A senior executive with AREVA TN said Thursday that if the Conaway Bill, which would free up billions of dollars in federal funding for private interim storage of nuclear waste, will be impossible to ignore if it continues gaining co-sponsors.
Introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas), House Resolution 3643 would allow the Department of Energy to contract private storage companies using annual interest from the $34 billion Nuclear Waste Fund. A GOP aide told RadWaste Monitor in February that the House Energy and Commerce Committee would not consider the bill because it does not address the Yucca Mountain repository, and that the bill’s funding mechanism is incomplete.
Conaway’s district includes Andrews County, Texas, where Waste Control Specialists (WCS) is proposing to build a 40,000-metric-ton-capacity interim storage facility for nuclear waste. The bill currently has 28 co-sponsors, including 12 Democrats. Fourteen of the co-sponsors are from Texas.
Michael McMahon, vice president and project director for WCS partner AREVA TN, appeared Thursday on an interim storage panel at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference in Bethesda, Md. He was asked what plan B is if the Conaway Bill is ultimately a nonstarter.
“We feel that if it keeps getting co-sponsors — I think we’re up to dozens — if we get up to hundreds, it’s going to be very hard for it not to go forward, so it’s a democratic process,” he said. “There are folks who just want to focus on Yucca, but we feel that the bipartisan broad support will move it forward.”
The Department of Energy in December unveiled a three-phase storage siting process that envisions plans for a pilot facility, interim facilities, and eventually one or more permanent repositories. WCS is planning to submit its license application to NRC before May 1, which would put it ahead of Holtec International, a company that has plans of submitting its own application for an interim storage facility in New Mexico, near DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
NRC license review will include safety, technical, and environmental evaluations, which typically takes three years. The review will also require site-specific analysis, which allows the public to request a hearing before the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), a process that could significantly lengthen the review. If and when the ASLB issues a final license, the applicant can begin construction of the facility.
McMahon said Thursday during his presentation that interim storage does not need to be viewed as a competitor to repository plans. With interim, he said, the U.S. would not be limited to relying solely on Yucca Mountain, a failure that has led to onsite storage of about 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at commercial facilities around the country.
“That has stopped the entire system dead,” McMahon said of Yucca. “If you want an intelligent system that works well, you want buffer capacity like we have with interim storage.”
Furthermore, he said, the U.S. will need interim facilities for repackaging fuel if Congress ever decides on a permanent repository. There is more than 20,000 tons of waste in dry storage that will need to be repackaged in order to be moved into a repository, he said.
DOE’s associate principal deputy assistant secretary for Nuclear Energy Raymond Victor Furstenau said during the panel that the department is encouraged by interim storage developments in Texas and New Mexico. The New Mexico House and Senate in February approved nonbinding “memorials” in support of Holtec’s New Mexico proposal with partner Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance.
“This is a positive indication to us that it is possible to get community and state support and that consent-based siting is the best way,” he said.
