The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with environmental impact review of Waste Control Specialists’ plan to build and operate a 40,000-metric-ton consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas, a senior NRC official told the commission Tuesday. The agency has yet to accept the overall license application, however, as it continues collecting supplemental information from WCS.
The NRC in July told WCS that its 3,000-page license application lacked the technical detail required for the agency to accept it, while issung a request for supplemental information (RSI) from the company. WCS had planned to submit all additional data by Oct. 31 but has extended that timeline to December. Commissioner Jeff Baran asked during a hearing if proceeding with the environmental review signals that agency staff anticipates accepting the application for review.
“No it does not,” responded Marc Dapas, NRC’s director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. “We will conduct a thorough review of the application once we receive all responses for supplemental information and determine whether the application should be docketed for the safety review.”
WCS requested in July that the NRC take up the environmental review while also evaluating the supplemental information. NRC Spent Fuel Management Division Director Mark Lombard said at the time the agency was not ready to make a decision on that request. On Tuesday he reiterated the significance of the decision, saying the regulator has not fielded an application of this magnitude since conducting private fuel storage licensing action 20 years ago.
“In proceeding with the environmental review, it does not mean a foregone conclusion regarding the safety review,” Lombard said, adding that he anticipates WCS providing a complete response to the RSI, so staff can proceed with docketing. The environmental review is expected to take longer than the application’s safety review. “So we want to make sure that if we do decide to accept the application for review we’re able to complete it in three years.”
