Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday expressed no objection to a 60-day extension for affected parties to request a hearing on Waste Control Specialists’ license application to build and operate a storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel.
Staff, though, opposed a 120-day extension sought by a coalition of 20 environmental and anti-nuclear organizations. There was no immediate word this week on when the commission might take action on the recommendation.
Waste Control Specialists in April 2016 filed its license application for a planned site in West Texas with the capacity to hold up to 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel and reactor-related Greater Than Class C low-level waste now stranded at nuclear plants around the country. After requesting and receiving supplemental information, the NRC on Jan. 26 formally accepted the application for review; four days later it posted a Federal Register notice that set a March 31 deadline to intervene and request a hearing on the matter.
The Sierra Club on March 3 asked for a 120-day extension of the intervention period, then withdrew the request and joined Waste Control Specialists in seeking a 60-day deadline delay. The nongovernmental Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) on March 10 joined 19 other groups in seeking another 120 days to file to intervene. NIRS said it required additional time to allow experts to review the license application and to alert additional communities that might be impacted by the facility, according to the NRC staff memo.
In its recommendation this week, NRC staff noted that Waste Control Specialists on March 17 submitted revisions to its license application, including an updated safety analysis report (SAR). “The Staff has not yet had the opportunity to determine the extent of the revisions. In light of the timing of this revision in the middle of the intervention period, the Staff does not object to a 60 day extension of the intervention period, to May 30, 2017,” according to the document. “The Staff does, however, object to an extension of 120 days. The basic framework for NRC licensing proceedings is that contentions are filed and admitted based on the application, not on any subsequent Staff review.”
Staff noted that by the end of the 60-day extension, to May 31, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service will have had more than a year to review the license application. It will also “have had a substantial amount of time to examine any revisions in the March 17 submission” from Waste Control Specialists, according to staff, which added that “NIRS has not justified why it needs a 120 day extension.”
NIRS and other organizations have raised a number of concerns about the planned spent fuel site, including potential contamination to groundwater in the nearby Ogallala Aquifer and possible accidents or acts of terrorism involving the material in transport across the nation. Waste Control Specialists management has pushed back, emphasizing the safe track record of spent fuel transport and saying 600 borings have found no drinkable groundwater under its storage complex in Andrews County.
Along with the updated safety analysis report, the revised WCS license application covers changes to the site’s physical security plan, a draft emergency response plan, and other tweaks, according to the March 16 transmittal letter from WCS Vice President of Licensing and Corporate Compliance Michael Ford to NRC Spent Fuel Management Division Director Michael Layton.
The company hopes to receive an NRC license in 2019 and to begin spent fuel storage in 2021.
Separately, Holtec International plans on March 31 to submit its own license application to the NRC for a facility in southeastern New Mexico with a capacity to hold up to 120,000 metric tons of spent fuel.
If approved, the two sites would provide interim storage for the nation’s spent fuel stockpile, which stands at about 75,000 metric tons and is growing by about 2,000 metric tons per year. The Department of Energy is legally required to establish a permanent repository for the material, but that could take decades. While the Obama administration canceled the Yucca Mountain storage facility in Nevada, in favor of separate sites for defense and commercial radioactive waste, the Trump administration is seeking funds to restart NRC licensing for the repository.
