A request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cancel its review of Waste Control Specialists’ application to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for nuclear waste in West Texas is outside the scope of the current proceedings, according to the NRC.
Beyond Nuclear, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition co-authored the Oct. 26 letter to the agency arguing that the terms of the license WCS seeks are precluded by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). The 1982 legislation, as amended in 1987, established Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site to be considered as a national geologic repository for nuclear waste.
The Obama administration canceled Yucca in 2009, eventually opting for a consent-based siting approach that prioritizes interim nuclear waste storage leading up to development of a permanent repository. WCS in April filed its license application with the NRC to build and operate a 40,000-metric-ton-capacity interim storage facility near the New Mexico border.
NRC staff is conducting its acceptance review of the WCS application, which includes reviewing supplemental information it requested from the company after determining the application was incomplete. Additionally, at the company’s request, the agency has initiated its environmental impact statement (EIS) process for the application. The NRC has stressed that triggering the EIS process does not guarantee the agency will docket the application.
The NRC on Dec. 8 sent letters to the groups on behalf of Marc Dapas, director for the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. The letters, which were released publicly Monday, state that the issues concerning the NWPA are beyond the scope of NRC’s acceptance review.
“In conducting this ‘acceptance review,’ the Staff does not consider the technical or legal merits of the application; rather, the Staff’s preliminary review is simply a screening process—a determination whether the license application contains sufficient information for the NRC to begin its safety review,” the letter reads.
If the NRC accepts the application, the letter continues, interested parties will have the opportunity to request a public hearing and petition to intervene in the case. If any potential issues raised are relevant to the NRC’s licensing decision on the application, “they will be considered as part of the NRC’s licensing review, should the NRC staff accept the application for docketing,” the letter states.
“It sounds like we’re just going to have to wait until they formally docket this license application,” Public Citizen’s Allison Fisher said in a telephone interview Friday. “(Our NWPA contention) will probably be the focus of any intervention we pursue in the future, in terms of legality.”
She said the groups have not fully developed a strategy, however, as they are waiting to review WCS’ application, when and if the NRC determines it is complete, following the supplemental information process.
