LOUISVILLE, KY. — The Department of Energy’s consent-based siting program for interim storage of spent fuel could take decades but the lengthy process does not appear to scare localities interested in nuclear power, attendees at Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit heard this week.
DOE has touted its program to find communities willing to host interim spent fuel storage. The most recent milestone is development of the new Atlas rail car to haul nuclear waste, Kimberly Petry, associate deputy assistant energy secretary, said during Monday’s opening session.
“We did actually just very, very recently get final approval by the American Association of Railroads,” Petry said. The certification means Atlas can operate on all major freight railroads in the United States.
The 12-axle railcar, equipped with modern sensors and monitors, can carry shipments of up to 480,000 pounds of spent nuclear fuel, according to DOE.
But opening a spent fuel storage facility to comply with the agency’s obligation to take spent fuel from commercial power reactors won’t happen quickly, Petry said. Likewise, the United States still lacks a deep underground disposal repository to replace the canceled Yucca Mountain Project in Nevada.
Selecting one or more volunteer areas suitable for interim spent fuel storage can take years, said Sylvia Saltzstein, senior manager of nuclear fuel cycle technologies at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.
The DOE is aiming for 2038 to 2040 to open the interim storage site. Some research suggested the process for a deep underground geologic disposal site could drag on for decades, possibly until 2070, Saltzstein said
“That’s a long time” and translates into a lot of election cycles, Saltzstein said.
Disposal “is the final solution.” Countries such as France and the United Kingdom reprocess a lot of nuclear fuel, but they still need a repository, Saltzstein said. Consolidated interim storage is like your refrigerator: “It stores the stuff so you can use it again if you want it.”
Despite this uncertainty over spent fuel, many states are exploring construction of new, advanced nuclear plants, including microreactors, said Bruce Montgomery, director of decommissioning and used fuel at the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Graham Filler, a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives, said he worked with Democrats on a bipartisan plan to support Holtec’s effort to revive the Palisades nuclear plant. Also a state senator in Kentucky, Danny Carroll (R) discussed efforts to attract new nuclear generation to the area near DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky.
Editor’s note: Sixth and seventh paragraphs modified on June 9 to correct timeline.
