The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving the public additional time to comment on a proposed regulatory update that would ease the path for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) in commercial landfills.
The deadline has been pushed back from April 20 to July 20, agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email this week.
Very low-level waste is the unofficial term for the least radioactive form of what is already the least hazardous type of low-level waste: Class A. It generally must be sent to one of the four U.S. facilities licensed for disposal of low-level waste.
However, VLLW is broadly deemed safe for disposal in hazdarous waste or municipal landfills. Existing regulations allow for it to be shipped for land burial at landfills regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). However, a waste generator must receive approval from the NRC under regulations for alternative disposal. The new rule interpretation being considered by the agency would allow landfills to apply for an agency exemption to accept VLLW on an ongoing basis, without needing approval for each shipment.
Participating landfills would have to meet certain restrictions, including a cumulative dose limit under 25 millirem from all disposals in any year.
Participants in a webinar last week, representing environmental and other advocacy groups, overwhelmingly opposed the plan, emphasizing the potential dangers of shipping any radioactive waste to sites not specifically designed for its disposal. That has also been the gist of several dozen comments filed to date with the NRC.
Callers last week urged the NRC to extend the comment period past the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists, which operates a licensed low-level waste disposal site in the state, also called for more time for input.
In recognition of the impacts of the current COVID–19 pandemic across the nation, the NRC has decided to extend t”he public comment period on this document until July 20, 2020, to allow more time for members of the public to submit their comments,” according to a notice published Thursday in the Federal Register.
The NRC had anticipated completing the rule process by late summer. That is likely to be delayed under the revised schedule, according to McIntyre.
Comments can be submitted via regulations.gov, Docket ID NRC-2020-0065.
The state of Montana has delayed until May final publication of new rules on landfill disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste in landfills.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality had planned to issue its notice of adoption this month, but has pushed that back to May 29 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to agency spokesman Paul Driscoll.
“Like many govt entities, MT DEQ is extending a lot of deadlines simply out of considerations surrounding COVID rather than anything directly associated with the emergency,” Driscoll said by email on Tuesday. “A great many people are prioritizing more important factors in their lives and so we have extended all of our public comment periods, many of them indefinitely. This includes anything associated with physical public meetings.”
The draft final rules issued on Jan. 31 made a number of changes to the package issued in August 2019. The revisions include reducing the radionuclide concentration limit from 200 picocuries per gram to 50 pCi/g for intake into a TENORM waste management system. The gate screening exposure level would also be cut from 200 to 100 microroentgen per hour for incoming waste into the disposal system.
TENORM is naturally radioactive material that has come into contact with the environment or has been concentrated by human activities such as oil and natural gas production. One landfill in the state is licensed and operational for TENORM disposal, while two others have received licenses but not built their waste management systems.
For the last five years Montana on average has disposed of 58,600 tons of TENORM waste each year. Montana is an energy producer, but a significant amount of the material originates in neighboring North Dakota.
A couple smaller vendors to the nuclear industry say they are prepared to help clients withstand the current COVID-19 pandemic.
UniTech Services Group, a provider of personal protective equipment for the nuclear industry in North America, last week predicted no “service disruptions” through the second quarter.
“We’re going to take the right preventative measures to keep our own staff safe and we wish health and safety to the entire nuclear industry workforce,” Vice President Michael Bovino said in a press release.
UniTech touts a diverse supplier base and remains in close contact with providers of raw materials and other goods necessary for industry personal protective equipment. The subsidiary of Massachusetts-based uniform and workwear supplier UniFirst also said its protective clothing and laundry services do not rely on international sources.
In addition to a large inventory of disposable personal protective equipment, the vendor said it has an inventory of 50,000 sets of protective coveralls and the ability to make 500-plus sets of coveralls daily in North America. The company, which bills itself as the world’s top provider of protective radioactive clothing and personal gear, serves all Energy Department national laboratories, according to its website.
In a statement on its website, Idaho-based North Wind said it has “made an effort to build a financial reserve that will enable us to respond to large project demands, and in this case a national emergency.” The document did not offer details on the size of the financial reserve. North Wind did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
North Wind Group provides engineering and other professional services, as well as environmental services, facility operation and infrastructure, and construction services. It runs the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. It is also excavating and relocating material from the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Utah.
Internally, North Wind is encouraging telework where possible, using social distancing, more remote meetings, and more use of social distancing.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spending from its Nuclear Waste Fund balance slipped below $100 in February, according to the agency’s monthly report to Congress.
The outlay of $97 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with a balance of $430,881 from the fund intended to pay for federal disposal of high-level radioactive waste from defense nuclear operations and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.
The NRC is the adjudicator for the Department of Energy’s 2008 license application for a deep geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Obama administration defunded that proceeding in 2010, freezing licensing for a decade and counting.
However, a federal appeals court in August 2013 ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume work on the license application. At the time, the NRC had just over $13.5 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund. As of Feb. 29, it had spent $13.1 million of that. The primary expense was nearly $8.4 million to complete a safety evaluation report for the license application, followed by over $1.5 million on a supplement to the environmental impact statement on licensing and $1.1 million to load documents from the proceeding into the NRC’s public documents database.
Spending over the past year has dropped to at most a few hundred dollars per month, suggesting the NRC balance could be stretched out indefinitely.
Congress would have to appropriate more money for the NRC. The Trump administration tried in three successive budget cycles asked for money from the fund to resume licensing for Yucca Mountain at the Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but was rebuffed each time on Capitol Hill. The White House has changed tack for the upcoming fiscal 2021, asking for $27.5 million at DOE for a separate program focused on interim storage of used nuclear fuel. The NRC would get nothing from the Nuclear Waste Fund in this plan.
Within the $430,881 balance, the agency has committed $8,097 to pay for contracts with the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses.
From The Wires
From The SandPaper: Eight transfers and other infrastructure have been removed from the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey as part of Holtec’s ongoing decommissioning.
From the Williston, N.D., Herald. Two companies in North Dakota interested in developing “slurry wells” that could be used for disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) waste.
From Nuclear Engineering International: Finnish utility Fortum receives contract to decommission research reactor.
