An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected an advocacy organization’s petition to submit a late argument against licensing a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas.
The Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition said it should be allowed to file the late contention based on data that was not available at the time of its initial 2018 petition as part of a coalition of environmental groups. However, SEED failed to meet requirements under federal regulations on requests for hearings or intervention before the federal agency, the three-member ASLB ruled on Dec. 13.
Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture of Orano and Waste Control Specialists, is seeking a 40-year NRC license for storage of 5,000 metric tons of used fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants. With additional agency approvals, the facility on the Waste Control Specialists property in Andrews County, Texas, could hold up to 40,000 metric tons of the radioactive waste for 120 years.
A number of environmental and anti-nuclear organizations requested hearings to argue contentions on potential environmental, safety, security, and economic dangers posed by the planned facility. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ultimately rejected all the petitions, including the filing from a group led by Don’t Waste Michigan and featuring SEED.
The quasi-judicial panel, though, determined SEED had standing to intervene in the proceeding. The organization used that opening in October to appeal for a hearing on the late contention. It said a September report from the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board had found that the transport of used fuel into storage would take decades longer than the Texas site’s initial license period.
While SEED framed that as new information, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board concurred with the counterargument from Interim Storage Partners and NRC staff that the data “was either previously available or not materially different from information that was previously available.”
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board report acknowledges certain technical issues must be addressed before all U.S. spent nuclear fuel can be moved from the power plants where it was generated. But that does not mean all those issues must be dealt with, leaving the door open for expedited shipment of some used fuel to Texas, the ASLB said.
