The U.S. Energy Department has officially supported keeping millions of documents related to licensing of its planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., in their current home in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s electronic records database.
Other parties, though, said this month that more consideration is necessary before a final decision is made.
The Licensing Support Network (LSN) was closed in 2011 after the Obama administration halted the licensing proceeding for the waste disposal site, and roughly 3.7 million documents were eventually shifted to the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS).
With the Trump administration striving to revive Yucca Mountain, the NRC has been reviewing options for a system that would enable parties to access to existing and new documents in the agency’s potentially resumed adjudication of the DOE license application.
NRC staff in December published a report providing four options for reconstituting the system: leaving current documents in ADAMS and sharing new documents by mail or other “traditional discovery” means; employing the searchable ADAMS LSN Library for access to all documents; placing the library in the Cloud; and completely rebuilding the network. Members of the LSN Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) met in late February to discuss the options.
“Choosing from the reconstitution options identified in the Information Paper, the Department most strongly supports the reconstitution option identified as ‘Option 2,’” Levi McAllister, a partner at the law firm Morgan Lewis, which is representing DOE in the matter, said in a March 23 letter to LSNARP Chairman Andrew Bates.
In a separate March 23 letter to Bates, the Nuclear Energy Institute reaffirmed its support for that option, specifically using the NRC’s Electronic Information Exchange to file documents.
“We believe Option 2, Alternative One offers access to both existing and documentary material to both adjudication participants and the public at the lowest cost, shortest implementation timeframe, and lowest risk score,” wrote Rod McCullum, the nuclear industry group’s senior director for fuel and decommissioning.
Representatives from the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects and Eureka County, Nev., though, said before making a final decision the panel needed several more meetings and possible guidance from a group of technical experts.
The question could be moot if Congress refused to provide DOE or the NRC any funding for Yucca Mountain – as it did in the current fiscal year. The fiscal 2018 omnibus budget signed into law on March 23 zeroed out the NRC and DOE requests for funding to restart the licensing proceeding, but the agencies have come back with new Yucca proposals for the next budget year that begins Oct. 1.
“No further action should be taken on the discovery process until (a) Congress has decided whether and on what terms the proceeding will resume, and (b) funding has been provided to allow government entities like Eureka County to participate fully in the decision-making process,” Diane Curran, the attorney representing Eureka County, said in a letter to Bates.
The NRC this week did not respond to a request for details about its next steps in the Licensing Support Network reconstitution process.
Along with the state of Nevada, NEI, DOE, and Eureka County, LSNARP members include a number of counties and cities in Nevada and California, along with several Native American tribes and organizations.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has awarded the Southwest Research Institute a contract worth as much as $52 million over five years to continue operating the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses.
The San Antonio-based research and development organization has managed the center since its inception 31 years ago. Its original mission was to provide assistance in NRC licensing and regulatory monitoring of the Department of Energy’s planned repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Its work over the decades has expanded to encompass technical support for storage, transportation, disposal and other operations involving the waste types. Services include environmental analyses, fire protection engineering, and hazard evaluations, among others.
The center, operating from San Antonio and Rockville, Md., also provides research and peer-review services to governments and regulatory entities in other nations.
The new NRC contract has a one-year base and four single-year options.
The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has filled several positions in its early efforts to address a high-profile, expensive breakdown in contracting for decommissioning of its retired Magnox reactors, the agency’s chief executive said last week.
The steps come as NDA waits on the findings of an official government inquiry into the matter, led by former National Grid chief Steve Holliday.
“The NDA is awaiting the findings of the independent Holliday Inquiry into the awarding of the contract but we have already taken some significant steps to strengthen our organization,” NDA CEO David Peattie said in the forward to the agency’s latest business plan. “This includes the appointment of a new Commercial Director, General Legal Counsel and we look forward to a new Nuclear Operations Director joining us on 3 April 2018. We have also improved the way in which we govern our businesses with much stronger performance.”
All the positions are new, NDA spokesman Daniel Gould said by email Friday: “In addition to strengthening the NDA with the new roles, one of the most important steps is the introduction of a new ‘Programmes & Projects Committee’ which has further strengthened the NDA’s oversight and assurance of major programmes and projects.”
The business plan covers operations from April 2018 through March 2021 at the nondepartmental public body, which receives about £3 billion annually to manage environmental remediation at 17 nuclear sites around the country.
For the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the NDA expects to receive £3.146 billion, encompassing £2.269 from the government and £0.877 billion from commercial operations. Almost all of that, £2.967 billion, will be spent on site projects, with the remaining divided between skills development, research and development, insurance and pensions, and other costs.
The NDA in 2014 contracted with Cavendish Fluor Partnership for decommissioning of 10 retired Magnox power reactors and two nuclear sites. That led to separate lawsuits from two U.S. companies that had teamed to bid on the contract, for which the NDA in 2017 paid out nearly £100 million. The British High Court found that the agency had “fudged” the procurement process to prevent Cavendish Fluor from being excluded, and the NDA in March 2017 said it would end the company’s contract in September 2019 – nine years early.
Gould could not say when the Holliday Inquiry would issue its report.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) needs more time to complete the environmental impact statement for decommissioning of its long-retired Whiteshell Reactor No. 1.
The EIS was anticipated this month, followed by a public hearing in October, according to a news release Tuesday from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Both are being pushed back while Canadian Nuclear Laboratories updates the environmental document after receiving comment from the public and regulatory entities.
There was no immediate word on details of the new schedule for the proceeding. The Safety Commission is waiting to hear from CNL on its schedule for completing the environmental impact statement before rescheduling the hearing, a spokesman said Tuesday. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories did not respond to requests for an update to its timeline.
The Whiteshell research reactor in Manitoba ceased operations in 1985 and has since then been in monitored storage. As part of the larger decommissioning of the Whiteshell Laboratories, CNL plans “in-situ” decommissioning of the defueled reactor – taking out most of the above-ground infrastructure while grouting the underground component and leaving it in place under an engineered lid.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories said last week it received 26 separate submissions on the draft environmental impact statement, from entities including the Nuclear Safety Commission, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Health Canada, and Manitoba Sustainable Development.
The Nuclear Safety Commission on Tuesday specified that it had mandated that CNL provide more information in the main document and additional technical records.
Given the situation, the regulatory agency said it will consider CNL’s request to extend its existing decommissioning license for Whiteshell Laboratories by one year, to Dec. 19, 2019. It did not give a schedule for a decision. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is also seeking a 10-year extension for the license to cover the actual reactor decommissioning.
From The Wires
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: The settlement covering ratepayer fees for the early closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, still awaiting state regulatory approval, could be in trouble.
From World Nuclear News: Belgium stays on path to end use of nuclear power by 2025.
