The California Coastal Commission said it has effectively been forced to approve permits for spent fuel storage at three nuclear power plants because the federal government has yet to establish a permanent repository for the radioactive waste.
Coastal Commission Chair Dayna Bochco emphasized the danger of coastal storage of radioactive material from the Humboldt Bay, San Onofre, and Diablo Canyon nuclear power plants in a Nov. 2, 2017, letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki.
Wet and dry storage facilities at all three sites are, “to varying degrees, subject to natural hazards such as ground shaking from earthquakes, coastal erosion, and flooding from storms or tsunamis,” Bochco wrote on behalf of the 12-person commission in her letter, which was posted Friday on the NRC website. “Though the on-site storage facilities were sited and designed to withstand these hazards in the near term, they were never designed to store spent fuel in perpetuity.”
Bochco urged DOE and the NRC to work with Congress to site and build a long-term disposal facility for what is now more than 75,000 metric tons of spent fuel stored at nuclear power plants around the country.
In a Jan. 5 response, Svinicki reaffirmed that the NRC has determined that it is safe to keep spent fuel at power reactors until the repository is ready. Meanwhile, the federal agency is continuing its acceptance review of Holtec International’s application to build an interim storage facility in New Mexico for spent fuel. The NRC has also in recent years continued licensing work on the long-planned permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Svinicki noted.
“The adjudicatory hearing, which must be completed before a licensing decision can be made, remains suspended due to a lack of appropriated funds,” the NRC chair wrote. “Should Congress provide funding to support continuation of the Yucca Mountain licensing activities, the Commission would provide direction to the staff on the next steps for the licensing proceeding.”