The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said it would conduct a full technical review of Holtec International’s application for a license to build and operate an interim spent-fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico.
The Camden, N.J.-based energy technology company filed its application on March 30, 2017, for authorization to store as much as 8,680 metric tons of used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors under a 40-year license. It says its planned facility, built in partnership with the local Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, could ultimately hold up to 120,000 metric tons of spent fuel now stored on-site at nuclear power plants around the country. Holtec would have to request license amendments if it wants to expand beyond the initial storage amount.
NRC staff spent nearly a year on its acceptance review of the application, including a request for supplemental safety and environmental information from Holtec. The nuclear industry regulator received the information by December.
“The NRC staff reviewed your application, as supplemented, and concluded it provides sufficient information for docketing; and for the staff to begin a detailed safety, security, and environmental review,” Michael Layton, director of the NRC’s Division of Spent Fuel Management, wrote in a letter dated Feb. 28 to Holtec Licensing Manager Kimberly Manzione.
In a news release, the agency cautioned that beginning the review does not guarantee approval of the license for the HI-STORE CIS (consolidated interim storage) facility.
The evaluations are expected to be complete by July 2020, Layton said, assuming Holtec provides “timely and high-quality” responses within 60 days of any further requests for additional information. Initial requests for additional information could be issued from March through August. If more information is needed, the NRC will seek that starting in February 2019.
Holtec hopes to begin receiving spent fuel in 2022 at the Lea County facility, midway between the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. The site would use the HI-STORM UMAX storage system – short for Holtec International Storage Module Underground MAXimum Capacity – which is designed to be compatible with all currently certified spent fuel storage canisters, which would be stored vertically beneath the grade of the storage pad.
“We are now implementing our vision. We are committed to providing access to the licensed HI-Store CIS to every nuclear plant who chooses to engage with us regardless of the identity of the original canister supplier,” Holtec Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Pierre Oneid said Friday in a written statement.
The first phase of the project is expected to cost $180 million, the company said.
Critics have warned of the dangers of moving radioactive waste potentially thousands of miles to the New Mexico facility. “Up to now, it’s been Holtec talking to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the last 11 months,” Don Hancock, nuclear programs director for the Albuquerque-based nongovernmental Southwest Research and Information Center, told The Associated Press. “Now the public is going to be able to get involved.”
At its maximum intended capacity, the facility could hold the nation’s current stockpile of more than 75 metric tons of used reactor fuel. Interim storage at a small number of sites is viewed as an option to consolidate all that radioactive waste until a permanent repository is built.
The U.S. Energy Department is mandated under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to find a permanent home for the nation’s growing stockpile of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste, but has made little progress on licensing and building the repository in the last 36 years. As of Jan. 31 of this year, DOE was 20 years behind its legal deadline to begin accepting the waste. Meanwhile, the federal government has already incurred more than $6 billion in liability payments to nuclear utilities forced in the interim to manage the spent fuel.
Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists in April 2016 submitted its own license application to build a consolidated interim storage facility with capacity of up to 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel at its disposal complex in West Texas. The company asked the NRC a year later to suspend the review ahead of the then-pending federal bench trial on its acquisition by nuclear services provider EnergySolutions, of Salt Lake City. A federal judge blocked the deal, but Waste Control Specialists was acquired in January by private equity firm J.F. Lehman. There has been no official word since then regarding whether the company will resume its license application.
Representatives for Waste Control Specialists and J.F. Lehman did not respond to requests for an update on their plans by deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
