A federal judge on May 19 authorized the state of Nevada and nuclear power industry representatives to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit demanding the federal government move ahead expeditiously with a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste.
Judge Patrick Higginbotham, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, did not provide the reasoning for his separate rulings in favor of Nevada and a coalition encompassing the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and seven utilities. The intervenors now have until June 30 to file their responses to the Texas lawsuit.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office in March filed suit against the Energy Department, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Treasury Department, along with the heads of each agency. While the lawsuit has many demands, its overall aim is for the court to order that the federal government move ahead with licensing and development of the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada – as demanded by Congress in its 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. That would allow Texas and other states to finally get rid of spent reactor fuel accruing at their nuclear plants.
The parties to the lawsuit are in mediation, with the most recent meeting held on May 15. The U.S. Justice Department referred questions on the process to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, which said Monday it could not comment on a pending case.
Nevada, whose leaders have vehemently opposed the Yucca Mountain project for decades, objected to the Texas lawsuit on all fronts. The concerns from NEI and the utilities focused on two specific requests in the lawsuit: “an order providing Petitioner with restitution from the Nuclear Waste Fund” and “an order disgorging the Nuclear Waste Fund.” They oppose taking any money from the fund, which now holds about $40 billion, that should be used for construction of the Yucca Mountain repository.
In a motion filed Tuesday, lawyers for the federal agencies asked the court to temporarily suspend the case until Sept. 30, 2017, which is the end of the current budget year; or until 30 days following the end of legislative appropriations for the next fiscal year. They said the fiscal 2018 appropriations process started this week could resolve a number of issues raised in the Texas lawsuit – mostly notably, the Trump administration is proposing $110 million for DOE and $30 million for the NRC to resume licensing of Yucca Mountain.
Texas, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and the utilities opposed the motion for abeyance, with Nevada was agnostic, the federal motion says.
The U.S. nuclear industry on Tuesday lauded the White House’s nominees to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which currently has only three of the maximum five members.
“We are deeply appreciative that the president has recognized the outstanding service of Kristine Svinicki, in renominating her as NRC chair,” Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said in a prepared statement. “With the nominations of Annie Caputo and David Wright the Trump administration is staffing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with individuals possessing exceptionally strong backgrounds in nuclear energy and policy.”
The Trump administration on Monday nominated Svinicki to a third term on the commission through June 30, 2022, and to stay on in her role as chairman. Svinicki has been on the commission since 2008, and was elevated to the top spot this year, following stints as a professional staffer for the Senate and as a Department of Energy nuclear engineer in Washington, D.C., and Idaho.
Svinicki’s current term ends on June 30, meaning the Senate would have to move quickly to ensure she stays on without interruption and the commission retains the three members needed for a quorum.
Caputo, a longtime Capitol Hill staffer currently serving as senior policy adviser to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.), would fill out the remainder of a five-year term through June 30, 2021. The former Exelon employee has spent over two decades providing advice on nuclear energy regulations and associated issues in both houses of Congress, according to Monday’s White House announcement.
Wright, a strategic consultant for the energy industry and former state lawmaker in South Carolina, would serve the remainder of a vacant five-year term that ends on June 30, 2020. Wright has led both the South Carolina Public Service Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
“All three nominees are highly credentialed and exceptionally qualified for the Commission with distinguished public service accomplishments,” the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council said in a statement Tuesday. “It is our hope that the Senate mindful of the importance of the NRC’s mission — and critical pending issues such as licensing modernization and reform, an in-progress [small modular reactor] licensing application and current U.S. fleet demands, among others — will act with equal alacrity to ensure that these nominations are approved by June 30.”
Nonbinding votes throughout Cape Cod, Mass., this spring demonstrated strong support for moving spent reactor fuel at the nearby Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station from wet to dry storage, an anti-nuclear advocacy group said Tuesday.
Residents in 14 communities in the region were asked whether their town government should urge Gov. Charlie Baker “to employ all means available” to have spent nuclear fuel at Pilgrim transferred into secure dry casks at the earliest technically feasible opportunity. The votes, taken on ballots and at town meetings in April and May, received no less than 81 percent of support in any given community (the town of Brewster, which supported the question by a vote of 484-92).
“The next step is to pressure the Governor to follow through with the petition,” Diane Turco, executive director of Cape Downwinders, which organized the petition effort, said by email Tuesday. “We do hope the petition is brought to other town governments for support off Cape. Unfortunately the system is rigged such that the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Pilgrim owner Entergy] hold all the cards. But this should not give license to our state government to do nothing.”
The spent fuel pool at Pilgrim was designed for 880 assemblies but now stores more than 2,822 assemblies, according to a release from Cape Downwinders, which cited the threat of terrorist or cyber attacks against spent pool operations.
Patrick O’Brien, spokesman for Pilgrim operator Entergy, said the NRC has found that spent fuel pools and dry casks both offer sufficient protection for the public and environment. Pilgrim since 2014 has loaded eight on-site dry casks with 544 fuel assemblies. Another loading is scheduled for 2018.
“Pilgrim currently has 2,988 assemblies in the fuel pool, our NRC licensed limit for the spent fuel pool is 3,859,” O’Brien said by email. “When Pilgrim defuels in 2019, 544 assemblies will be added to the pool. Spent fuel placed in the pool currently remains there for approximately five years to cool before it is placed in dry casks.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking comments through June 23 on the proposed transfer of the license for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station from owner Entergy to prospective buyer NorthStar Group Services.
Stakeholders can also request a hearing on the matter until June 13, according to a Federal Register notice.
Comments are being accepted through several means, including www.regulations.gov (Docket ID NRC-2017-0125) and by email to [email protected].
The regulator must approve the license transfer for the sale to go through. The Vermont Public Service Board must also sign off on the deal.
NorthStar would pay a nominal $1,000 to Entergy for the plant, which closed in 2014. However, it would retain a portion of whatever is left in the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund after it completes cleanup of the site. The New York-based nuclear decommissioning specialist has said it can finish work by 2030, decades ahead of the schedule previously set by Entergy.
NRC staff, along with senior executives from both companies, participated Thursday evening in a public meeting in Brattleboro of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel on the sale. Local residents expressed support for the deal, but also concerns over whether NorthStar could carry out is ambitious decommissioning plans, the Rutland Herald reported.
Separately, Entergy on May 11 informed the NRC it would withdraw $4.5 million from the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund for May to cover, “among other things, site-specific decommissioning costs related to licensing/emergency planning contractor costs, insurance and property tax.”
From The Wires
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: Utility Southern California Edison breached Nuclear Regulatory Commission testing rules for the expanded waste storage facility being built for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
