SUMMERLIN, Nev. — Disposal of spent fuel is crucial to the domestic nuclear industry and will be among the Trump administration’s priorities in this sector, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Edward McGinnis said Tuesday.
“The back end is a key pillar of our nuclear sector,” McGinnis said in the opening plenary to the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit.
Spent fuel disposal is the last leg of the nuclear life cycle that include uranium mining and electricity generation, McGinnis said later on the sidelines of the conference. The government is obligated by federal legislation to dispose of this waste, the DOE official noted.
A 26-year department veteran, McGinnis described the Trump administration as committed to nuclear energy and restarting the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. “This is our moment for decisive action” to find a permanent solution for the nation’s stockpile of spent reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste, he said.
“We must stop kicking the can on the back end,” rather than leaving the issue to the next generation, according to McGinnis.
Congress in 1987 directed the Energy Department to build the Yucca Mountain repository, but progress has been halting in the decades since. The Trump administration has reversed its predecessor’s effort to kill the project in favor of a “consent-based” plan for nuclear waste storage. The White House for fiscal 2018 has requested $120 million for the Department of Energy and $30 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume licensing activities on the site. The House of Representatives effectively backed the request in its energy spending plan, while Senate appropriators have zeroed out all funding for the project for the budget year starting Oct. 1.
With no yearlong budget in sight, Congress this week approved a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operational through Dec. 8. It sustains federal funding at current levels, meaning no new money for Yucca Mountain.
While waiting for Congress to resolve the matter, DOE is continuing to work on means to improve the storage, transportation, and ultimate disposal of spent fuel, McGinnis said: “There is quite a bit that we can do now.”
Regardless of what happens with congressional appropriations, DOE is continuing its focus on R&D for transportation and high burnup fuel, according to McGinnis.
During the question-and-answer session, Washington, D.C.-based energy attorney Jeff Merrifield, a former NRC commissioner, said it will also be important for the NRC to reassemble a new team of support staff for the Yucca Mountain license process after years of inactivity.
McGinnis said repeatedly during his presentation that too much emphasis can be placed on funding levels in government operation.
“It is not just a function of money. It is a function of innovation,” he said. He acknowledged, however, that a continuing resolution would temporarily hold up deployment of new projects.
During a Thursday presentation at the RadWaste Summit, House Energy and Commerce Committee staff member Andy Zach noted congressional support for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. The aim there is to consolidate used reactor fuel now stored at nuclear plants around the country until the permanent repository is built.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee in June voted 49-4 in favor of legislation intended to promote opening of Yucca Mountain, but only after it was amended to allow DOE to contract for temporary spent fuel storage before the NRC rules on the Yucca application.
The NRC is currently conducting an acceptance review of a license application from Holtec International to build and operate a southeastern New Mexico facility with capacity for up to 120,000 metric tons of spent fuel. Waste Control Specialists also submitted a license application for a 40,000-metric-ton-capacity storage site in West Texas, but earlier this year asked the NRC to suspend review of the application.
Zach sidestepped questions on whether the Senate would advance the Yucca Mountain repository, saying he had worked for Congress long enough not to speculate on what the other chamber might do.
