ENERGYSOLUTIONS ASKS NRC TO ALLOW CASKS TO BE USED WHILE DESIGN FLAW IS ADDRESSED

By ExchangeMonitor

EnergySolutions yesterday officially petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow shipments of Class B and C wastes in Type B casks to continue while it works to address a design flaw in those transportation containers. EnergySolutions is working to fabricate a part that will solve the design flaw, however “the design, licensing and modification will take several months to complete, which leaves the commercial nuclear industry and the U.S. Navy unable to ship significant quantities of radioactive waste,” Tom Magette, senior vice president of nuclear regulatory strategy wrote in a letter to Brooke Poole, acting director for the NRC’s division of spent fuel and storage transportation. “In order to return the casks to service as soon as possible, EnergySolutions is requesting that the NRC give expedited consideration to this request to authorize continued operation of the casks while these activities are completed.”

In the Risk Informed Justification for Continued Operation submitted yesterday, EnergySolutions wrote that the likelihood of the hypothetical scenario under which the design flaw was discovered is very slim, and given that the company has agreed to additional measures to ensure safety of these types of shipment, “there is no undue risk to the public health and safety for continuing to operate the casks for a limited period of time while appropriate modifications are designed, approved, and installed.” EnergySolutions met with the NRC May 10 to discuss the several regulatory methods that could allow continued operations for both the 8-120B and 10-160B design casks, including a confirmatory action letter or a time-limited letter amendment. EnergySolutions stopped Type B cask shipments for Class B and C waste April 27 after discovering a design flaw in a previously unanalyzed hypothetical crash scenario.

As EnergySolutions owns and/or operates all four Type B casks that currently service the U.S. commercial nuclear industry, that essentially shut down any scheduled shipments to Waste Control Specialists, which opened that same day to provide 36 states with their first access to Class B and C disposal since Barnwell closed to all but Atlantic Compact states in 2008. EnergySolutions told the NRC at a meeting on this issue May 10 that it had scheduled 26 shipments before the end of June, many to WCS, and expected to schedule 75 total shipments before early August when they expect to have the design solution for the casks approved by NRC, fabricated and installed.

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