The contractor for the Department of Energy’s project to test the feasibility of storing nuclear waste in deep boreholes has run into more opposition, this time in South Dakota, after abandoning its original test site in North Dakota.
Battelle Memorial Institute representatives met with residents and officials in Spink County, S.D., on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the five-year, $35 million project that is expected to deliver data on whether 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations are appropriate for DOE-managed waste. Boreholes have also been discussed internationally as a means of storing commercial nuclear waste.
Spink County Commissioner Cindy Schultz said in an interview Friday that she attended both meetings, where residents expressed opposition to the project. “I never heard anyone speak for (the project),” she said.
According to Schultz, residents shared the same concern that drove Battelle out of North Dakota: that the tests will eventually lead to actual nuclear waste storage. Battelle, which has not disclosed the exact location of the South Dakota site, has insisted the project is only a test and will not involve any nuclear waste. The contractor has also said the Spink County site cannot be considered for future disposal of radioactive waste due to its proximity to subsurface water.
Still, Schultz said she and a handful of residents requested that Battelle sign a written agreement that the test will not lead to storage of nuclear waste at the Spink County site, adding that they are waiting on a response from the company. Representatives for Battelle could not be reached for comment as of press time.
“I am not against the drilling of a research borehole, but they give us no guarantee, other than verbal, that it would never be used to store radioactive waste,” Schultz said, adding that it’s too important of a project to agree to with “a handshake.” “There were a few people who were understanding and not opposed to a test site. They are just nervous about the no guarantee that it would ever be used for anything other than the test site.”
The five-member commission has not taken a formal stance on the proposal, but it is scheduled to discuss the project Tuesday.
Battelle was set to break ground in North Dakota on Sept. 1, but the Pierce County Commission placed a moratorium on deep borehole drilling in February, with members saying they had been left out of the loop and only learned of the project through reading the newspaper. After holding a series of public meetings, the commission filed formal opposition, asking Battelle to abandon plans in North Dakota.
