Policy-makers across the political spectrum must shoulder the blame for failure to establish a permanent solution to the United States’ nuclear waste quandary, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday.
“This is a failing of both Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all lumped together, that nuclear waste has set idle in 120 sites in 39 states for decades, with all the potential for disaster that could happen, with no permanent repository for it to be safely disposed,” Perry said during a keynote address to the Energy Information Administration’s 2017 Energy Conference in Washington, D.C. “And on my watch I intend to change that. Working together to find a solution to those challenges.”
Perry did not discuss details during his speech, but the Trump administration has focused on resuming licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, which Congress three decades ago designated as the storage site for U.S. spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
The Obama administration canceled work on Yucca Mountain, but it has new life under the Trump administration. The Department of Energy budget plan for fiscal 2018 would provide $110 million for licensing of Yucca Mountain and $10 million to advance interim storage facilities until the permanent repository is ready. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive $30 million for Yucca licensing operations.
Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said on June 23 it has removed two jurisdictions from the list of communities being considered to house a deep geologic repository for the nation’s spent reactor fuel.
The Ontario communities of White River Township and the municipality of Central Huron are out, according to an NWMO press release. They join 13 other communities that have previously been cut from consideration.
The leaves areas around Huron-Kinloss and South Bruce, in southwest Ontario, and Homepayne and Manitouwadge, in the northwest of the province, in the running. The agency plans additional geologic studies and preliminary talks with stakeholders on “visioning and partnership,” the release says.
“Regional engagement will continue, as the project will only proceed with interested communities, potentially affected First Nation and Métis communities, and surrounding communities working in partnership to implement it,” the NWMO said.
Areas near the Ontario communities of Ignace, Blind River, and Elliot Lake are also undergoing study during the selection process.
At this time last year, Canada held nearly 2.7 million spent fuel bundles and was producing another 90,000 bundles on an annual basis. The material is currently held at seven nuclear sites in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec.
Site selection for the centralized repository began in 2010 and is due to take a number of years. Building the facility itself would require another decade.
Separately, Canada’s Port Hope Area Initiative said Sunday that exceptionally heavy rainfall on Friday caused water to overflow from a catch basin and storm water management ponds near two existing low-level radioactive waste management facilities. Water flowed into Lake Ontario in both instances, but any environmental impact is believed to be “negligible,” the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories determined.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said Monday it is monitoring the situation.
As of this month, 1,000 dry storage casks built by Holtec International have been filled with spent nuclear reactor fuel.
The New Jersey-based nuclear waste management provider said on June 22 it reached the milestone in the prior week when Exelon’s LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois filled a third cask in an ongoing program to move spent fuel into dry storage.
Since 2000, Holtec dry storage systems have been installed in 55 U.S. nuclear plants. Exelon alone has filled 224 Holtec containers with fuel at its nuclear power facilities. The LaSalle site program involves the HI-STORM 100 dry cask storage system.
“We are proud to support Exelon in completion of Holtec cask number 1,000,” P.K. Chaudhary, Holtec senior vice president of operation, said in a press release. “Our commitment to dry fuel storage solutions began with Exelon when they loaded Holtec cask number 1, so it is more than appropriate for us to share this major milestone together as well. Holtec is dedicated to continuing our industry leadership in dry storage technology and in teaming with partners to meet their fuel storage needs.”
From The Wires
From KPBS: Scrutiny of California Attorney General’s Office over handling of the settlement for the early closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
