The Department of Energy and the state of Idaho on Tuesday sealed a deal that would allow some spent nuclear fuel to remain at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) past the deadline set under a 1995 agreement.
The 25-year-old Settlement Agreement between the state, the Energy Department, and the Navy requires that all federally managed spent fuel be removed from Idaho by Jan. 1, 2035.
As of this week, the Energy Department has been given some breathing room to manage used fuel generated through continued operation of the Advanced Test Reactor at INL. The nearly 53-year-old facility is used for government and commercial research and testing on nuclear fuels and materials, including on fuel that powers naval aircraft carriers and submarines.
“Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph C.1 of the 1995 Agreement, after January 1, 2035, the DOE may maintain a volume of SNF at INL associated with operation … of the ATR operating canal for a timeframe reasonably necessary for thermal cooling, but in any event not to exceed six (6) years,” the new agreement says.
However, that used fuel must be taken out of state within one year of being transferred from wet storage to dry storage, it adds.
Four hundred fuel elements are currently in the canal for cooling. Of those, 80 are ready for transfer to dry storage at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. In total, roughly 303.78 metric tons heavy metal of used nuclear fuel is in dry storage at INL. Material from the Advanced Test Reactor comprises about 2 metric tons of that amount.
The reactor is projected to use no more than 90 fuel elements per year.
The state-federal agreement set the terms and schedule for removal of different types of radioactive wastes from what was then the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). It established the January 2035 deadline for removal of all spent fuel, covering naval material and waste shipped from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania following the 1979 partial meltdown of one of its reactors.
The parties disagreed on whether a specific provision in the 1995 deal applied to the used-fuel cooling canal for the Advanced Test Reactor. Section E.8 directed the Energy Department to by the end of 1999 begin negotiations with the state to transfer all spent fuel at the lab out of wet storage. The deadline for completion of that process was Dec. 31, 2023, though the deal gave the federal agency an escape clause if it determined that the transfer would be “technically infeasible” or pose a safety or environmental hazard. Under those conditions, the department could propose a new date or other option to the state, and take the matter to court if it remained at odds with Idaho’s political leadership.
“The parties agreed to disagree on the applicability of paragraph E.8 to operations at the ATR canal,” according to Scott Graf, spokesman for Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. “The parties agreed, however, that providing certainty to the DOE and the state on how spent nuclear fuel would be managed in the ATR canal was preferable to litigating the issue.”
The sides had been discussing the matter for more than a year, Graf said by email Thursday. The Energy Department in December 2018 directly asked the state to sign off on allowing used fuel produced by the Advanced Test Reactor after 2019 to remain in wet storage past 2023. Participants in the negotiations included representatives for Gov. Brad Little and Wasden, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, various branches of the Energy Department, and members of Idaho’s delegation to Congress.
The agreement goes into effect after being signed by all participants, which happened on Tuesday. The signatories were Little, Wasden, and DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal.
“I’m pleased with this agreement because it provides certainty to our state regarding how the Department of Energy will manage this particular spent nuclear fuel while also creating an ongoing system of accountability,” Wasden said in a state press release. “It’s a win-win because it also provides the department with the certainty to continue operating this important research facility at INL.”
Along with loosening the 2035 deadline, under the new deal, spent nuclear fuel produced by the reactor after Jan. 1, 2018, can be held in the canal to cool for up to six years before being transferred to dry storage.
Starting this year, the Energy Department must submit annual reports to the state by May 1 regarding how much used fuel is stored in the cooling canal and the specific date at which an individual fuel element was found to be spent fuel. Technical assessments are also required to ensure it remains viable.
Should DOE fail to meet the terms of this week’s deal, the parties will accept that Section E.8 applies to used nuclear fuel in the Advanced Test Reactor canal.
This week’s pact comes three months after the Energy Department and state announced an agreement paving the way for new shipments of spent nuclear fuel to the Idaho National Laboratory. Specifically, after beginning operations of the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at INL, the federal agency would get a one-time waiver to ship in 25 used fuel rods to be used for research on commercial nuclear fuel.