CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A Holtec International executive said Monday that the company is reviewing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s communication with Waste Control Specialists to make sure Holtec’s eventual application to operate a consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in New Mexico does not lack the additional information WCS is now relaying to the regulator.
Holtec Vice President of Corporate Business Development Joy Russell, speaking at Nuclear Energy Insider’s Nuclear Decommissioning and Used Fuel Strategy Summit here, explained her company’s decision to extend the application timeline twice. Holtec is now eyeing a submission date in March.
“As the WCS people can attest to, it’s a long, arduous process, and when they received their (requests for supplemental information from the NRC), we took the time,” Russell said “We’re evaluating those (requests for supplemental information). It would be very foolish of us to put our application in and get the same (requests). So we look at it as a – this a marathon, this isn’t a sprint. The end goal is to get a license. The initial goal is to submit an application that doesn’t get rejected, that the NRC finds to be suitable, then to obviously get a license.”
Waste Control Specialists submitted its own application for an interim storage facility in West Texas in April. The NRC in July determined that the company’s 3,000-page application lacked some technical details required for the regulator to conduct a full license review, and requested additional information. WCS anticipates submitting the final round of responses in October, though President and CEO Rod Baltzer, who also appeared in Charlotte, said that timeline might be extended.
“We expect them to do a thorough, complete review,” Baltzer said. “They’ve asked for a lot of information through that process. I think both of us want this to happen in a timely manner. There has been a lot of interest, congressional hearings and other things. (Energy Secretary Ernest) Moniz has asked about some of these specific projects, as well. So I think both of us just want a quality application that’s very timely, and that’s exactly what’s expected.”
WCS plans to build the 40,000-metric-ton-capacity facility, with a 40-year NRC license, above ground near the New Mexico border, while Holtec hopes to build a 70,000-metric-ton capacity facility near Carlsbad. The facilities could likely fall under the Energy Department’s consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage, which is the Obama administration’s alternative to the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
That siting process, as drawn up, envisions a pilot storage facility by 2021; one or more larger, interim facilities by 2025; and at least one permanent geologic repository by 2048. Many stakeholders suspect the Yucca Mountain licensing process could be revived following the November elections, as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has led the fight against Yucca, is set to retire in January. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and panel member Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) have been setting the table for congressional action in resuming the NRC licensing process. Shimkus and Upton urged Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in March to “expeditiously” restart the Yucca Mountain licensing process with the NRC. They also sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), requesting a congressional audit to see what financial resources are available to the NRC should the licensing process restart.
Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force Chairman John Heaton, who spoke alongside Russell, discussed the nuclear waste stalemate in Washington, and the prospect of coming to a solution to the over 70,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel now stranded at sites around the country.
“There are some 40 states that have a nuclear waste problem of one sort or another, and it’s amazing to me that this many states, this many interested people, can’t get together and put a resolution together … and make this thing happen,” Heaton said. “If we worked our own people in our own states, this would happen. We work them at home. When we’re in Washington, something happens to their brains.”
