Providing effective oversight for safe and secure interim storage of high-level radioactive waste until a permanent repository is operational will be a key challenge for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said in a report to President Barack Obama, which was released publicly Wednesday.
The agency’s Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2016 also detailed recent NRC activities tied to Yucca Mountain, the Nevada high-level waste repository the Obama administration canceled in 2010. Those activities included issuing in May a supplement to the Energy Department’s environmental impact statement (EIS) for Yucca Mountain, which found that impacts to groundwater from any potential spent nuclear fuel leaks and high-level nuclear waste at the geologic repository would be “small.”
In August, the agency publicized nearly 3.7 million documents from the adjudicatory hearing on DOE’s Yucca Mountain license application in its ADAMS online documents database. The documents were formerly included in the Licensing Support Network (LSN), which NRC created to allow public access to documents needed for the hearing on DOE’s construction application. The LSN was shut down when the hearing was suspended in September 2011. The new LSN Library, available in ADAMS, includes enhanced search capabilities as well as an online user’s guide, according to NRC.
Though it was not detailed in the report, the NRC last month formalized plans to spend $700,000 of $1.27 million in its remaining Yucca Mountain funds to update repository analysis documents, which the agency said would put it in a better position should licensing activities resume. Since 2013, the NRC has spent $12.1 million of the available $13.37 in Nuclear Waste Fund money dedicated to Yucca Mountain.
In replacing the Yucca Mountain plan, the Obama administration’s Energy Department this year has been laying the groundwork for a consent-based siting program for nuclear waste. 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. Additionally, two private companies, Waste Control Specialists and Holtec International, are pursuing NRC licenses for interim spent nuclear fuel storage facilities in West Texas and southeast New Mexico, respectively. For now, though, nuclear waste continues to accumulate in storage at more than 100 American nuclear reactor sites, with recent totals recorded at 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel.
“Due to the uncertainty surrounding Yucca Mountain, the proposed permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste, NRC has been reviewing the issues associated with storing high-level radioactive waste at reactor sites for the foreseeable future,” the NRC report reads.
President-elect Donald Trump is exploring restarting the licensing process for Yucca Mountain, according to a source close to the Trump transition team. Politico Pro on Friday reported that DOE remains opposed to Yucca Mountain, calling the site “unworkable,” a term the department has repeatedly used. DOE has said in the past that it plans to release its draft consent-based siting process before the end of 2016, though the program could lose its momentum under the Trump administration.
