Idaho has two months to make a decision on whether to allow the Department of Energy to ship additional spent nuclear fuel intended for research at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a letter sent to Idaho Gov. Butch Otter this week by the Idaho Department of Commerce Director Jeff Sayer. According to the letter, current Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy John Kotek recently visited the state and highlighted the importance of the research. “[Kotek] indicated the research projects proposed for Idaho are a high priority for his office – high enough priority that in the case of the shipment scheduled for 2016, if Idaho is unable to make a final determination he will be forced to send the research to another national lab,” the letter said. “In fact, Mr. Kotek was clear in stating Idaho has two more months to resolve our issues in order to secure the 2016 shipment of research fuel. Prior conversations with DOE regarding the research projects have always been overshadowed with the concern Idaho could lose the research if we were unable to resolve our concerns. Mr. Kotek’s comments remove ambiguity from this issue and clearly state that what was an earlier speculation is now a definitive reality.”
According to a senior DOE official yesterday, the Department has not issued any definitive decision deadlines on the state, but an internal clock within DOE is ticking on whether the Department needs to find a new location to conduct the research. Controversy erupted earlier this year when DOE sought a waiver that would allow research quantities of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho, but Idaho officials would only allow it if cleanup milestones at Idaho National Laboratory were met. The fuel shipments would be necessary to support Department’s high burnup fuel study, conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute. The research is aimed at better understanding the effects of high burn-up fuel aging on dry storage cask systems and to support DOE’s ongoing research and development to advance understanding of the long-term aging of spent fuel.
