converts the DUF6 into a more stable uranium oxide form.
During his presentation, Campbell said in addition to working with DOE and the agency’s contractors it also takes radioactive waste from Northern American electric utilities. It also occasionally collaborates with its rival commercial disposal sites. “We ship waste to our friend at WCS [Waste Control Specialists] all the time” and the same goes for U.S. Ecology.
“We like receiving waste too but we can’t take it all,” Campbell said.
Editor’s note: Third paragraph was modified June 15 to reflect no public hearing has been scheduled yet.
