By John Stang
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff expect next spring to issue draft environmental impact statements (EIS) for two planned consolidated interim storage sites for used fuel from nuclear power plants.
The environmental documents are central to the agency’s decision on whether to issue licenses for construction and operation of the facilities.
The draft EIS for Holtec International’s planned facility in southeastern New Mexico is expected to be issued in March, followed by a corresponding report on Interim Storage Partners’ proposed West Texas site in May, John McKirgan, chief of the NRC’s Spent Fuel Licensing Branch, said during a Dec. 3 agency meeting on transportation of spent fuel.
Each draft EIS will be followed by a public comment period of 60 to 90 days, with meetings to be held in Hobbs, N.M., and Andrews County, Texas. The final version of the environmental impact statements would be expected roughly one year later — translating to March 2021 for the Holtec project and May 2021 for the ISP project, according to the NRC.
Agency staff reports released since June for both license applications offer a broad overview of the scope of each environmental impact statement. Topics to be addressed include: the impacted environment at each location, encompassing air quality, geology and soils, water resources, socioeconomics, historic and cultural resources, and other matters; evaluation of impacts from the entire life cycle of the facility; and potential mitigation measures for those effects.
A separate safety report for Holtec’s project is due to be completed in March 2021. The corresponding report for the ISP licensing is anticipated by May 2021. Those documents would cover matters such as the criteria for a facility to accept outside fuel, plus engineering considerations for designing the site and for dealing with accident scenarios.
Interim Storage Partners — a joint venture by Waste Control Specialists of Texas and the American branch of France-based nuclear company Orano — hopes to obtain an initial 40-year NRC license in 2021 or 2022 for its operation. The facility would be built on the WCS waste disposal complex, near the state border with New Mexico. The tentative construction completion date is 2023 or 2024, beginning with 5,000 metric tons of licensed storage capacity. The site could ultimately hold 40,000 metric tons of capacity, potentially licensed for up to 120 years.
Meanwhile, Holtec International hopes by 2023 to open the initially licensed part of its used fuel facility, with underground-storage capacity for 8,680 metric tons between the cities of Hobbs and Carlsbad in New Mexico. Its total capacity could eventually exceed 100,000 metric tons.
Holtec has partnered on its project with the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a coalition of the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs and Eddy and Lea counties. But state officials under the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), elected in November 2018, have opposed the project, warning of dangers to the oil, gas, and agriculture industries in southeastern New Mexico.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has not offered his opinion directly on the Interim Storage Partners plan, but has expressed concern about bringing additional types of radioactive waste into the state.
