NRC TO HOLD FIRST PUBLIC MEETING ON WASTE CONFIDENCE

The first of 12 public meetings on the Waste Confidence proposed rule and generic environmental impact statement will be held Oct. 1 at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Rockville headquarters. The NRC appears to be standing behind its 2010 determination that spent fuel can be safely stored for 60 years. The draft revised rule states, “The Commission proposes to conclude that the analysis generically addresses the environmental impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel beyond the licensed life for operation of a reactor and supports the determinations that it is feasible to safely store spent nuclear fuel beyond the licensed life for operation of a reactor and to have a mined geologic repository within 60 years following the licensed life for operation of a reactor.”

 

The NRC based its draft revised rule on a recently released draft generic environmental impact statement that found the environmental impact of storing spent fuel on-site was small in most categories. When the NRC first issued a revised Waste Confidence in 2010, the Commission extended the length of time assumed to be safe for storage of spent fuel at a reactor site from 30 to 60 years. Last year, though, a federal court found the NRC’s rule “deficient” and mandated an updated version, along with an environmental impact statement. The public meetings are part of a 75-day public comment period on the proposed rule and generic environmental impact statement. The meeting on Tuesday will be held in the First Floor Commission Hearing Room at 2 p.m.