U.S.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ cleanup plan for its Niagara Falls Storage Site received overwhelming support from stakeholders, with the public comment period closing Feb. 6.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the Niagara County Department of Health, the town of Lewiston, N.Y., and the Tuscarora Nation Native American tribe all wrote in support of the USACE’s preferred option, alternative 4. That option will involve excavation, partial treatment, and off-site disposal of the entire contents of the 191-acre property’s Interim Waste Containment Structure, which contains radioactive material from Manhattan Project operations. The Corps has stated that alternative 4 provides the best overall protection of human health and the environment.
The Department of Health did note, however, that it has concerns that remedial investigation data “has been suspect” with regards to the potential for material leaks and legacy contamination that will make ongoing monitoring for leakage difficult. The comment goes on to state that alternative 4 addresses that concern.
Full cleanup of the site could take at least a decade, and based on the site feasibility study, the Corps is calling for between $50 million and $70 million in annual funding. The Corps expects a decision on budgeting for the site around 2022. The agency has not yet established a date for when cleanup would begin.
INTERNATIONAL
The biggest decommissioning and waste management opportunities in Europe over the next 10 years will be in the United Kingdom and Germany, according to Nuclear Energy Insider’s 2016 European Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Management Market Survey.
The survey featured responses from more than 200 international industry experts. The U.K. recorded 52.1 percent support as the top market, while Germany recorded 42.5 percent. Next in line was France, garnering 20.5 percent of the voting.
According to the survey, an estimated €80.4 billion will be spent internationally on nuclear decommissioning over the next 25 years as nearly 200 reactors are expected for shut down by 2040.
In the U.K., respondents said the greatest decommissioning opportunities over the next five to 10 years are at Sellafield, one of Europe’s largest nuclear sites, which accounts for 60 percent of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s budget. About 45 percent of respondents picked Sellafield, while EDF Energy’s nuclear power plants followed with 25.2 percent of the vote. Magnox tallied 14.8 percent, the Low Level Waste Repository took 8.1 percent, and Dounreay 5.9 percent.
The survey was developed in collaboration with the Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe, scheduled for May 31-June 1 in Manchester.
