The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says its regulatory framework accounts for for potential effects from “changing environmental conditions” on spent fuel storage installations at U.S. nuclear power plants.
The regulator on May 29 responded to an April 23 letter from Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who had expressed concerns about potential impacts of climate change on used fuel storage. The lawmaker highlighted plans for dry storage of spent fuel at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station just 25 feet above sea level and 200 feet from the Atlantic coast. The facility is due to close by May 31, 2019.
“The NRC’s existing regulatory framework accounts for any changing environmental conditions that could cause or accelerate degradation of ISFSIs or otherwise challenge the safety of spent fuel storage,” the agency said in its response to Markey, posted Tuesday to the NRC website. “The NRC’s oversight of licensees’ ISFSI operations ensures the safe storage of spent fuel, regardless of whether an ISFSI is at an operating reactor or a decommissioned reactor site.”
The regulator did not use the term climate change in answering four questions from the lawmaker. But it noted that federal regulations covering licensing for storage of spent fuel mandate that licensees evaluate possible natural dangers in the safety basis document for a storage site or container design. “This includes consideration of potential impacts of natural phenomena such as flooding,” according to the response.
The NRC, in its efforts to improve safety of U.S. reactors in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, studied the potential for storage systems to end up fully or partially underwater. In such cases, the used fuel would be expected to remain cool without any release of radiation, the agency told Markey.
