The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has submitted the first of what is likely to be several requests for additional information on Holtec International’s license application to build and operate a facility for storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors.
The agency’s Sept. 13 letter to Holtec encompasses more than 90 distinct requests, primarily on highly technical components of the company’s March 30, 2017, application. It covers the license application overall, Holtec’s safety analysis report, and various parts of the emergency response plan for the site.
The agency expects Holtec to respond to the questions on the safety analysis report within 30 days, but is giving the company 60 days to answer the other requests.
Agency “staff expects to issue its first round of RAIs in several parts,” Jose Cuadrado, project manager for the NRC’s Spent Fuel Licensing Branch, wrote in the letter to Holtec Licensing Manager Kimberly Manzione. “The enclosed RAIs only address selected portions of the NRC staff review completed to date, and additional RAIs will be issued in the future as the staff’s detailed review progresses.”
The first round of requests should wrap up this month, according to Cuadrado.
Among the questions:
- The NRC wants Holtec to justify its decision against citing a time limit for return of a spent-fuel canister to the generating facility or other licensed site if it cannot be stored in New Mexico.
- Holtec must show how its thermal analysis addressed the effects of cask array size and meteorological conditions on inlet air temperature.
- The company is also required to clarify whether ferritic steels used in manufacturing lifting systems and the cask transfer crane will be required to undergo drop weight or Charpy impact testing.
- The agency wants data to back up Holtec’s determination that the halide content in the air of the facility would have a “negligible” likelihood of contributing to stress corrosion cracking of stainless steel.
Holtec, an energy technology company based in Camden, N.J., applied for a 40-year license for underground storage of up to 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel. The company’s project could ultimately encompass well over 100,000 metric tons of radioactive waste, which might remain on-site until the Department of Energy meets its legal mandate to build a permanent disposal facility.
The NRC began its technical review of the application on Feb. 28, covering environmental, safety, and security issues. The application has been hotly contested in public meetings around New Mexico last spring and in thousands of comments submitted to the NRC. A number of groups have petitioned to intervene in the NRC proceeeding, while two submissions urge the regulator to dismiss the application in whole. Supporters emphasize the facility’s safety and economic benefits to the region, while opponents highlight the potential dangers posed by transport and storage of highly radioactive materials.
