The Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy should soon formally kick off market research for a consolidation interim storage facility for spent fuel, according to the head of that program.
“We have been working on an RFI-slash-RFP,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal said, referring to a request for information or request for proposals. “I hope to have it hit the streets in the very near future,” she said Sept. 11 during the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit.
“My team has developed that. It is still in the building but I hope to have good news to share with you soon,” Rita Baranwal said during the virtual conference.
The Energy Department did not respond by noon Friday when asked if the inquiry will be an RFI or RFP or when it might be released.
The market research by DOE is likely to look at issues including facility design and siting a consolidated interim storage facility in a willing host community, Baranwal said. She did not provide further details.
Baranwal was responding to a question from moderator Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development for nuclear and environmental issues at Amentum, a major Energy Department contractor. Knox asked if there were any “quiet communications” currently taking place on formal proposals for consolidated interim storage facilities.
At least one contractor with skin in the game is excited to hear about potential DOE movement in this area.
“Holtec would welcome efforts by the Department of Energy to issue an RFI/RFP to support the establishment of a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) to safely store the used fuel from our nation’s nuclear plants,” company spokesperson Joe Delmar said in a Friday email.
Holtec previously filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for such a facility in New Mexico, and hopes to get a decision in 2021, Delmar said.
It is possible congressional action might be needed in order to clear the way for use of private entities for interim spent fuel storage. In November, then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry wrote to a member of Congress, saying DOE currently lacks authority to issue such contracts to corporate-owned facilities.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been studying two proposals for interim storage put forward by private concerns in Texas and New Mexico. Waste Control Specialists has applied to develop such a site at its property in Andrews County, Texas. This spring, WCS and its partner ORANO, received a draft environmental impact statement from NRC. The NRC is also taking comments on a Holtec proposal for an interim storage site in Lea County, N.M.
The comment period is scheduled to run through Tuesday.
The companies have raised the possibility of dealing directly with nuclear power plants for the spent fuel. The Holtec spokesman deferred any legal or legislative question on the matter to DOE.
There is also the issue of local siting. While entities such as the Obama administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future called for using willing host communities, state governments can oppose nuclear waste facilities within their borders, as has been the case with Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
There is now more than 80,000 metric tons of spent fuel stranded at operating and retired nuclear power plants in more than 30 states.
One company, Berkeley, Calif.,-based Deep Isolation, is doing a study for the nongovernmental Electric Power Research Institute on using horizontal deep boreholes for such waste.
The Energy Department is in charge of addressing spent fuel from nuclear power plants in the United States. But such waste currently has no place to go, with Yucca Mountain appearing to be dead in the water. President Barack Obama suspended licensing of Yucca Mountain in 2010, and the Donald Trump administration has not resumed it.