The Department of Energy is, for now, retaining Battelle Memorial Institute as its lead contractor for a deep-borehole nuclear waste storage field test after the original drilling plan was thwarted in North Dakota.
DOE spokesman Bill Wicker said by email Wednesday that the department has asked Battelle to propose options outside North Dakota.
“Battelle remains DOE’s contractor for this deep borehole research,” Wicker wrote Thursday in a follow-up email. “If things on this project just don’t work out, then DOE may revisit. But for now, Battelle is the contractor.”
Two informed industry sources, who requested anonymity, told RadWaste Monitor this week that DOE has asked Battelle to reach out to other companies that had submitted project bids to DOE, for possible collaboration. The names of those bidders could not be verified.
Battelle had originally planned to break ground Sept. 1 on the estimated five-year, $35 million project, proposed across 20 acres of state land near the city of Rugby. The test, which does not involve any nuclear material, would have delivered data on whether 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations are suitable for DOE-managed high-level waste.
Upon learning of the project in January, local officials and residents cried foul, saying they had been left out of the loop and expressing fears that the project would lead to nuclear-waste storage in North Dakota. The Pierce County Commission soon implemented a moratorium on deep borehole drilling, then filed formal opposition in a letter to Battelle’s partner, the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) in Grand Forks. The letter requested that project leaders not consider any other locations in Pierce County.
Battelle agreed to abandon plans in North Dakota, saying it wants to make sure it has a site with public acceptance. Battelle spokesman T.R. Massey said this week that the company has begun to explore other options, but did not offer details on the locations.
