The Sierra Club will be allowed to argue one environmental contention against U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of a facility in West Texas for temporary storage of spent reactor fuel from nuclear power reactors.
An NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that the environmental organization had proved standing for intervention and an adjudicatory hearing in the licensing proceeding. However, it allowed just one of 17 contentions filed by the Sierra Club last November.
In that contention, the Sierra Club asserted that the environmental report included in the license application from Interim Storage Partners insufficiently considered what impact the storage site might have on the habitats of the dune sagebrush and Texas hound lizards, according to an NRC press release Friday.
The Sierra Club will now be able to present this case in a hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, though the hearing had not been scheduled as of Friday.
The three-judge panel also found that a number of other groups had proven standing during oral arguments in July, but had not submitted admissible contentions, making the point moot. Those petitioners were Beyond Nuclear; the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition; and regional oil and gas concerns the Permian Basin Land and Royalty Organization and Fasken Land and Minerals. The Seed Coalition was one of several environmental organizations that jointly filed for a hearing; the other members did not prove standing, according to the licensing board.
All the organizations can appeal the decision to the commission.
Interim Storage Partners is a joint venture of Waste Control Specialists and the U.S. branch of French nuclear company Orano. It is seeking a 40-year NRC license for 5,000 metric tons of spent fuel to be stored on the Waste Control Specialists disposal complex in Andrews County, but the facility is designed for up to 40,000 metric tons. With extensions in the license, it could operate for up to 120 years.
The federal agency’s full technical review is expected to be completed by May 2021, preceding a ruling on the license application.
