The Nuclear Regulatory Commission affirmed to two U.S. senators recently that is only authorized to license the Department of Energy for permanent disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), top members of the Senate Environment and Public Works clean air and nuclear safety, sent a March 19 letter to the agency seeking clarity on the limits of its authority for licensing radioactive disposal.
The senators first asked whether the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, or other NRC rules allow the regulator to consider an application from a private entity for permanent disposal of the two waste types.
“The NRC is not authorized to license any entity other that the Department of Energy (DOE) to permanently dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste,” the agency said in its June 6 response, which was posted last week on the NRC website.
Specifically, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act designates the secretary of energy as the person to submit an application for authorization to build a permanent disposal site. The NRC alone would then rule on the application.
The lawmakers also asked, assuming the NRC is not allowed to take private-entity applications for permanent radioactive waste repositories, whether it could take a corresponding application from a DOE contractor.
The NRC responded in the negative again: “Regardless of whether a private entity is a DOE contractor, the NRC may note license that entity to permanently dispose of spent fuel or high-level radioactive waste for the reasons stated above. DOE may, however, enter into a contract with a private entity to prepare, or to support preparation of, such an application on behalf of DOE, and the existence of such a contract would not affect the NRC’s authority.”
The NRC is currently reviewing two applications from private companies for interim storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear reactors, but those sites are not intended to be permanent. With congressional appropriations, the agency would also resume the long-frozen adjudication of the DOE license application for the planned permanent waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Congress has yet to provide that funding.
Whitehouse and Capito’s offices did not respond to requests for comment about the letter sent to the NRC.
