Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz anticipates Congressional action is needed before the Department of Energy could begin storing waste at the proposed Waste Control Specialist spent fuel/high-level waste interim storage facility, he told reporters after a hearing yesterday before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. WCS earlier this month announced its intentions to construct a private, consent-based interim storage facility at its Andrews, Texas compound, pending the approval of a license application by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a sign from Congress that DOE could move forward with shipping waste to a location other than Yucca Mountain. During its press conference announcing its intention, WCS said that the company believed it could accept waste under the current legislation, but Moniz indicated yesterday that Congressional approval would be needed, especially in terms of access to the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for shipment and storage fees. “My guess is, in the end, there would need to be some legislative approach, because we are the customer,” Moniz said. “For example, would there be access to the Nuclear Waste Fund? If so, that requires Congressional action. So we’ll talk to them, and then we’ll talk to Congress. There are no plans [to talk], but I’m hoping to sooner rather than later.”
Moniz did express his interest in the private approach to interim storage. “I think it’s very interesting,” he said. “As I said in the hearing, we are looking forward to getting together with them to understand exactly what their plans are. It was a pretty general announcement with their letter of intent to NRC. Clearly, up until now, our plans and our demonstration plan for interim storage were based around the idea of a federal facility. But this could be a very interesting dynamic. We are very interested, and we look forward to talking with them, which we have not done yet in terms of what exactly their plan of construction is.” A consent-based pilot consolidated storage facility is the preferred strategy of the Department of Energy to satisfy the nation’s spent fuel disposal needs, but due to language in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Department cannot consider other sites beyond Yucca Mountain in Nevada without Congressional approval. In its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, earlier this month, the Department requested changes that would enable it to move forward with its waste management strategy, but it remains to be seen whether that language will make it into legislation.
