NASHVILLE — A Waste Control Specialists-Orano team could be within days of formally refiling a license application for consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel in West Texas, an executive said Thursday.
The companies have previously said they would revive Waste Control Specialists’ suspended license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of the second quarter on June 30.
“We’ll restart the licensing process by the end of June, but I would expect perhaps a bit sooner than that,” David Carlson, Waste Control Specialists president and chief operating officer, said here at the ExchangeMonitor’s Decommissioning Strategy Forum. “So keep your ears open, that could happen very shortly.”
Speaking to RadWaste Monitor on the sidelines of the conference, Carlson said he could not discuss a more detailed schedule: “It’s coming at us very quickly.”
Waste Control Specialists in April 2016 filed its license application with the NRC to build and operate a facility at its Andrews County waste disposal complex with capacity for 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel. The company in April 2017 asked the regulator to suspend the license review, citing the anticipated $7.5 million price tag. At the time WCS was waiting on closure of its contested sale from holding company Valhi Inc. to waste disposal rival EnergySolutions. The Justice Department had sued on antitrust grounds to block the merger of the two low-level radioactive waste disposal providers, and a federal judge in June 2017 ruled against the deal.
Private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co. subsequently acquired Waste Control Specialists in January. The new management then decided to move forward with the license application, this time in partnership with Orano (formerly AREVA) as Interim Storage Partners. AREVA had previously been part of the team for the project but now steps up to full partner under its new name.
“Orano brings that experience with spent fuel that we don’t have. We’re a site, we’re a waste disposal site,” Carlson said.
The two companies will submit a cover letter and revised application, primarily reflecting the new structure of the joint venture, Carlson said. The technical approach to storage would remain the same, he added.
The license could be issued in late 2021 or 2022, according to Carlson, though he cautioned that is a preliminary schedule. “Once we have some feedback form the NRC we’ll be able to come up with a reasonable schedule for when we can get through the licensing process.”
The facility would develop in eight phases, each for 5,000 metric tons of waste in dry-cask storage on concrete pads. The license would initially last 40 years, with an option for a 20-year extension.
The WCS-Orano interim storage site, along with another facility planned by Holtec International in southeastern New Mexico, could give the Department of Energy places to put spent fuel until it fulfills its 1982 congressional mandate to build a permanent repository for the waste.
Carlson emphasized that interim storage is intended to complement, not compete with, final disposal of the spent fuel.
