RW Monitor
7/24/2015
IN THE INDUSTRY
AREVA TN’s EOS (Extended Optimized Storage) System license application could receive Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval as early as 2016, the company announced this week. The new EOS system is an evolution of AREVA’s NUHOMS extended spent nuclear fuel storage containers, holding up to 89 BWR fuel assemblies. The company said the NRC formally accepted its letter of application. “We are pleased that our high capacity, advanced EOS will be ready for first deliveries in 2017,” AREVA TN Senior Vice President Greg Vesey said in a statement. “Our horizontal storage system continues to evolve with innovative aging management features and industry-best shielding and seismic capabilities.” AREVA indicated this upgrade would help serve as the container used in a potential interim storage facility for U.S. nuclear waste.
The Bipartisan Policy Center announced last week that it would issue a series of five briefs on the management of U.S. nuclear waste, culminating in an October information meeting. The briefs are the result of five BPC regional meetings hosted in the past year on stakeholder and regional concerns on the management of spent nuclear fuel. According to the BPC, the briefs will focus on: options for consolidated storage of nuclear waste, states’ authority to regulate nuclear waste, Yucca Mountain, options and limits for presidential executive action, and the transportation of nuclear waste. “These briefs are critical reading as Congress turns its attention to energy policy. Already in the last week we’ve seen a new challenge for Yucca Mountain, and that’s just one small aspect of the discussion,” said Timothy Frazier, director of the nuclear waste project at BPC, in a statement. “With so much heated rhetoric on both sides, our goal was to provide an unbiased assessment of where we are today.” The BPC said it anticipates issuing the first brief by the end of the month.
