By Wayne Barber
While he realizes the odds are slim, a state senator from rural Nevada would like to see policymakers seriously consider building an interim nuclear waste storage facility at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), which was long used for nuclear weapons testing.
The prevailing political mindset on high-level nuclear waste in Nevada is “hands off, no way,” Sen. Pete Goicoechea (R) told RadWaste Monitor in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Goicoechea was one of only two members of the Nevada Senate on Wednesday to vote against the state Legislature’s resolution to Congress opposing any federal attempts to make Yucca Mountain the nation’s long-term home for underground storage of high-level nuclear waste. Both senators who voted against the resolution are from Nye County, where Yucca Mountain is located, and they see economic opportunities where others just see trouble.
The lawmaker admits to having his own doubts about Yucca Mountain, such as the general premise of storing spent reactor fuel rods underground indefinitely. With expected advances in nuclear reprocessing technology over time, the spent fuel could eventually be a valuable source of recycled energy. As a result, the government would bury the fuel but, in Goicoechea’s view, decide to dig it up in 50 to 100 years.
The Obama administration canceled work on Yucca Mountain in favor of a “consent-based” program for nuclear waste storage, in which commercial and defense material would be housed in separate repositories in willing communities. The Trump administration, though, has refocused on Nevada: proposing $120 million for fiscal 2018 to resume licensing the repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and to move ahead with work on interim sites that would store the spent fuel for decades until the final destination is ready.
That existing DOE strategy calls for consolidating more than 75,000 metric tons of spent reactor fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants at a handful of locations. Two companies have already submitted license applications with the NRC: Holtec International, for an interim facility in southeastern New Mexico; and Waste Control Specialists, for a site in West Texas, though the company’s owner has recently expressed doubts about obtaining the license.
DOE officials have made clear they are open to other locations for interim storage, and Goicoechea believes the former Nevada Test Site in Nye County should be considered.
The federally controlled 1,360-square-mile facility, which is now home to DOE nuclear stockpile stewardship and other programs, is “super secure,” “somewhat contaminated,” and already stores certain types of radioactive material, Goicoechea said. “There’s no risk of flooding,” he added.
The Nevada National Security Site is about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. While local leaders might fear that any sort of nuclear waste facility could hurt the tourist trade, the rural areas in Goicoechea’s district – including Elko and Lincoln counties – would benefit from the economic investment from construction and operation of the facility, the lawmaker said.
With Yucca Mountain designated as the site of a final underground repository for nuclear waste, the 1982 Nuclear Policy Waste Act does not currently allow an interim site to be located in the same state as the permanent location, Goicoechea said. As a result, an amendment would be required.
The Nevada National Security Site is currently used for disposal of low-level radioactive waste disposed generated by cleanup activities at the site and other DOE and Department of Defense facilities across the country. This waste includes contaminated construction debris, scrap metal, soil, and equipment. Some of this waste includes hazardous constituents, which are regulated by the state of Nevada as delegated by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a DOE website.
When contacted, an official with the office of Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) said the congressional office had not heard from the state senator on this issue.
