The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested additional information from the Department of Energy regarding its request for a two decade-year extension to the license for storage of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The Energy Department currently has NRC authorization to hold waste from the Pennsylvania plant’s Unit 2 in Idaho through March 19, 2019. License renewal would stretch that to march 19, 2039, though DOE has pledged in an agreement with the state of Idaho to relocate the waste by Jan. 1, 2035.
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) holds 341 canisters of spent nuclear fuel core debris left by the partial meltdown of the Pennsylvania reactor in March 1979. The license extension would not involve increasing the size of the storage pad or bringing in additional waste. DOE has said.
As part of the environmental review of the license extension, the NRC requested nine pieces of additional information by Oct. 16, including: the status of consultations on the matter with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and the Idaho state government; additional details on transportation and other activities that would be involved in eventual removal of the fuel debris from the Idaho National Laboratory; details on decommissioning operations of the storage pad once the fuel core debris is moved; and the source of tornado frequency noted in an earlier document.
The NRC expects to make a decision on the license extension next May, a spokesman said.
