The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April spent $939 of its remaining balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a federal repository for the nation’s nuclear waste.
The spending left the agency on April 30 with a $409,861 unspent, undedicated balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, according to the latest report to Congress.
“While there are no significant actions to report for the month, the NRC provided limited program planning and support activities that that resulted in nominal expenditures,” NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki wrote in a May 29 letter attached to the report.
The spending was directly for litigation costs, an NRC spokesman said Wednesday.
The NRC is the adjudicator for the Department of Energy’s 2008 license application for the planned Yucca Mountain, Nev., facility for disposal of spent reactor fuel from nuclear power reactors and high-level radioactive waste from federal defense nuclear operations.
The Obama administration defunded licensing in 2010, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in August 2013 ordered the NRC to resume the proceeding. Since then, the agency has spent more than $13.1 million of the over $13.5 million it had on hand from the Nuclear Waste Fund at the time of the order. Of that, $8.4 million was used to complete a safety evaluation report for high-level waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, along with $1.6 million to prepare a supplement on the environmental impact statement for the project.
The NRC has requested $38.5 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund for fiscal 2020 to resume Yucca Mountain licensing. The House this week is considering a multi-agency appropriations bill that denies that funding in favor of nearly $50 million focused on consolidated interim storage of spent fuel.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is accepting public comment through Aug. 26 on a petition to update federal regulations to allow use of nuclear power plant decommissioning trust funds for removal of large parts prior to shutdown.
The NRC in March docketed the petition from Gerard Van Noordennen, vice president for regulatory affairs at nuclear services firm EnergySolutions, representing his employer.
Under current federal regulations, nuclear power operators must receive an NRC exemption to use the mandatory trusts for operations not directly related to decommissioning – removing a facility from operations and reducing radioactivity levels to the point at which the property can be placed in restricted or unrestricted use. Decommissioning starts only after power operations end.
“The petitioner suggests that granting the petition will remove unnecessary hurdles from licensees who store major radioactive components on their sites during plant operations because they cannot use decommissioning funds for disposal of these components,” the NRC said in a Federal Register notice Wednesday. “Storing these components on site results in costs to build and maintain storage structures and to monitor for releases and exposures.”
The agency is asking for responses to four specific questions: What are the pluses and minuses of the current regulatory situation, under which NRC licensees can employ operating funds for pre-shutdown removal of major radioactive components or wait until decommissioning begins to use a trust; should decommissioning trusts be allowed for pre-closure major parts removal; what criteria the NRC should consider for licensee early use of decommissioning trusts; and if other “innovative financial approaches” could provide for early removal of large parts and sustain sufficient levels in decommissioning trusts.
Comments can be submitted by email to [email protected]; by fax to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 301-415-415-1101; by mail to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff; or in person to NRC headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Md.
Staff will ultimately recommend to the commission whether to proceed with a rulemaking.
From The Wires
From the Bowling Green, Ohio, Sentinel-Tribune: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dealing with water buildup at the Formerly Utilized Sites Remediation Action Program (FUSRAP) Luckey Site.
