A South Carolina-based venture capitalist backed by a board specializing in nuclear energy intends to submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate an interim spent nuclear fuel storage and reprocessing facility in the Palmetto State.
Mike Stake – owner of personal concierge and handyman service Everything at Stake and chairman of the Aiken County Tea Party – said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he and his board of directors are trying to determine if the concept is “logistically viable.” At the same time, he said the Aiken-based group wants the NRC to know “we’re out here, and we’re serious.”
The group on July 26 sent the agency a letter of intent to submit an application for a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. The NRC responded on Sept. 9, encouraging Stake to hold pre-application meetings with agency staff as the group gets closer to its submittal date. The NRC’s letter also noted that “applicants pay licensing fees for pre-application meetings with NRC staff.” The hourly rate for general staff review time is more than $250. Texas company Waste Control Specialists, for its own spent fuel storage application, scheduled four pre-application meetings. NRC spokeswoman Maureen Conley said four three-hour meetings with 15 agency staff present comes out to more than $45,000.
Stake said he and his board are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the project and NRC fees. The group is still hammering out logistics as far as facility capacity and timeline, he added.
“(The pre-application cost) is significant, and certainly we’re going to have to tap venture capitalists and/or people within the industry that will help continue to fund that,” Stake said, estimating it would take at least a year to complete the application.
It’s unclear what kind of support, if any, such a facility would have in South Carolina, considering that the state is suing the Department of Energy for up to $100 million, demanding that it remove some weapon-grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site in Aiken.
Gov. Nikki Haley also has clashed with DOE over nuclear waste in South Carolina. The Republican governor in March sent a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz demanding the department halt shipment of 730 pounds of weapon-grade plutonium from Japan to the Savannah River Site. She wrote in the letter that the shipment put the state at risk of becoming “a permanent dumping ground for nuclear materials.”
“The last thing I want to do is turn South Carolina into a dump, and South Carolinians will not stand for that,” Stake said. “But the question is: Over half (the state’s) energy is coming from the nuclear industry – what are you going to do about it?”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Robert Yanity said by email Thursday that the agency is aware of “general interest in this issue, but not of a specific proposal.” State permitting for such a facility would depend on “the proposed scope and specific proposed activity,” he added.
Stake said his board of directors and engineers have nuclear backgrounds, describing them as nuclear “historians” – “people who have had 40, 50 years within the industry.” He did not respond with exact background information for this article.
In addition to the Savannah River Site, South Carolina is home to five nuclear reactors, owned by South Carolina Electric & Gas and Duke Energy.
“South Carolina is 55 percent charged with nuclear fuel,” Stake said. “Every day we’re not making less, so we need to find a real solution to our interim storage and also the ultimate waste repository. I don’t want to make South Carolina a repository. I want to get it in, reprocess it, and get it back out as energy.”
According to the Aiken Standard, Stake is “a self-described constitutionalist with libertarian leanings,” who previously served as secretary of the Aiken County Republican Party. In addition to the concierge service, Stake owns American Heritage Limousines in Denver. Stake said Wednesday that his resume includes stints in media, insurance, and real estate, but primarily in hospitality.
If plans move forward Stake’s group would join two other companies looking to build and operate interim storage facilities for nuclear waste. Waste Control Specialists submitted its application in April to the NRC for a 40,000-ton-capacity facility in West Texas, while Holtec International plans to submit an application by March 2017 for a 70,000-metric-ton-capacity facility in southeastern New Mexico.
