Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
4/4/2014
An agreement between EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists to ship Class B and C low-level radioactive waste from the Zion decommissioning project for disposal at WCS appears to have fallen apart, RW Monitor has learned. EnergySolutions received an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that enabled the company to use its currently out-of-service 8-120B cask to ship the material, but that exemption expires by the end of the year and WCS currently does not expect any shipments to occur, the reason for which remains unclear. “WCS had been preparing and working with the ZionSolutions’ team to receive the shipments; however, that preparation has ceased,” WCS President Rod Baltzer said this week. “Based on no scheduled shipments and no expectation of any future shipments, the activated metal shipments anticipated under the terms of the NRC exemption will not be coming to WCS,” Baltzer said. EnergySolutions did not return calls for comment this week.
EnergySolutions wrote the NRC on Jan. 9 seeking the exemption in order to move the material faster in the face of what the company said was a public dose risk. The payload for the casks would not align with the certificate of compliance issued by the NRC, and therefore, needed an exemption. “However, the current shipping delays are impacting public dose at the plant site, as well as the decommissioning schedule for this time-critical project,” EnergySolutions wrote. “Therefore, to minimize these impacts, we request this authorization at the soonest possible date.”
The NRC granted the exemption last month, allowing up to 50 shipments of the material at Zion for a period ending at the end of this year. “We are aware of ZionSolutions’ letter to the NRC expressing concern that shipping delays of activated metals offsite could create public health concerns at the Zion decommissioning site because of radioactive dose rates,” Baltzer said. “We are also aware that in response to those concerns, the NRC issued an exemption for ZionSolutions to use EnergySolutions’ existing 8-120B casks to make up to 50 activated metals shipments by December 31, 2014. In addition, in March, ZionSolutions amended its import petition with the Texas Compact Commission to send 50 activated metal shipments to WCS for disposal.”
