Utah has granted EnergySolutions’ request for an additional three-month extension before the public comment period begins in the state’s review of the company’s performance assessment for the disposal of depleted uranium at its Clive, Utah, disposal site. The new public comment period for Utah’s Safety Evaluation Report on the site’s performance assessment is now set to begin on April 6, 2015, rather than the scheduled Jan. 12 start date. Two meetings for public comment are now scheduled for the week of May 4, 2015 in Tooele and Salt Lake City, and the period will close on May 29, a week longer than initially planned so as to allow the public time to comment, the state said.
According to the request, EnergySolutions needed additional time to complete a Clive and regional dune soil layer gradation study, which should give a better assessment of the site’s capabilities to accept the waste stream. “While significant progress has been accomplished in preparation of the detailed response, EnergySolutions considers an expanded evaluation of the soil layer differentiation of Clive-area and regional dunes a critical component to better defining the long-term alteration of the proposed Federal Cell evapotranspirative cover system,” EnergySolutions Manager of Compliance and Permitting Vern Rogers said in a Nov. 14 letter to the state. He added, “It is expected that this additional research will have significant impact on the confidence bounds of the Department’s ultimate Safety Evaluation Report.”
Utah’s Division of Radiation Control originally planned to release on Sept. 8 the Safety Evaluation Report for its evaluation of the PA, but EnergySolutions requested more time back in September to officially document its answers to some of the state’s questions. This pushed the start date to January. EnergySolutions submitted Clive’s performance assessment for DU back in 2011 following the Utah Radiation Control Board’s 2010 decision to require a quantitative compliance period for DU out to 10,000 years, with a second qualitative review out to peak dose (approximately 2.5 million years). Subsequently, the state required additional information and a revised design for a DU disposal cell, which EnergySolutions resubmitted this summer.
