By John Stang
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a significant reduction in the number of hours dedicated annually to inspection of loading operations for used fuel into dry-cask storage at the nation’s nuclear power plants.
At least one member, Commissioner Jeff Baran, expressed concerns about the potential change during a public briefing last month.
The commission in June formed an internal working group, featuring staff from headquarters in Rockville, Md., and the four regional offices, to conduct an agency-wide study on increasing operational efficiencies.
The group recommended the NRC spend 35 hours per year on inspecting each loading operation of used nuclear fuel from cooling pools into long-term dry storage, down from the current 62 hours. That would reduce the dry storage site inspectors from 2.94 full-time equivalents (FTE) to 1.56, with one FTE equaling 1,500 hours per year of inspecting. These inspections are conducted once every two years by a combination of regional and headquarters staffers, with several making up the FTE figures.
The inspections cover operations ranging from preoperational tests to the actual movement of fuel to long-term monitoring of that radioactive material in storage containers.
The 47 percent inspection reduction was backed by representative from three regions on the working group. However, staffers from Atlanta-based Region II recommended an 88 percent decrease due to cost-saving concerns. The 88-percent-decrease would have also included a recommendation that local NRC inspectors tackle a larger share of the dry-storage facilities, instead of having outside inspectors do that work.
So far, no formal proposals with cost figures and public hearing dates have been unveiled, said NRC spokesman David McIntyre. The agency aims to implement the changes by 2021.
The potential reduction is part of a general look at cutting expenses at the nuclear industry regulator. The concept is that the inspectors would focus on the higher-risk subjects and spend less time on lower-risk ones.
“I think a question we have to ask ourselves as part of this process is that small amount of savings really worth reducing public confidence in the safety of dry storage in the communities around the country,” Baran said during the Dec. 4 meeting.
He noted that as more nuclear power plants are retired, the amount of fuel in dry storage will grow. There is currently roughly 82,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel in 3,000 dry-storage canisters at 73 nuclear power facilities, according to the Department of Energy. That amount grows by 2,000 to 2,500 metric tons, and 200 canisters, each year.
The other commissioners did not voice opinions on the inspection reduction during the session.
Baran wondered what the public would think of a potential decrease in inspection hours.
“I think if you step back and take a look at more broadly at the dry field storage facilities across the nation, the level of interest from local stakeholders, members of the public as well as congressional stakeholders will vary depending on where that particular storage system is in his life cycle,“ said Linda Howell, acting director of the NRC’s Division of Nuclear Materials Safety for Region IV.
She said the public at an active decommissioning site such as the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California would likely be unhappy with a decrease in inspections, while a reactor site with no active spent fuel movement — such as the long-closed Humboldt Bay and Trojan plants — would not have much public interest.
There have been a series of incidents in the used-fuel offload at SONGS, the San Diego County power plant retired in 2013 by majority owner Southern California Edison. Notably, one canister in August 2018 was put at risk of a nearly 20-foot drop into its underground storage slot. The mishap halted the fuel transfer by contractor Holtec International for nearly a year, but it resumed in July and is now more than halfway finished. When the work is complete in mid-2020, roughly 3.5 million pounds of fuel assemblies will be in dry storage at the site.
Local watchdog groups and residents have criticized NRC oversight of the process at SONGS. They have gone to court in so-far unsuccessful attempts to force a halt to the spent-fuel offload.
