Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is recommending rejection of two separate motions for dismissal of license applications for facilities to store spent nuclear reactor fuel in Texas and New Mexico.
The commission should dismiss the motion from the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear and a joint filing from Fasken Land and Minerals and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners “for failure to comply with NRC requirements,” according to the staff response, dated Sept. 24 and posted to the agency website on Tuesday.
The NRC is reviewing Holtec International’s application for a southeastern New Mexico storage facility with an anticipated maximum capacity for over 170,000 metric tons of spent fuel, along with an application from Orano-Waste Control Specialists joint venture Interim Storage Partners (ISP) for a 40,000-metric-ton-capacity site in West Texas.
The dismissal motions filed earlier this month argue the license applications violate the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act requirement that a permanent disposal facility be available before the Department of Energy becomes responsible for transport or storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear reactors.
Staff at the NRC noted that Beyond Nuclear and other groups had previously made a similar case against the license application for the Texas project when it was headed solely by Waste Control Specialists.
“The Commission unequivocally stated at the time that a petition to intervene is the appropriate place to raise concerns with a license application, including the legal argument that an application is inconsistent with the NWPA,” staff said. That should be its position in this case as well, according to the recommendation.
Staff added that both dismissal motions came in after the 10-day time frame set under federal regulations “of the circumstances from which the motion arises.”
Beyond Nuclear has also petitioned to intervene in the NRC licensing review for Holtec and intends to do so for the ISP application. It also expects to petition the NRC to be allowed to respond to the staff finding. “We’re going to fight them at every turn,” Kevin Kamps, the organization’s radioactive waste watchdog, said in a telephone call.
There was no schedule for a decision by the five-person commission on the license application dismissal motions and staff recommendation, NRC spokesman David McIntyre said Tuesday.
