The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday unanimously approved the final rule for the “Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel,” formerly known as the Waste Confidence rulemaking, in a vote that paved the way for the resumption of nuclear plant licensing and re-licensing decisions. The commissioners’ votes changed only minor language details in the final rule as presented by the Staff in late July, while praising the Staff’s methodology to determine that the continued storage of nuclear fuel on-site for 60 years and beyond a reactor site’s operating life would have a limited environmental impact. “Specifically, I agree that the revised rule is the best means to preserve the efficiency of the NRC’s licensing process by adopting generic determinations of the environmental impacts of the continued storage of spent nuclear fuel beyond the licensed life for the operation of reactors,” Commissioner William Ostendorff said in his voting record. “The statement of considerations carefully explains that the rule does not authorize any licensing action. Instead, the GEIS will contribute, along with numerous other evaluations, to future licensing actions.”
The NRC’s proposed waste confidence ruling, released last year, found that spent fuel can be stored on site for 60 years past a reactor’s licensed life. When the NRC first issued a revised waste confidence rule 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. In 2012, though, a federal court found the NRC’s rule deficient and mandated an updated version, along with an environmental impact statement. In response, the NRC based its draft revised rule on a generic environmental impact statement that found the environmental impact of storing spent fuel on-site was small in most categories. This final rulemaking, though, removed language concerning a timeline for the availability of a repository after the Commission determined that was outside the NRC’s regulation jurisdiction.
The vote was praised by House Republican lawmakers for its ability to get licensing decisions back on track. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), along with other House Energy leaders, sent the NRC a letter back in July inquiring about the timetable of the Waste Confidence decision-making and how the delays have affected the timeliness of license renewals in an effort to draw urgency to the decision-making. They welcomed the NRC’s decision yesterday: “This action is a welcome step in getting our nuclear future back on track. The NRC can resume fulfilling its core function of issuing licenses, and the commission’s first priority should be completing all pending licenses safely and as soon as possible,” Upton, Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), and Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said in a joint statement.
